Things did not go according to plan when California authorities tried to capture a bear living under a crawl space. Instead, they accidentally captured the wrong animal.
For months, Altadena resident Kenneth Johnson has had an unwanted guest. A bear has been living in the crawl space under his house. According to CBS News Los Angeles, he turned to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for help. The good news is that they did capture a bear. Unfortunately, it was the wrong bear and not the one living under the house.
Cort Klopping of California Fish and Wildlife said, "A non-target bear was caught in the trap set out for Yellow 2120 (the bear under the house in Altadena) on Tuesday night. Our biologists processed, tagged and relocated the bear to a nearby suitable habitat on Wednesday. This does highlight the large population of bears in the San Gabriel Valley."
Bear Under A House
After comparing the bear caught to the one on security cams, they determined that was not the bear they were looking for. So the struggle continues for the California homeowner. The bear has been living under Johnson's home since February. However, it wasn't until recently that he determined the animal was living under his home.
For a while, he didn't think the animal could fit in the crawl space. Security footage showed the truth.
"When I saw it all torn up, I thought, 'He must not be under there,' because there is no way a bear could fit," Johnson told NBC Los Angeles.
"I don't know how it got under there. It must be a contortionist. This thing is so big its stomach touches the ground," Johnson told the Los Angeles Times. "It's uncomfortable walking into the kitchen thinking there's a bear over there. I don't think he's any harm to me as long as I don't go down the side of the house while he's coming out."
