Bear squeezes through Monrovia crawl space, makes himself at home

MONROVIA, Calif. - Homeowners in Monrovia believe a bear had been living under their home for the last two weeks.

"We’ve had some strange noises coming up from under the house," said Mark Lanza.

This week, the homeowners said, the noises got louder.

"We thought it was the movie we were watching, but then we paused the movie, and we continued to hear the sounds," said Mark Chou. "So we were like, that’s definitely an animal."

"It started getting much louder," said Lanza. "It sounded like something was banging against the pipes under the house."

Lanza and Chou then set up a motion detection surveillance camera that recorded a large black bear crawling into the home’s crawl space.

"It was not a raccoon," said Lanza. "It was about a 300-pound bear that could barely fit through the hole."

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Last week, FOX 11 reported on another black bear under another home in nearby Sierra Madre.

"What we see in California are hot spots for bear activity," said Peter Tira from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "Monrovia is right there at the top of the list [along with] places like Lake Tahoe."

According to Fish and Wildlife, the best way to prevent bear encounters at your home is to prevent easy access to food.

"Keep things tidy," said Tira.  "[Don’t] leave trash out for too long."

Lanza and Chou covered their home’s crawl space to prevent the bear from coming back.

"A lot of our friends have been telling us they wish we hadn’t evicted the bear," said Chou. "But, we personally don’t want to live with a bear."

"I’m sure he’s roaming the neighborhood as usual," said Lanza. "He’ll probably try to come back. We left the camera setup so if he does show back up we’ll know."