PACIFICA, Calif. (KRON) – A mountain lion is roaming the streets of a neighborhood in Pacifica, California. The big cat was caught on video as it watched two kids who were riding bikes in the street over the weekend.
Later it jumped a fence and crouched under a neighbor’s truck until it eventually ran away.
Residents say their neighborhood backs up to hills and a wooded area full of wildlife, Which is probably the reason the mountain lion is sticking around.
“I thought it was somebody’s dog that had gotten into the yard and I was like, “hey get out of here! then it turned and that’s when I was like, “oh my god! it’s a mountain lion!” said Timothy Kerrisk.
He captured the mountain lion on video as it peered through his front gate, stalking children off of Mason Drive.
“Watching the kids through the gate right here, and I started yelling at the kids “get inside! Get inside! Get inside! ” And it came back towards me and it was still watching the kids, jumped over the gate right here. Still watching the kids, so I had to come out of the house and chase him out from under the car and up over the hill,” Kerrisk explained.
He says the mountain lion chased his cat through his yard earlier that same Saturday.
Neighbor Andrew Mooney’s surveillance cameras caught another shot of the big cat.
“The width of a 2020 Ford F-150 from nose to tail. It’s the biggest one that I’ve seen. We have a lot of sightings of mountain lions around here, and they all seem to be small bobcat size. This one was well fed,” Mooney said.
Mooney and others are now keeping a closer watch over loved ones and their pets.
“When I take my dog out at night now I carry him or put him on a leash. I don’t let him run out all by himself. He’s a little chihuahua kind of mix. He would be a snack. There’s a lot of kids and pets naturally running around, and this cat seemed to be a little more comfortable than most mountain lions are,” Mooney added.
Some neighbors say they don’t want the mountain lion trapped, taken away, or euthanized. instead, they hope that this mountain lion stays away from the kids and pets in the neighborhood.