Cougar Caught in Condo Complex : Chatsworth: Animal control officers say the 100-pound lion is probably the same one spotted five or six times recently.

The adventures of Simba the Suburban Mountain Lion came to an end Friday when the 100-pound beast was captured inside a Chatsworth condominium complex.

Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation officers said they think the 18-month-old female lion is the same one that has been seen five or six times in recent weeks prowling the upscale residential neighborhoods of the northern San Fernando Valley.

Lt. Richard Felosky said there is no evidence that the cat had harmed any pets. “Other than frighten or astound a number of people” who came upon the big animal unaware, “it had done nothing serious,” he said.

Felosky said the sightings began about two weeks before Halloween. One of the earliest was in the O’Melveny Park area above Granada Hills.

Because of the sightings, children and parents in the area were warned to be careful trick or treating on Halloween night.

As many as two dozen people called to report seeing the animal in the following weeks.

Felosky said he came to the conclusion that it would have to be trapped. He was concerned that it was becoming acclimated to civilization.

He said he was on the telephone Friday morning with the state Department of Fish and Game making plans to begin hunting the animal when he received a call that it had been seen near Tampa Avenue and Rinaldi Street in the Porter Ranch area.

The animal was spotted hiding in some oleander bushes outside a gated condominium complex. Felosky fired two tranquilizer darts into its hide.

That didn’t immediately stop the animal, which leaped over a seven-foot-high wrought-iron fence and ran into the condo complex. It was groggy and pawing at the glass door of a residence when animal control officers captured it.

The animal was being cared for at the West Valley animal shelter.

The Department of Fish and Game said the lion will be packed off this morning to a new home somewhere in Los Padres National Forest.