Frightening surveillance footage showed a three-year-old boy running from a large coyote that chased the toddler through the front gate of his family’s Pasadena home in Los Angeles County.
Video of the terrifying encounter on Monday showed the little boy scampering away and screaming for his mother as the wild beast pursued him into their driveway on Tamarac Drive.
The toddler ultimately escaped unharmed, but it left his family deeply shaken.
“Sal went out the gate like he always does before me. Then I heard a scream, and Sal came running back,” the boy’s mother, Aida Svelto, told ABC 7. “He grabbed onto my legs, then I screamed because I saw a big, giant coyote.”
The boy’s father was equally as stunned.
“She texted me. She’s like, ‘A coyote just chased Sal,’ and I was like, ‘How?’ I checked the cameras. I was flabbergasted,” Leonard Bessemer told ABC 7.
Coyotes are very common in Southern California, though attacks on humans are rare.
A wildlife expert said that the animals are especially active this time of year.
“It’s mating season, so they are out there at all times of the day. We’re going to be seeing them. We have seen them more in the last few weeks,” Pasadena Humane’s Kevin McManus told ABC 7. “Just be extra cautious. Keep an eye on your kids. Keep an eye on your pets.”
The boy’s parents said they have seen coyotes in the street, but never this close.
I really didn’t feel nervous. Now I’m nervous,” Svelto told ABC 7. “This one was bigger and scarier, and I just really didn’t think that he would go after a kid. It’s one thing to see them go after a chihuahua or rabbit or whatever, but he’s pretty big, so it was scary.”
There were several run-ins between coyotes and kids in Southern California last year, including one that hospitalized a 3-year-old girl in San Diego.
A 6-year-old boy was also attacked at a softball game in the Los Angeles area.
Coyotes are known for attacking dogs, especially smaller ones, which they view as vulnerable.
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