I’ve been following the saga of Ken Johnson , a man in Altadena California.
There were fires in the area in 2025. Burned-out homes were abandoned. Bears felt those homes should be occupied as prime hibernation locations.
However, Ken Johnson’s home was still occupied, by Ken, and he noticed noises coming from his crawl space. (An aside: I’ve never lived anywhere with a crawlspace, but it seems to be a 2-foot tall basement where there’s only room for ducts, wiring, plumbing, and gas lines.)
He called Wildlife Control, and they ran off a smaller bear, but not the 550 pound bear of concern. He complained to the media, and the experts at The Bear League came by and ran it out of the crawl space by shooting it with paintballs.
I was watching the story on YouTube (below) and waited for, “And then they tranquilized it and dragged it far away from Ken’s house” BUT NO. They just let it run off.
Mr. Bear came back to the patio the next day and looked through the back window. The Bear League then put out an “unwelcome mat” by the crawlspace that delivered an electric shock, the bear stepped on it, and it scared the bear off.
That was yesterday.
I anticipate we will wake up tomorrow to news that Ken Johnson has been found in his crawl space getting shocked by an electric mat while a 550 pound bear watches the flatscreen upstairs and drinks beer with the harem of smaller lady bears he had been courting before.
For good details, here is the article in the Guardian.
If you want visuals, through, you can’t beat this news report.