Homeowner's security camera catches mountain lion's late-night visit

(UPI) A Southern California couple's security camera captured footage of a mountain lion making a late-night visit to their neighborhood.

Carolyn and Bill Wallen said they checked their security camera footage Sunday morning and discovered it had twice recorded the cougar wandering outside their Westlake Village home.

"I think I watched the video over and over and over again because it was frightening," Carolyn Wallen told KABC-TV.

"We're frightened because we do have grandchildren -- they're here all the time. Our grand-dogs are here all the time," she told KTLA-TV. We have neighbors who have lost pets and livestock and are angry.

The couple said the puma apparently spent some time in their yard.

"When I saw the second video and that it had been in the yard for 45 minutes doing I don't know what, maybe it went swimming, I honestly don't know," Carolyn Wallen said.

Her husband said the big cat showed off its agility for the camera.

"It leaped over that fence like it was a jumping off of a couch," Bill Wallen said.

The couple said they have lived in their home for a decade and had never encountered a mountain lion before, but they have only had a home security camera for about eight months.

The mountain lion is suspected of being the same animal photographed by a Westlake Village family earlier this month when it tried to break through their sliding glass door. Experts said the cougar in that incident may have been P-55, an animal known for its successful crossings of the treacherous 101 Freeway.

The Wallens said they understand that mountain lions can't be relocated due to state regulations. They said their home is located near the animals' habitat in the Santa Monica Mountains.

"I am aware I am living in their backyard," Carolyn Wallen said.

"I'm not going to do anything," she said. I'm going to hope maybe it will move onto the mountains, maybe if it rains there will be water. I honestly don't know.