Owning a home in Southern California isn’t just a human dream. Apparently, bears are also looking to make a place in this market.
Just ask Sierra Madre residents and city officials, who over the past few years have watched their furry, four-legged neighbors crawl out of the woods and into their cars, kitchens and living rooms, as if the humans were just keeping the place warm for them.
“This is a new phenomenon,” said Sierra Madre City Attorney Alex Giragosian. “Something interesting has happened in the last two years. And just like in Jurassic Park, the bears have learned how to open doors. I don’t know how they learned it. I don’t know how they’re teaching each other, but they’re even opening car doors.”
Bear sightings are nothing new to the Sierra Madre and other communities in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest, but in the past few years, bears have become more audacious in their search for food.
There were about 100 reports of bear sightings in the Sierra Madre in 2020, but no reports of homes being broken into, officials said. Last year, those numbers rose to 380 and there were 50 reports of homes being broken into.
“Over the last five years they have really become a nuisance,” The owner of the home, Sarah Alden, told CBS2 About a rogue bear that recently broke into her family’s home and tore the place up. “They’re getting more and more brazen, they’re really brazen.”
Erin Wilson, regional manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s South Coast Region, said the behavior is a result of humans moving deeper into the wilderness areas where bears live. She told the Sierra Madre City Council in May that some bears are “no harm, no wrong” bears that just wander into neighborhoods and can be easily spooked, others are habituated and adapt to human routines such as what day trash cans are put out so they can find food, and others are predatory bears that are fearless and can kill livestock, damage property and pose a threat to public safety.
Wilson said there is a mix of harmless, no-nonsense bears and habituated bears in the Sierra Madre.
But there was one bear who had been a very bad neighbor of late.
Some time ago, he found a vacant house nestled between a narrow tree-lined street on Alta Vista Drive with a beautiful view of the San Gabriel Valley and moved in. While a BMW sat gathering dust in the driveway and overgrown bushes hid fallen trees, the bear made itself at home.
Neighbors began complaining of break-ins and a horrible smell coming from the home. Since 2019, city officials have sent the homeowner multiple violation notices for the property, including about the tenant bear, but to no avail. Multiple attempts by the Times to contact the homeowner were unsuccessful.
“We had to call the police this morning because the bear broke through our fence” and got into a neighbor’s home, which had a red tag, one resident wrote to city code enforcement staff last month. “We have also seen the bear climb in and out of a shed window on the property and we think he may be living there.”
This bear required a different type of torture than the other bears.
Because of laws that prevent government officials from entering homes without a warrant, the city had no choice but to post papers on the house notifying them of the violation. So last month, they took a creative step.
The city filed an application for an inspection and abatement warrant and had it signed by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. The application included complaints from neighbors and several photographs of the property, including a photo of the bear leaning against a wooden railing at the home.
On Aug. 15, California Department of Fish and Wildlife employees arrived at the home and found bear footprints, a broken window and scratches on the window that “consistent with black bear markings,” Fish and Wildlife Lt. Jonathan Garcia wrote. There were signs the bear had been living there, including feces, rotten food, wrappers and containers.
“The odors coming from the outside shed and home were emitting odors associated with organic matter which were attracting wild animals and black bears,” Garcia wrote.
The home has been foreclosed on, city attorney Giragosian said. Sierra Madre will bill the homeowner for work done on the property, including tree trimming and cleanup.
Wildlife officials ask people not to feed wild animals and to remove ripe vegetables and fruit from the ground. Residents can also install motion-sensitive lights around their properties and secure crawl spaces to avoid leaving an open invitation for wild animals.
Black bears kill one or fewer people each year in the United States, according to Fish and Wildlife. The black bear population nationwide is more than 900,000.
But after numerous encounters with bears in surrounding mountain communities, residents have started their own bear watch groups to combat this growing problem.
“Residents are confused, because there are a lot of people in the Sierra Madre who love wildlife and want to protect the bears,” Giragosian said. “There are also residents who fear for their lives.”
The bear, which lived on Alta Vista Drive, has not been seen since.
