Police Alert Residents of Coyote Incidents

Police in Groveland, Massachusetts, are investigating reports of an aggressive coyote harassing residents.

Authorities responded to two separate coyote encounters on Monday night.

The first was on Manor Drive, where a coyote bit a man who was holding his 4-year-old daughter. He required emergency medical treatment.

"I shielded my daughter from it. I pushed her back, got her up onto this porch you see here. And it just kept coming towards me," Jon McPherson said.

McPherson said he screamed at the animal and flailed his arms after the coyote bit his leg.

"It didn't want to leave, it wasn't afraid of me, at all. I had a couple of bags of groceries, I swung the grocery bag at him, hit him with it. He took a couple of steps back and I turned around and booked it up the door," he said.

The second was on Gardner Street, where a homeowner says a coyote approached him in an aggressive manner in his yard.

"He went outside to scare the coyote away, and it wouldn't scare away, it actually approached  him, which is unusual, so he had to kick the coyote a couple of times before it finally went away," Groveland Police Sgt. Dwight McDonald said.

Police have sent out a Reverse 911 call to alert residents.

If there are any more sightings, residents are urged to call 911.

Back on Manor Drive, neighbors say they're on alert. Gerry Richards says he's keeping his beagle indoors for the night.

"Coyotes sometimes go in pairs, you know. But one could kill her very easily," he said.

McPherson said the whole ordeal lasted about 10 seconds and that he hit the coyote with a bag of plastic soda bottles, which the coyote tore up. He said he's getting rabies shots as a precaution, but added he wasn't sure the coyote was rabid.

Police are still looking for the coyote.