GoFundMe<\/a> page asking for help.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/A-500-pound-bear-lived-under-a-Californian-mans-home-for-37-days.png\")
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A 550 pound bear lived under a Californian man’s home for more than a month (BEAR League)<\/p>\n
\u201cRight after surviving the Eaton fire, I lost my job, and shortly after that the bear began tearing into the structure of my home,\u201d he continued. \u201cI 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Eventually, the frustrated homeowner decided to contact the animal protection organization BEAR League. The wildlife rescue group arrived at his home with paintball guns.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The BEAR League told Fox News their members Scott and Dave traveled seven hours from Lake Tahoe to Altadena to help. <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-01-at-10-59-05-AM.png\")
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The bear had made a den under the property (Ken Johnson\/ KTLA)<\/p>\n
\u201cScott, one of our most experienced responders, crawled beneath the home \u2013 fully aware the bear was still there \u2013 to get behind him and encourage him to exit through the crawl space opening,\u201d a spokesperson for the league said. <\/p>\n
To avoid the bear coming back, the organization \u201cloaned electric unwelcome mats to give the homeowner time to make repairs and secure the crawl space to prevent another visit.\u201d <\/p>\n
Footage posted by the league to Facebook showed the animal coming back and sniffing the mat that was now blocking the den. <\/p>\n
The moment the bear put his paw on the mat, he appeared to be zapped and soon scurried away. <\/p>\n
The league told Fox News people needed to be cautious about having open crawl spaces to avoid finding themselves in a similar situatuion. <\/p>\n
![\"Homeowner](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/California_Bear_Under_House_22034.jpg\")
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Homeowner Ken Johnson stands outside his house with trash scattered across the driveway after the bear took refuge (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remind those who live in bear country that a poorly-secured crawl space is an open invitation for a winter visitor like this bear,\u201d the group said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBEAR league responds multiple times per day at this time of year to evict bears from under homes in the Lake Tahoe region, and we\u2019ve done so for 30 years without cost to the homeowner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife released a statement in response to Johnson\u2019s claims he was abandoned by the organization. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite very limited staff, CDFW biologists have been in constant communication with this homeowner since the bear was reported entering his unsecured crawlspace in November,\u201d a spokesperson told The New York Post. \u201cWe remain committed to helping this homeowner and have never indicated otherwise.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-686152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115869348359283072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}