SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A coyote is on the loose after another toddler was attacked in less than a week.
Arizona Game and Fish believe the same animal is responsible for both attacks in a two-mile area near Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard.
Around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Kelly Pirozzi arrived home with her three children in tow. Ring video captured the moment a coyote walked into the family's driveway.
"Lincoln, come inside," Pirozzi said on the video seconds before the coyote attacked her 21-month-old son.
“That coyote must have watched us get out of the car and kind of waited for the right time to go after our son,“ Pirozzi said.
The mother rushed to her child's aid and the coyote backed away.
"It makes you more cautious now, going outside your front door, looking around, doing things you didn’t do yesterday, scanning the area," Pirozzi said.
The first coyote attack happened Saturday afternoon.
It happened while the Miaso family played on the playground at Aztec Park.
“I remember Zeke came down the slide and came behind me and was kind of going back up to do the steps to go to the slide again,” father Curt Miaso recalled. “At the time, I remember my 5-year-old daughter yelling out, ‘Coyote! coyote!'"
Both kids will be okay but have received rabies shots.
“To show this kind of behavior is very unusual,” said Darren Julian, an urban wildlife specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "A normal coyote, when they hear us, see us, smell us, they are hiding away or running away."
Since 1997, Julian said coyotes have attacked humans 24 times.
“The last time before this one was 2017,” Julian said.
Julian said it is likely the same coyote because of the similarities between the attacks. They have been searching for the animal since Sunday afternoon but have not found it.
They said anyone living in the triangle between 94th Street, Cactus Road, and Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard should be on high alert. If someone sees a coyote in the area, they are asked to call them at 623-236-7201.
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