A Southern California homeowner got the ultimate surprise tenant: a 500-pound bear that had turned the crawl space under his house into its personal den.
Ken Johnson, the homeowner in Altadena, first grew suspicious when he kept finding trash cans toppled and odd damage around his property. (RELATED: Country Music Star Parker McCollum Hunts Down Gargantuan Buck, And This Thing Is Absolutely Gorgeous)
“It was really big. I’ve seen him before, but he was going through the trash and then the next morning he’s coming out from underneath my house,” said Johnson while speaking with KTTV.
After surveying the growing chaos around his home, Johnson decided it was time to install security cameras to catch the culprit in the act.
An uninvited guest emerged from under Ken Johnson’s home in Altadena, California: a large bear that had set up residence in his crawl space.
Johnson’s bear sighting was not the first since wildfires hit the city in January. https://t.co/bXxf2r4Vai pic.twitter.com/o62Cxo09mU
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 3, 2025
The security cameras captured the massive intruder wedging his 500-pound frame in and out of the narrow crawl space entrance on several occasions.
“Someone said that he doesn’t hibernate because this is California, but they den,” said Johnson. “So, he’s making that his den for the winter.”
Johnson is under the belief that the hefty brown bear has been calling the crawl space under his house home since as far back as June.
“I can hear him when I’m in the kitchen watching TV at night, I can hear him moving around under there,” said Johnson. “And he tries to get out, everything kind of shakes.”
