In a surprising turn of events, a man from Southern California recently discovered that an unexpected visitor had made itself at home beneath his house in Altadena. Ken Johnson, a product photographer by trade, found himself face-to-face with a 500-pound bear that had taken up residence in the crawl space under his property.

The story began unfolding last Tuesday when Johnson decided to review footage from one of his surveillance cameras. To his astonishment, the camera captured images of a bear wandering in the confines of his crawl space. “Back in June, I noticed something was amiss. The crawl space was completely disrupted — bricks were dislodged, and the frame was in shambles,” Johnson recounted to ABC7 Eyewitness News. To get to the bottom of the mystery, he strategically placed a camera to catch the culprit in action.

Johnson’s suspicions were piqued after watching a YouTube video about another Altadena resident who faced a similar situation with a bear. This curious coincidence led him to consider the possibility that he too might be dealing with a bear beneath his home.

“The video showed a scenario that looked strikingly similar to my own crawl space,” Johnson explained. “I thought, ‘Could it be happening here as well?’ Sure enough, the camera captured a bear emerging from the crawl space. It turns out, this bear has been coming and going throughout the week.”

“It looked just like my crawl space, so I thought, ‘There’s possibly a way,’” he said. “Next thing I know, my camera picks up a bear crawling out from under the crawl space – and now he’s been in and out all week.”

Johnson said the bear’s right under his kitchen, so he hears the bear moving around.

“I thought he’d be long gone by now. It’s unnerving,” he said.

In fact, Johnson said he even came pretty close to the bear when he was trying to change the camera’s batteries.

“I went to replace the batteries and this huge growl came from underneath the space and scared me to death,” he said. “I couldn’t stop shaking. It’s the strangest sound, too. It’s like a roar but it’s got this hiss on it too, like a dragon. I mean, it’s just incredible, and coming out from underneath that space, it just reverberates even more … just horrible.”

Johnson said he contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and was told a biologist from San Diego will look into the case. Eyewitness News has also contacted the department and is awaiting a response.