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Here's how he got to Monterey County...

California Black Bears Head Up the Coast
August 4, 2014. Prior to 1950, there were no reports of black bears occurring in San Luis Obispo County or Monterey County. It's hypothesized that it's because those two counties were typically inhabited by grizzly bears, which on the food chain are much higher up than black bears. It's likely that grizzly bears excluded black bears from that area before they were extirpated from California in the 1920s.

Some studies have shown that the black bears in the Central Coast region are most closely related to the southern Sierra Nevada black bears. We hypothesize that those bears have traveled up and over the transverse ranges and are moving their way up along the coast now.

Great...the SF Peninsula is going to get bears real soon.

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was built by Father
Juniper (his staff, that is) in 1772. The description
at the time was: ‘In the valley of the bears, halfway
place in the mission chain’.

My mother’s ancestors first came to the general area of
San Luis Obispo in the 1870s. I have resided in SLO Co
three different times myself, including college years.
I don’t recall ever hearing of a bear sighting in the
region from my lifetime. On the other hand I was
raised and currently reside in the Northern Sierra
Nevada foothills area and as an adult not only have I
seen those damn black bears in my very rural yard, I
actually had one steal a bag of corn chips off my
kitchen counter while I dozed in a recliner in the
next room over. When I awoke I had a sudden ‘what just
happened?’ moment and checked around the house. When
I looked out in front there he was spread out at yards
edge munching tortilla chips one at a time out of the
bag. When he finally spotted me he picked up the
bag in his mouth and off he trotted.

Mostly they can kill small dogs. Used to have them crossing main roads in daylight and breaking into cars on the Long Beach Washington peninsula.

It was irritating to come home from work and find one in your fenced back yard though.