A 550-pound black bear who has been living under a man’s house for months has finally been evicted.
The giant animal made a den beneath Ken Johnson’s California property in November, which the homeowner said had caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage. It has lived there ever since.
Until, that is, an animal welfare expert came up up with a creative way to remove the unwanted guest. Johnson’s saviors - volunteers from the BEAR League - crawled beneath the home to get behind the animal and used paintballs filled with vegetable oil to scare it away.
“I’m in a situation I never imagined. A 500-pound bear has been living underneath my home in Altadena for over a month,” Johnson previously wrote on a GoFundMe page asking for help.
“Right after surviving the Eaton fire, I lost my job, and shortly after that the bear began tearing into the structure of my home,” he continued. “I have video footage of it twisting gas pipes, which created an extremely dangerous situation and forced me to shut off my utilities just to stay safe.”
Johnson claimed the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were failing to help him remove the bear and threatened to sue the organization after it captured the wrong bear.
Eventually, the frustrated homeowner decided to contact the animal protection organization BEAR League. The wildlife rescue group arrived at his home with paintball guns.
Footage showed the bear pulling itself out of the underground hole as paintballs filled with vegetable oil were fired. The bear then ran away as a wildlife officer continued to fire shots.
The BEAR League told Fox News their members Scott and Dave traveled seven hours from Lake Tahoe to Altadena to help.
“Scott, one of our most experienced responders, crawled beneath the home – fully aware the bear was still there – to get behind him and encourage him to exit through the crawl space opening,” a spokesperson for the league said.
To avoid the bear coming back, the organization “loaned electric unwelcome mats to give the homeowner time to make repairs and secure the crawl space to prevent another visit.”
Footage posted by the league to Facebook showed the animal coming back and sniffing the mat that was now blocking the den.
The moment the bear put his paw on the mat, he appeared to be zapped and soon scurried away.
The league told Fox News people needed to be cautious about having open crawl spaces to avoid finding themselves in a similar situatuion.
“We remind those who live in bear country that a poorly-secured crawl space is an open invitation for a winter visitor like this bear,” the group said.
“BEAR league responds multiple times per day at this time of year to evict bears from under homes in the Lake Tahoe region, and we’ve done so for 30 years without cost to the homeowner.
“We work hard to educate people who share space with the bears that if humans take some very simple steps, they can live in harmony with the bears.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife released a statement in response to Johnson’s claims he was abandoned by the organization.
“Despite very limited staff, CDFW biologists have been in constant communication with this homeowner since the bear was reported entering his unsecured crawlspace in November,” a spokesperson told The New York Post. “We remain committed to helping this homeowner and have never indicated otherwise.”
