Altadena homeowner says second bear tried to move into already occupied crawlspace underneath his home

An Altadena homeowner who has already been living with an unwanted guest for a week, after a large bear took up residence in the crawlspace underneath his home, now says that a second bear has tried to invade the same space.

The first massive California black bear, which is estimated to be about 500 pounds by wildlife officials, has been caught on camera several times as it comes and goes from the small hole underneath Ken Johnson's house, starting on Tuesday last week. Other videos show the bear walking around the property, as well as the first time the animal gained entry to the crawlspace, easily ripping away a small screen before squeezing inside. 

"I noticed that the camera showed the bear coming out in the middle of the night," Johnson said. "But the batteries died, so it never showed where it went. So, I didn't know if it went to the backyard, the front yard, or it was still under there."

He says that when he went to the side yard to replace the batteries on the camera, the bear growled at him from the crawlspace. 

"I was just terrified, shaking," he said. "That's when I called the sheriff."

Johnson said that a fire mitigation crew visiting the neighborhood told him in June that it looked like a bear had been under his home. It was then that he noticed the damage left behind. 

"I noticed everything was torn up. Bricks were destroyed, pulled off the foundation," he said. "The wooden frame with the mesh on it was all pulled out, and so I put it back together lightly and put a camera up out there."

It's that camera that captured the moment the current unwanted tenant moved into the crawlspace. 

Now, early Tuesday morning, a full week after living with the first bear, Johnson says that the same camera captured a second bear wandering outside of his home. It's seen sauntering up the driveway of his home before stopping outside of the crawlspace for a brief moment. It then quickly retreats from Johnson's yard after possibly noticing that the space has already been occupied.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials told Johnson to call the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, which he did on Friday. They told him that he would have to wait until Monday for a response from their personnel due to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. 

Wildlife officials say that the massive male bear is tagged but it's unclear if it has had other encounters with humans in the past, and that this is the typical time of the year that bears find places to den, especially when they're warm and provide a sense of safety. 

"Unfortunately, it sounds like this is what that bear has potentially found under the homeowner's house in the crawlspace," said Cort Klopping, with CDFW. "It's unfortunate. We want to see the bears in the woods, not in people's homes."

Johnson is hoping that a team of wildlife experts can help him remove the bear soon, hopefully taking him to somewhere that it can fish and live in its natural habitat. Once the bear does leave, he's planning on filling a garbage bin with sand bags, making it hundreds of pounds so no unwanted residents can move in in the future.