LOS FELIZ, Calif. – Home security technicians Monday came face-to-face with a well-known California mountain lion P-22 during an installation job at a Los Angeles home.
The security technicians were installing security equipment when they noticed the feline under the house’s crawl space. After making eye-to-eye contact with the animal, one of the technicians ran to tell homeowner Jason Archinaco about the encounter, NBC Los Angeles reports.
The homeowner believed the wildcat was at least 150 pounds.
Animal control officers could not remove the wildcat from the residence because of its size. Instead, officials from California Fish and Wildlife tried to lure P-22 out with a tennis ball launcher, hoping the feline would run back to the mountains, but the plan didn’t work.
Next, they shot a few beanbag rounds into the area in an attempt to get him out to no avail.
California Fish and Wildlife officials monitored the mountain lion, who remained at the house into the late hours of Monday. Officials believe the animal left the crawl space during the early morning on April 14. The mountain lion’s radio telemetry monitoring device later showed it had returned to the nearby 4,300-acre Griffith Park.
P-22 made headlines when he crossed Los Angeles’ very busy 405 and 101 freeways in 2012 to make Griffith Park his home. At that time, biologists placed a tracking device on the wildcat’s neck to monitor his movements and activity.
Since then, Griffith Park’s Trail Cam has recorded P-22’s nighttime roaming.
The mountain lion’s legendary status was cemented in 2013 when National Geographic photographer Steve Winter took a famous shot of P-22 with the Hollywood Sign in the background.
