One California family got the shock of their lives when they discovered a bear had turned the side of their house into its own personal cave. While bears come to people's houses from time to time, this story certainly takes the picnic basket and runs with it.
Bree and Jamey Tate said they grew accustomed to seeing a bear try to get their trash from time to time at their California home. However, one of the animals decided to set up a home as well. "You could hear him just dragging [the trash can] and then grunting a little bit and then pulled it in," Jamey told KTLA's Rachel Menitoff. "He was in there just chomping away."
The animal decided to make the crawl space on the side of their house his home. That means it was living on their property. "This is the first time a bear has just taken up residency in our area, like in our home," Bree said.
While the animal appeared to be the perfect guest and didn't try to maul them, the California couple were concerned for their children. They didn't want them accidentally running into the bear.
"The initial concern is that we have two kids running around, we don't want them to have an accidental encounter with a bear," Jamey said. However, animal control was less than helpful. They said they could only get involved if the animal was posing a threat to the family.
Bear And Poodle Get Into Spat
So the family ended up taking maters into their own hands. They decided to cover up the crawl space hoping that the animal would leave and take up residence somewhere else. However, another California family just a few miles away had a more startling encounter with a bear. Their 15-pound poodle tried to fight a bear. Of course, the poodle's name was Potato, but it almost ended up a pancake instead.
The dog dashed out to confront the bear. "I thought he was actually going to get seriously hurt," Jillian McCloskey said. Ironically, the dog ended up chasing the bear off of the property. "Obviously, our goal is to always have the dog on a leash because there is the concern that the bear could turn to protect itself and easily maul a dog," Patrick McCloskey said.
It's a sad day for the bear who just wanted a place to crash. Better head back to Jellystone, Yogi.
