{"id":127230,"date":"2026-01-09T22:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/127230\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T22:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:58:08","slug":"huge-black-bear-evicted-from-crawl-space-under-los-angeles-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/127230\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge black bear evicted from crawl space under Los Angeles home"},"content":{"rendered":"

A huge black bear that made its den in the crawl space under a Los Angeles area man\u2019s house<\/a> for more than a month has finally been evicted.<\/p>\n

Altadena resident Ken Johnson said the animal began denning beneath his home around Thanksgiving, twisting gas lines and toppling bricks as he came and went. Surveillance video showed the bear easily tearing away screening and other obstacles and squeezing through a small opening. <\/p>\n

Johnson said in a phone interview Friday that he first asked state wildlife officials for help, but the air horns and paintball guns they deployed didn\u2019t work. So he turned to BEAR League, a California-based nonprofit that bills itself as specializing in \u201cliving in harmony with bears.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bear was out within about 20 minutes after members from the group arrived, Johnson said. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: California homeowner rolls out \u2018unwelcome\u2019 mat for black bear living under his house\n <\/p>\n

AP\u2019s Lisa Dwyer reports on the eviction of a very large, hairy unwanted guest.<\/p>\n

In a social media post on Thursday, the group said that one of its most experienced responders crawled beneath the home and got behind the bear \u2014 which it estimated weighs more than 500 pounds (227 kilograms) \u2014 to encourage the animal to leave. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the relief \u2014 it feels like, you know, you had a bunch of dinner guests over and now the party\u2019s over \u2014 well it wasn\u2019t a party \u2014 but you know they\u2019re gone and now you\u2019ve got a bunch of dirty dishes and empty glasses to deal with,\u201d Johnson said. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The group placed an \u201cunwelcome\u201d mat, which delivers an electric shock, at the opening. Video footage showed the bear returning to the house, stepping on the mat and then running away. <\/p>\n

Dave Fleishman, a BEAR League spokesperson who helped evict the animal, said it was one of the largest black bears he has seen. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in my top three,\u201d Fleishman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an old soul … I think he just wanted a quiet place for the winter,\u201d he added. \u201cBut he\u2019d done a tremendous amount of damage to Ken\u2019s house. And so, you don\u2019t want Ken\u2019s house to burn down or the rest of Altadena to burn down because of a ruptured gas line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleishman said the team was able to move the bear quickly because the house has two crawl spaces, making access easier. He called it a \u201cstandard eviction\u201d the group regularly handles, particularly in the Lake Tahoe area. <\/p>\n

Johnson described having the bear around as \u201cunsettling.\u201d Since the eviction, the bear came back at least once before moving on, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the constant tension of if he if he decides to come out I have to be ready,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Johnson said the animal caused thousands of dollars in damage, which has been particularly tough to deal with because he lost his job after last year\u2019s Eaton wildfire<\/a>. The bear shredded ductwork under the house and twisted natural gas piping, Johnson said. He\u2019s set up a GoFundMe page seeking to repair the damage and make his house livable again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A huge black bear that made its den in the crawl space under a Los Angeles area man\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11604,7,3369,9,8,65782,18,44431,33117,47,44623,15398,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-127230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-golden-bears","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-dave-fleishman","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-ken-johnson","16":"tag-local-news-for-apple","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-oddities","19":"tag-thanksgiving","20":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}