(KTLA News) |
MT. BALDY -- It's a bear with a bad habit! A local family says the animal has ravaged their Mount Baldy home over and over again, doing about $20,000 in damage.
The small black bear has found its way onto the family's 23-acre ranch almost nightly this summer, according to Ed Brant.
Brant and his wife Patti say most recently, the bear broke into the laundry room, trying to get to the cat food they keep in there.
Once inside the house with the door closed behind him, though, the bear didn't know how to get out.
"Evidently he's such a big guy he just backed up against it, and then he couldn't get out," Ed Brant told KTLA.
"He began to just claw at every single thing, all up and down the walls."
The animal lifted the floor panels, tore off window frames, scratched up the kitchen door and went to the bathroom all over.
He finally broke a small side window and crawled out of the house.
And this summer isn't the first time the Brants have been visited by bears.
Several years ago, bears got into their fridge and took ice cream.
They've also seen bears trying to pull trash out of dumpsters near Ed's workshop.
Ed Brant says he thinks the bears are drawn to the small pond on their property, which they use as a source of water. He also thinks a lack of natural food resources may be encouraging the break-ins.
The dry weather has caused a lot of the area's berry trees to dry up.
The state Department of Fish and Game says there's little it can do for the Brants. It periodically relocates bears who cause trouble, but says there are always more right behind them.
The small black bear has found its way onto the family's 23-acre ranch almost nightly this summer, according to Ed Brant.
Brant and his wife Patti say most recently, the bear broke into the laundry room, trying to get to the cat food they keep in there.
Once inside the house with the door closed behind him, though, the bear didn't know how to get out.
"Evidently he's such a big guy he just backed up against it, and then he couldn't get out," Ed Brant told KTLA.
"He began to just claw at every single thing, all up and down the walls."
The animal lifted the floor panels, tore off window frames, scratched up the kitchen door and went to the bathroom all over.
He finally broke a small side window and crawled out of the house.
And this summer isn't the first time the Brants have been visited by bears.
Several years ago, bears got into their fridge and took ice cream.
They've also seen bears trying to pull trash out of dumpsters near Ed's workshop.
Ed Brant says he thinks the bears are drawn to the small pond on their property, which they use as a source of water. He also thinks a lack of natural food resources may be encouraging the break-ins.
The dry weather has caused a lot of the area's berry trees to dry up.
The state Department of Fish and Game says there's little it can do for the Brants. It periodically relocates bears who cause trouble, but says there are always more right behind them.
