Bear makes California home its own, swimming in pool, bringing in takeout from neighbors' trash

Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times on Feb 19, 2025

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LOS ANGELES — A second black bear has taken up tenancy in the crawlspace of a home evacuated during the Eaton fire, prompting local frustration and fear about the furry creature's destructive capabilities.

The bear has been making himself comfortable, lounging by the pool during the day and bringing food back to the crawlspace from neighbors' trash at night, said homeowner Sean Lorenzini.

"I think it found refuge under the house during the fire, and it's definitely not moving — that's its home," he said.

The bear has left claw marks on neighborhood trash bins, torn insulation out from underneath the house and is probably the culprit behind several broken fuses as well as a recent attack on his neighbor's pet goat, he said. Lorenzini estimates it weighs 500 to 600 pounds.

And he's not the only local resident to discover an unbearable problem when returning home after the fire.

At the end of January, an Altadena homeowner could not get their power turned back on because crews were too scared of the 525-pound black bear living underneath the house. California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials were able to lure that bear out using peanut butter and rotisserie chicken and relocate it to the Angeles National Forest.

Now Lorenzini is trying to get the agency to do the same thing with his uninvited guest.

"I feel really sorry for this bear. I know we're encroaching on their territory, so I'm sympathetic to that," he said. "But at the same time, I've got a property to protect and I'm exposed if anyone gets hurt. This is a wild animal."

A spokesperson for the Department of Fish and Wildlife said the agency was aware of the Pasadena bear and working on a response.

Lorenzini said he filed a report about the bear Thursday and still didn't know when Fish and Wildlife planned on sending a crew to relocate it. The agency did tell him that, once the bear is removed, it is important he seal the crawlspace as the creature will probably try to return, he said.

"In the foothills of bear country, it's important to close crawlspaces with bear-proof material in advance of winter months to discourage bears from denning and damaging property," the Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a post on the Altadena bear.

The creature's tenancy has been a massive headache for Lorenzini, who is in the middle of trying to renovate his home and still processing the stress of the Eaton fire.

His house sits on a lot that was burned during a 1993 wildfire, and he said it was only luck that saved it this time.

"It's a miracle that this time the wind shifted at the last second and blew the fire away from our hill," he said. "So we were spared, but only by a fluke of the wind change."

He is eager to have the bear moved so he can get the gas and heat turned back on and start assessing the smoke and bear damage his property has endured.

Plumbers are naturally reluctant to go under the house and fix his gas due to the presence of the bear.

Black bears are not an uncommon sight in the foothill communities of Altadena, Pasadena, Monrovia and Sierra Madre, which border their natural habitat in the Angeles National Forest. As humans fled the 14,100-acre Eaton fire, it's likely that nearby bears were also seeking a safe space.

A similar phenomenon was observed with the Malibu mountain lion population after the 2018 Woolsey fire, when UCLA wildlife researchers documented an increase in the number killed by motorists as they rushed to escape the almost 100,000-acre burn zone.

In general, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has cited the destruction of bear habitat and human infringement on the animals' territory as the key factors driving up the number of bears found in the foothills.

Sierra Madre, in particular, has found bears to be a real bother. The 3-square-mile city tucked below the southern edge of the Angeles National Forest saw the number of calls for bear sightings jump from around 100 in 2020 to 380 in 2023.

And although black bears are typically connected to only one — or zero — human death across the country on an annual basis, they can still be dangerous to humans, pets and property.

In 2019, an 83-year-old homeless man was mauled by a black bear while sleeping in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley. Foothill residents also have complained about bears breaking in and damaging their homes.