A mama bear and her two cubs emerged from their woodsy habitat near Los Angeles Thursday to discover they were not, by any means, in the wilderness anymore.

The unlikely trio was first spotted by a resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Atladena who was picking up his newspaper around 7:30 a.m. and saw the mother bear eating leftover birthday cake from his trash, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Likely as spooked by the human as he was by her, the mother bear pushed her cubs and scampered up a tree, the paper reports.

The mom and cubs made themselves at home in the tree, taking the occasional nap while humans below stared up in disbelief.  After about six hours the bears climbed down the tree and found their way off the lawn through a backyard gate, officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.

The bears' suburban adventure was not quite over, however, as the interlopers, who likely came from the nearby Angeles National Forest, then climbed over fences into several other yards and perched in another neighbor's tree.

"We had a warm spell I believe about a week ago, so that really brought them [the bears] up," Fish and Game Warden J.C. Healy told local ABC affiliate KABC. "They're starting to move down. They're looking for water, they're hungry."

Eventually the same media attention that kept Angelenos riveted to the bears' escapades all afternoon sent the animals back to their home.  With news helicopters hovering above, the bears climbed down the tree about 6 p.m. and headed in the direction of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains, Sheriff's officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.