California Man Finally Gets Rid Of 500-Pound Bear That’s Been Living In His Home’s Crawlspace Since Thanksgiving: “I’m Relieved”

A California man can sleep peacefully now that he knows a 500-pound bear isn’t living underneath his home.

What would you do if you knew that a 500-pound apex predator was loitering just a couple of feet below where you sleep? And had really made itself at home? An Altadena, California homeowner faced that very problem for almost two months. Ken Johnson had a massive black bear move into the crawlspace of his house around Thanksgiving, and just a fews days ago, it was still living under there.

The “Golden State” resident originally wasn’t too worried about the bear in his neighborhood. The large wild animal has been frequently spotted in Altadena, as Johnson told NBC4 News. He only became concerned when he stopped seeing the big ol’ beast lumbering around his house. And the worrying really started up when the man noticed that the entrance to his home’s crawlspace was ripped up, creating a small opening for something to crawl inside if it so chose.

But Johnson wasn’t worried about a bear being in his crawlspace, because in his mind, the entrance wasn’t large enough for a bear to enter:

“When I saw it all torn up, I thought, ‘He must not be under there,’ because there is no way a bear could fit.”

In order to get to the bottom of it, Ken Johnson set up a camera outside the crawlspace to catch whatever was going in and out on film. Soon after, the California homeowner caught the culprit bear-handed. And the video of the bear crawling in and out of the comically small crawlspace hole is hilarious.

Yeah… I’m not sure I would have been worried about a big ol’ bear threading the needle like that into my crawlspace either.

Shortly after Johnson figured out that the large black bear had moved into his home, he contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to ask for assistance. They ran into some issues, mainly because a bear that large can be hard to immobilize with a tranquilizer. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife ended up telling Johnson just to wait for the wild animal to leave on its own.

Seriously.

As time continued to pass, and the California homeowner (and his cat) kept living on edge knowing that an apex predator was under his floorboards, he became frustrated. Johnson felt as though the state should have been doing more to help, and told KTLA 5 that it was ridiculous that the state was saying there was nothing they could do. He eventually even considered suing the state when the bear started damaging his property and kept him fearing for his safety for an extended period of time.

When Johnson had gotten to his wit’s end, he eventually tracked down a nonprofit called BEAR League. The Lake Tahoe-based organization offered to help the homeowner at no cost, and came to Johnson’s house armed with paintball guns. They bravely crawled into the crawlspace where the bear had set up shop and basically smoked the bear out.

Johnson says it took them all of 10 minutes to solve the issue that the state of California had basically given up on solving:

“I couldn’t believe it was so fast. These guys went in, they crawled in behind him and, boom, he was out.”

It was that easy, eh? If that’s the case, the BEAR League made the California Department of Fish and Wildlife look pretty silly. The state department apparently also tried to use paintball guns at one point, but they weren’t as successful at encouraging the bear to leave.

Now that the large wild animal is gone, Ken Johnson is back to living his normal life. All he has to do now is assess the damage, but anything is better than having the bear still loitering in his crawlspace, as he explained:

“I’m relieved – no more banging under the house and smelling him and wondering what’s going on under there.”

Once the bear left the home after the BEAR League pushed him out, the California homeowner installed an electrified mat over the crawlspace opening. When the 500-pounder returned a couple of nights later, it was shocked (in both senses of the word), and it turned around and left.

Here’s to hoping that the bear isn’t smarter than the average bear and leaves the California home alone from here on out.

The post California Man Finally Gets Rid Of 500-Pound Bear That’s Been Living In His Home’s Crawlspace Since Thanksgiving: “I’m Relieved” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.