Coyote cornered in South Carolina kitchen won’t budge — until cops deploy dog toys

A South Carolina coyote was wily enough to sneak into a Spartanburg home last weekend, but it needed help from authorities to get out.

Two Spartanburg police officers responded to a call of a coyote in the kitchen around 9 p.m. on March 19, the department said Friday, and body cam video shared to Facebook shows how they dealt with the wild animal, which was cornered.

Homeowner Sandie Ferguson told WBTW the coyote must have come in through a doggy door, going unnoticed until her little dog started barking.

She looked around and spotted the coyote by the breakfast nook.

“When I first saw him, I thought ‘It’s a coyote. Then I thought, ‘No, it has to be a dog.’ But he didn’t move, he didn’t bark, he didn’t growl or whimper,” she said.

Ferguson dialed 911 while the coyote kept to the corner, motionless, she told the outlet.

“He didn’t move. I think he was so afraid, he stayed just like a statue for like an hour and ten minutes.”

Officers talk with Ferguson in the living room and cautiously move into the kitchen to see the coyote for themselves, body cam video shows. One of them opens a back door accessible through the kitchen, hoping the canine will bolt for the escape route — but it doesn’t budge.

“Tell you what, I got an idea,” the other officer says. He asks Ferguson if they could borrow some dog toys to help flush the coyote out.

They return to the kitchen and start tossing toys at the corner, and it works. It’s tricky to make out from the video, but the coyote seems to dart from the corner to beneath the kitchen table, and from the table through the open door.

An officer checks the door and the coyote can be seen in the distance outside, slinking off into the night.

In Ferguson’s case, the animal never acted aggressively, she told police.

While coyote encounters are relatively rare, and attacks even more rare, they do happen.

Coyotes that seem aggressive, or comfortable being near people, should be reported immediately to local wildlife authorities, experts say.