4 times • APRIL 30, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com Middle Village coyote caper comes to safe ending BY KELLY MARIE MANCUSO AND ROBERT POZARYCKI [email protected] @timesnewsweekly The wily coyote that ran amok through Middle Village on the morning of April 27 was safely caught the next night, police announced. The 104th Precinct posted a photo on its Twitter account at about 8:40 p.m. on April 28 of the wild animal locked inside of a crate. The critter was caught in the area of Caldwell Avenue and 77th Place and transferred into the custody of New York City Animal Care and Control (AC&C). “He might have gotten away once but not today,” Capt. Mark Wachter, 104th Precinct commanding officer, said in the tweet. The AC&C stated on Wednesday the coyote was identified as a four-year-old female. Police had been searching across Middle Village for the beast for nearly 36 hours after residents first discovered it sleeping in a front yard on 71st Street across from Juniper Valley Park at about 10:30 a.m. on April 27. It was the latest in a series of coyote sightings in New York City over the last few months. Long Island City residents spotted a coyote last month on the roof of a neighborhood bar; the animal managed to escape into a nearby abandoned building and had not been seen since. Another coyote was captured last weekend in Battery Park City. Officers from the 104th Precinct and the NYPD Emergency Services Unit, along with animal care experts, responded to the 71st Street home after neighbors reported the coyote. Police closed off 71st Street and Lutheran Avenue while first responders worked to tranquilize and trap the wild dog. But when the officers moved in on the animal, the coyote woke from its slumber and took off, darting across 71st Street into Juniper Valley Park, sources said. The creature was spotted running across the park and Juniper Boulevard North before police lost sight of it. The coyote eluded police the rest of April 27 as officers and local residents alerted through social media kept watch over the neighborhood. Police responded to the 77th Place home at about 7:15 p.m. on April 28 after a resident discovered the coyote in her backyard. Officers successfully tranquilized the creature before placing it in a transport en route to AC&C for observation and any necessary medical treatment. The AC&C stated it fitted the coyote with a tracking microchip. Once deemed healthy, the coyote will more than likely be released into the wild far away from New York City. While most people associate coyotes with deserts and roadrunners, the wild animals have been a presence in New York State since the 1930s. Three packs of the adaptable animals reside in the Bronx, and a solitary is known to live in Jamaica’s Railroad Park. Photo In Twitter!NYPD 104 Pct Much like opossums and raccoons, they pick through trash for food, but coyotes have been known to consume everything from insects and berries to rats and stray cats. To help keep wild animals away, the Parks Department advises residents to store trash in animalproof containers and bags. Though residents should never approach a coyote on their own, they should “make loud noises” if a coyote should approach them, according to a Parks Department pamphlet. Anyone who sees a coyote in their area should call 911 immediately. TIMES NEWSWEEKLY/photo by Kelly Mancuso Officers prepare Monday morning to catch a sleeping coyote in Middle Village. TIMES NEWSWEEKLY (USPS 465-940) is published weekly by Schneps NY Media LLC, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Times Newsweekly/Ridgewood Times, P.O. Box 863299, Ridgewood, N.Y. 11386-0299.
RT04302015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above