1 hour ago
2
Right trap, wrong bear.
A massive metal trap laced with chicken and sardines set up to lure a brazen bear that’s been living under a man’s house for over 20 days captured the wrong black bear — leaving a terrified homeowner with a 550-pound black bear still nesting under his California home.
“There was a big click and a bang!” said Ken Johnson of Altadena, who has been enduring a living nightmare with a bear hanging out in a crawl space beneath his house for almost three weeks.
The “beary” scary drama unfolded on Tuesday night at around 9:30 p.m. when the wrong bear was lured into Johnson’s driveway to meat-stocked Cambrian-style box trap the California Department of Fish and Wildlife set up to capture the unwanted house guest.
The trap was filled with a smorgasbord of things that bears love to eat including shrimp, peanut butter, and apples. A feast too tempting to resist for another bear roaming around the neighborhood.
After the bear wandered into the brown metal box, the trap door slammed shut!
“It must have smelled the food,” said Johnson who was outside looking for an extension cord moments after it slammed shut. “I heard rattling, it scared me.”
Fish and wildfire officers immediately jumped into action, tagging the bear and relocating it to a “nearby suitable habitat,” spokesman Cort Klopping said.
Klopping added that the bear wasn’t in their system, but has since been tagged so it can be tracked upon future sightings.
“Its like the bear has a name tag now,” Klopping said. “It’s a healthy male black bear between three to four years old, but not as large as the one under the house.”
But the chaos of living with a bear under his house continues for Johnson, who said he can hear his roomie banging around from 5 a.m. every day.
A new trap is yet to be set for the giant bear under Johnson’s home. Officials have tried scent spray which smells like cherries and caramel to get the bear out with no luck ahead of Christmas.
“it’s been quite a ride,” said Johnson.
English (US)