Hesperia, CA — In Southern California, a mountain lion caused quite the scare for a family after devouring their turkey.
After its meal, the mountain lion then took a nap in their shed, forcing the family to call wildlife control.
"He was literally laying in the middle of the shed,” says homeowner Judy Vasquez.
It was a terrifying moment for this family when Judy Vasquez says she heard some rustling in her mom's backyard shed and saw these two big yellow eyes staring back.
“He just looked up and we both made eye contact."
She says her husband was right behind her.
“The fear in me! I couldn't even tell him what it was. I go, it's a lion, it's a lion!"
A king of the beasts, the predator of the San Bernardino mountains was sitting in the shed surrounded by feathers, and looking like a giant house cat that caught the canary.
“He's just hiding in the back."
The family says he ate at least one of their turkeys and a second is still missing.
They have a variety of chickens and turkeys in structures out back, which were an all too enticing treat for the hungry feline.
“When the cop called me, he's like, ‘are you sure it's not a bobcat? I'm like no! It's big! Something big!"
The Vasquez family called the sheriff’s department, then animal control and then California Fish and Wildlife.
They tried to coax him out so he could run back to the hills, but the lion stayed put.
“Well, he did have the whole turkey, so who wouldn't be tired after having a whole turkey."
Since the lion refused to leave the shed, fish and wildlife ended up leaving him inside overnight with a deputy outside keeping watch and then they came back in the morning.
“They were trying to use a pellet gun just to scare him off and open the gate over there just to scare him out. But after 45-minutes they're like you know what, ‘I think we're just going to close the shed back up and leave him in.’"
On Sunday, fish and wildlife were able to sedate the feline predator, which weighed more than 110 pounds.
They loaded him up in the back of a pickup, tagged him and took him somewhere safe.
“It was the best idea ever that they could have come up with, versus just releasing him back."
And although there's no guarantee this cat won’t creep back, this family plans to double check its shed from now on to make sure no more of their birds end up on the dinner menu of mountain lions.
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