Bears take a dip in Pasadena pool

Mariel Turner

A mama bear and her two cubs roamed around a Pasadena neighborhood and took a dip in a swimming pool Thursday afternoon after breaking the back door to a house in the area.

The trio eventually made their way back to the forest.

Authorities started receiving calls about the black bears shortly before noon after they were spotted in the 3200 block of Fairpoint Street, according to Los Angeles Times.

The bears broke a home’s back door, but never made entry, said Lt. Randy Tuinstra of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The Times reported that the sliding glass-door apparently shattered after one of the cubs inadvertently hit it.

Around 12:30 p.m., Sky5 video showed the bears swimming in the backyard pool of a home for several minutes.

They then ran off to a nearby dumpster, where the trio rummaged through trash before climbing a fence and moving on to a second neighborhood pool, the video showed.

The bears were apparently chased away from the first pool by a family dog, according to the Times. Sky5 footage showed a canine a short distance away behind the bears at one point as they left the dumpster.

“It’s not unusual at all to see bear activity,” Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the newspaper. “But it’s unusual to have them in the pool.”

Hughan estimated the mother bear weighed about 300 pounds. Her cubs, believed to be less than a year old, appeared “pretty darn healthy,” he told the Times.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife was working with the Sheriff’s Department to track the bears, Hughan told KTLA.

Just before 1:50 p.m., a Fish and Wildlife tweeted that the mom and her cubs were in a tree “and safe.” About 3:30 p.m. the officials from the Altadena station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department tweeted that the bears had left the area and were “presumably” back in the forest.