A family in Oakland says they\u2019ve been sharing their home with some very uninvited guests \u2014 five bears that just won\u2019t leave.<\/p>\n
Vincent Lim and Veronica O’Brien-Lim say what started as a possible sighting of one or two cubs quickly turned into something much bigger than they expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw that there were actually three cubs and then eventually four cubs, and then I think we have the final count now as one adult bear and four cubs,” Vincent said.<\/p>\n
The family says they initially reached out after noticing activity near their property, but were told Animal Control would not remove the bears unless directed by the state and that officials believed the animals would likely move on within a day or two on their own.<\/p>\n
But instead, the bears stayed.<\/p>\n
For the first few weeks after the cubs were born, the mother bear appeared to stay low \u2014 taking shelter in a crawl space or den under the home while caring for her young.<\/p>\n
At first, the family says the experience even felt exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe initial reaction we saw them was, Wow, this is so cool. And they\u2019re adorable.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that feeling didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n
In recent days, the bears have become more active around the property, with the cubs climbing on outdoor equipment and chewing at hoses and wires, according to the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cubs are very intrigued by our central air unit, and so they\u2019re using that as a climbing gym, and they\u2019re chewing at the hoses and wires and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lims also say the mother bear has changed behavior in the past few days, now leaving the den at night and returning with bags of garbage from nearby homes.<\/p>\n
What started as curiosity has now become a growing concern, both for the family and neighbors in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople around here are concerned\u2026 because there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family says they\u2019ve tried to get help, but for now, they\u2019ve been told to wait it out \u2014 since intervening could risk separating the cubs from their mother.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, they say they\u2019re taking precautions, including keeping air horns and tools nearby in case the bears come too close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A family in Oakland says they\u2019ve been sharing their home with some very uninvited guests \u2014 five bears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-266218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266218","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=266218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}