A Lake Tahoe man says he came face-to-face with a bear inside his cabin.

He says the bear ripped the lock off the front door and then knocked tables over.

But that’s before it apparently met its match in Johnny Bolton.

“I did a jump kick,” Bolton said. “This is martial arts training from age 8. And I kicked him right in the chest.”

Bolton showed CNN the scratches on his legs from the bear’s claws.

Bolton is no black belt but against a black bear, his instinct kicked in.

“I didn’t make a decision, I just kicked,” Bolton said. “There was no cognitive process there. It was just instantaneous. I have to move this threat away from me. And it was fight or flight, with no opportunity for flight.”

Bolton says the jump kick didn’t move the bear much but left the animal stunned and maybe even scared.

“When I kicked the bear, the bear urinated,” Bolton said. “Then when the whole thing was over, I kind of checked–did I? I think I might have, and I didn’t. So, only one of us wet himself but it was the bear.”

Bolton’s friends were upstairs asleep during the confrontation.

Gerry Orton came downstairs just as the bear was leaving.

“I was in a state of complete amazement that the bear was still in the house,” Orton said. “I didn’t know the bear was in the house.”

He beat the odds in a face-to-face confrontation with a bear, using karate move he hadn’t practiced since he was a kid.

“There was no wax on wax off,” Bolton said. “It was a lucky shot. Hit the bear just right, startled him enough.”

The local Bear League has since come by to install a mat in case the bear returns.

It will get a jolt of electricity, instead of a jump kick from Johnny.

WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON:

>>MORE STORIES