On Sunday, February 8, 2024, residents of Riverside County called in a sighting of a wild mountain lion walking in front of their house. This mountain lion was seen prowling Gateway Drive and McVicker Canyon Park Drive before 9 p.m.      

This couple (the Chapmans) came across this terrifying discovery using their at-home security systems because of the motion sensor on their cameras. This footage shocked the Chapmans and those who soon heard about it. 

In the interview conducted by the local news, Valerie Chapman expressed that this was very unexpected and that the only thing she had ever seen in the area before this incident was animals like rabbits or coyotes.

“I’m looking, and I’m like, I don’t think that’s a dog; I think that’s a mountain lion. It happened to walk across our front door Ring camera,” said Valerie Chapman, “People are usually out in the evenings and afternoons.” (abc7.com)

“I was shocked. I was like, ‘Oh my God, a mountain lion is roaming our streets in front of our house. It was shocking, exciting, but scary simultaneously,” said Valerie Chapman. (ktla.com)

The Chapmans later released a video to the public, and in this video, it is seen that a mountain lion is walking around and between their cars and strolling the front area of the house. Or in the way Valerie Chapman explained it, “It went up in between my car and my husband’s black truck, and then it walked across my front door.”

Coincidentally, another resident of this area, Joe Prince, believed he had seen a mountain lion earlier that same day, yet “it wasn’t until later in the day when he saw a post about the big cat on social media that he realized his eyes had not been fooling him.” (ktla.com)

“I stopped, and it crossed the street, and it saw me, and it turned back around and went back up,” said Joe Prince.

Some may wonder why a mountain lion would even be in this area. Those curiosities to rest, it is  essential to know that “On one side of the neighborhood sits Lake Elsinore and on the other side homes are butted up against the foothills where plenty of wildlife lives.” Yet even knowing this, many residents who have lived in this area for an exceeding amount of time still claim that mountain lion sightings are rare. 

For example, one resident (Jessica Noland) said, “Being back against this national forest, I would think that we would see a lot more of it, but this is the first big cat that I’ve ever seen while living here, and I’ve lived in California my entire life.”

Otherwise, many residents of this area have become very concerned and frightened of the wildlife, which has caused them to be very observant, specifically at night, of their surroundings and with their children and animals.