Just like humans, some wild animals get the urge to shop — from strolling the aisles of Rite Aid to sauntering into a local watering hole in search of libations. That unsettling trend continued over the weekend when a coyote tried to pick up a few items from a Kohl’s store in Indiana.
The Northwest Indiana Times reports that a wild coyote became stuck in a vestibule Saturday night after it wandered inside the first set of doors at a local Kohl’s store.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources responded to a call that a coyote had become stuck in the store’s entrance around 7:30 p.m.
Employees, who say the animal was wandering around the front of the store earlier in the evening, quickly locked a second set of doors, trapping the coyote inside the entrance vestibule area.
An officer for the Department tells the Times that when she arrived the animal was hiding behind a trash can.
“He wandered in there and realized, ‘This is not where I want to be at all,'” she said. “It was just a matter of trying to direct him.”
With the help of two local police officers, the conservation office was able to steer the coyote out of the entrance, while shoppers looked on.
“He ran out of there very fast and ran across the parking lot and was gone,” she said, noting that the animal was not hurt during the incident.
The officer says that the animal didn’t pose a threat to any shoppers, and likely came from a wooded area around the shopping center.
Coyote pays a visit to Valparaiso Kohl’s [The Northwest Indiana Times]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist