A family in Sierra Madre is starting to feel less at home while a bear makes itself at home in their crawl space.
Bob and Susan Nesler first noticed something was up around two weeks ago when they began finding droppings in their yard, and eventually, a neighbor called police after seeing the bear slink into the hole underneath the Nesler’s porch.
“I wasn’t too concerned [at first] because I figured he’d eventually go away,” Susan Nesler told KTLA. “If it was a grizzly bear, I’d pack and go, but it’s a black bear…so if I don’t bother him, he won’t bother me.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has responded to the Nesler’s home, located near North Sunnyside Avenue and West Highland Avenue, and is helping them to install a motion sensing camera that triggers a sprinkler system in the hopes that the bear, which is estimated to weigh around 400 pounds, would get sprayed with the water and leave under its own power.
However, that hasn’t happened yet, and it won’t happen if authorities try to hurt the animal.
“Fish and Wildlife has pretty much taken charge of not hurting the bear…we made sure of that,” Bob Nesler said. “The police wanted to shoot pepper balls under there to scare him out, and I said ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no’…we don’t want to hurt him in any way.”
Nearby residents have also reported bear sightings, including one woman who had her kitchen nearly destroyed by a hungry bear, but it is unclear if this is the same one hiding out underneath the Nesler’s house.
This is not a new occurrence for the foothill communities, who are used to seeing bears roaming the streets, rummaging through garbage cans and even taking dips in people’s pools.
In the 27 years they have lived in their home, Bob said that they see bears “all the time” but they have never had one living with them on their property; he and Susan have decided to call it “Junior” and believe the bear is old.
Due to the frequency of bear sightings, it’s not uncommon for people to get close to them, whether on accident or not.
That’s exactly what happened to KTLA 5’s Kimberly Cheng and KTLA photojournalist Benton Huang on Monday; as they were interviewing the Neslers on their porch, Benton went to grab a shot of the hole where the bear had taken up residence.
Thinking it was safe, Benton began to film inside when he saw a pair of eyeballs and eventually came face-to-face with the bear. As it turns out, the bear was listening in on the interview taking place directly above its head.
Benton and Kimberly are taking precautionary measures to avoid contact with the bear throughout the day, including staying a fair distance away and keeping the news van doors open in the event they need to quickly flee the area.
Right now, though, it doesn’t seem as if the bear is in any rush to find a new home.
KTLA photojournalist Benton Huang contributed to this report.