When New York City assistant principal Marcy Sterlis took a walk by herself on the beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, she didn't realize that she'd run into a unique - and scary - form of wildlife: a coyote stalked her for 10 minutes until she could get help from nearby fishermen.
“I sat down to put my sneakers back on and as I was getting up, I look over and this coyote was four or five feet from me,” Sterlis said to Boston 25 News. “It was a little too curious because it wasn’t responding to my screams to get away from me or shaking at the stick.”
Sterlis swung a stick at the persistent coyote, who circled her for 10 minutes until nearby fishermen heard her screams for help and came to the rescue.
"As I took my binoculars out, I said that’s not a dog," said fisherman Andrew DeCarton. "I pulled up close enough, started banging my ore on the side of the boat. That’s when he started to run away. I told Andrew, 'we need to get her on the boat,'" added boat captain William Kelley.
Luckily, Sterlis came through the whole ordeal unscathed. When asked whether she'd go back to the area, she immediately said yes and added that she actually ended up going to another beach to "chill out and decompress."
Video clip: Andrew DeCarton