Ken Johnson found himself in a situation that was impossible to, well, bear.
A 550-pound male black bear wedged itself into the crawl space underneath Johnson’s Altadena home just after Thanksgiving. Officials tried air horns, cherry and caramel flavored bait and even a trap that caught the wrong bear.
By Christmas, the enormous mammal had done serious damage — turning on a gas line under the house —that forced Johnson to live without hot water.
But this week, the unwelcome house guest, dubbed Yellow 2120 by researchers, finally got his formal eviction notice.
Volunteers with the BEAR League, a nonprofit based in Lake Tahoe, chased out the bear in roughly 10 minutes using paintball guns on Tuesday.
“We do a lot of evictions,” said Ann Bryant, the executive director of BEAR League. “We’re up to about 150 a year now — bears under houses, so we’re well versed on how to do it.”
It’s not a job for the faint of heart. Generally, Bryant says, the volunteer will get into the crawl space with the bear, get behind the massive animal and scare him by yelling, clapping and sometimes firing a paintball gun.
“They know they shouldn’t be there anyway, it’s human habitat,” Bryant said. “They get scared and run off.”
Aside from being a general nuisance with their ferocious snores, pungent odors and growls, bears can do serious damage to a home. In their attempt to find a cozy place to rest, bears can destroy insulation, wiring, heating ducts and water and gas lines as they tear into crawl spaces.
Bryant said her organization stepped in to help Johnson after hearing that he had to turn off the heat to his home.
“We felt sorry for him, and we didn’t want him to have to go through that all the way until spring when the bear leaves,” she said.
This wasn’t the first time Yellow 2120 had been spotted in Altadena. The bear was caught in the area in the last year and was relocated about 10 miles away from Johnson’s home, but apparently returned in the last five months, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
California is home to an estimated 60,000 black bears, the highest population estimate in the contiguous United States. Bear sightings, particularly on trash day, aren’t uncommon for communities like Altadena nestled at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. But some say last year’s Eaton fire made the situation worse, driving bears out of their habitat and increasing the number of home invasions.
Johnson had exhausted all efforts trying to get the bear to leave his property.
He rigged a burglar alarm with foam so it made a loud clattering sound. He burned CDs with hours of dog barking audio and pointed speakers into the vents, all in the hopes of flushing Yellow 2120 out.
It didn’t work.
“I just don’t feel completely at home in my own house, as long as he’s under there,” Johnson told The Times last month.
Biologists at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife set up a bear trap at the house in early December to try to catch Yellow 2120. About a week later, Johnson heard the rattling of the metal cage. But he found it hadn’t captured the right bear.
The bear that was caught was tagged and released in a nearby suitable habitat, according to the department.
As for Yellow 2120, he returned to Johnson’s property soon after the volunteers left, Johnson told KTLA. But he found the environment to be much less hospitable than the first time around.
What do you use when you’re trying to dissuade a house guest that just won’t take a hint?
If the uninvited guest is a bear, the answer is an electrified mat, apparently. The absolutely-not-welcome mat, placed at the entrance to Johnson’s crawl space, gave the bear a little shock when he returned.
Yellow 2120 decided it was finally time to hit the road.
Staff writer Sandra McDonald contributed to this report.
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