YOU NEED TO KNOW
-
A California resident shared footage of a large bear living in the crawl space under his home
-
There have been multiple recent reports of more than 550-lb. bear who lives in Altadena, Calif.
-
Previous issues with removal include catching the wrong animal and being too big to tranquilize
A California community has had more than it can handle as sightings of a large mammal are becoming common.
An Altadena resident shared footage with Los Angeles’ KTLA of a large bear making itself comfortable in a crawl space under their home, the news station reported Monday, Jan. 12.
The individual, who lives less than half a mile from where a bear stayed under another person’s house for six weeks, did not want to be identified or reveal his exact location. He believes the animal has been present for at least four to five days.
While it is still unclear whether or not it is the same bear, which was estimated to be more than 500 pounds, a video broadcast by the news station showed the man’s perspective as he made his way under the house, filming the wild animal resting from a distance while shining a flashlight in its direction.
“They need to close the crawl space,” Deborah Wilson, who lives nearby, said with a laugh as she reacted to the news in an on-camera interview.
“What are you going to do? Grab the bear and tell it to come out? I mean, they’re gigantic, and they’re very strong,” Wilson continued. She and her family have since closed their crawl space as a precaution.
She added that seeing wild animals in the area, such as bears and coyotes, is not a strange sight.
“We had a problem. We had some coyotes take up residence in a crawl space a few blocks up and they had trash for a few years, and that was their home,” she said. “If the bear doesn’t catch you, something will. So you better shut up.”
After staying in an Altadena home for 37 days, resident Kenneth Johnson threatened to sue the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in December 2025 after allegedly failing to remove the mammal.
“This went on long enough, and it’s something they have to deal with. It’s a tagged bear. They’ve dealt with it before. They chose not to euthanize it, and now it’s back, and it’s just going to keep doing it,” he said at the time, per KTLA.
Johnson faced a series of unfortunate events during the time he sought a solution – including shutting off his gas service just before Christmas so the lines under his house would not be damaged.
In mid-December, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife set up a trap to humanely remove the animal, but instead unwittingly caught a different bear. That one was safely released into a suitable habitat nearby, a spokesperson for the organization previously told PEOPLE.
Johnson set up cameras when he started seeing damage to his home, including his crawl space entrance being broken.
“When I saw everything torn, I thought, ‘He must not be under,’ because there is no way a bear can fit,” before Johnson told NBC Los Angeles of the 550-lb. carry.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“I don’t know how it got under it. It must be a contortionist. This thing is so big its stomach touches the floor,” Johnson said. The Los Angeles Times in an interview on December 1, 2025. “It’s awkward to go into the kitchen thinking there’s a bear in there. I don’t think it’ll do any harm to me unless I go down the side of the house while it’s coming out.”
On January 6, BEAR League was able to remove the animal after it “caused extensive damage to the home’s heating ducts,” the group said on Facebook.
Read the original article on People