California Man Discovers 226-kg Black Bear Living Under His Home: A Shocking Wildlife Encounter

The bear squeezing into the crawl space.

A California resident experienced the shock of his life when he discovered a 226-kg black bear had been secretly residing in the crawl space beneath his Altadena home. Ken Johnson, who works as a product photographer, made this startling discovery after examining footage from his surveillance cameras. According to a report in the New York Post, Johnson became suspicious about a possible intruder after noticing overturned trash cans and displaced bricks around his property.

To investigate, he installed motion-detecting surveillance cameras to identify which animal had been disturbing his surroundings. Johnson reported that the footage revealed an enormous black bear squeezing itself through a 2.5-by-2.5-foot crawl space, entering and exiting at will.

While this apex predator made Johnson's property its home, the 63-year-old humorously remarked that the bear must be a "contortionist" to fit into such a confined space.

"I don't know how it got under there," Johnson commented, further noting: "This thing is so big its stomach touches the ground."

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'Couldn't Stop Shaking'

The bear typically departed during daylight hours and returned at night for shelter. While it showed no aggressive behavior, it did terrify Johnson when it roared at him last week as he attempted to replace batteries in his camera.

"I couldn't stop shaking. It's the strangest sound, too. It's like a roar but it's got this hiss on it too, like a dragon. I mean, it's just incredible, and coming out from underneath that space, it just reverberates even more, just horrible."

"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."

Despite having video evidence of the bear inside his residence, Johnson has been unsuccessful in getting the animal removed. He reached out to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife but was instructed to submit an online complaint, which has yielded no results.

"I hope they can coax it out or shoot it with a tranquilizer and haul it away, but I don't see that happening," Johnson said, adding that the entire experience was 'unnerving' as he could hear the bear rumbling beneath his kitchen.