Dec. 1 (UPI) — A California man changing the batteries on a camera he set up to monitor the black bear living in his crawlspace ended up in a close encounter with the 500-pound predator.<\/p>\n
Ken Johnson<\/a>, 63, said the first sign<\/a> he had an intruder beneath his Altadena home came in April, when he noticed damage to the bricks and wooden frame around his crawlspace.\n<\/p>\n He said further damage in June led him to install outdoor cameras to get to the bottom of the mystery.<\/p>\n Johnson said the cameras finally paid off last week when they recorded a black bear going in and out of the crawlspace.<\/p>\n “It was really big. I’ve seen him before, but he was going through the trash and then the next morning he’s coming out from underneath my house,” Johnson told KTLA-TV.<\/a><\/p>\n Johnson said he was changing the batteries in his camera on Friday when he had a too-close-for-comfort encounter with the squatter.<\/p>\n “I went around to put batteries in the camera, and this huge growl comes from out from under the crawlspace and I just went running,” he told NBC Los Angeles<\/a>. “I mean, it was the most amazing roar you’ve ever heard. Like a lion with a hiss on top of it.”\n<\/p>\n The bear put in a second appearance later on Friday with KTLA cameras present.<\/p>\n