'I Was Terrified': Woman Fends Off Coyote In Provincetown With Stick, Saved By Nearby Fishermen
PROVINCETOWN (CBS) -- The coyote chased Marcy Sterlis from the Race Point Beach dunes, down to the waters' edge in Provincetown. All she had was a stick.
"I was assuming it would react and leave, and it didn't. And it totally caught me off guard, and it kept coming towards me," she said.
The coyote kept coming back at her. Two fishermen, who shot a video of the incident, heard Marcy yelling.
They inched their boat up to the sand to give her an escape route.
"I know we had to get her out of there, had to do something. No one else was," said rescuer Bill Kelley.
Marcy scrambled into the boat, and they took her to safety.
"I was terrified, and if it weren't for two fishermen coming to get me, I don't know what I would have done because they were the only ones there to help me," Sterlis said.
Last summer, in Provincetown, a coyote bit a beachgoer and killed a dog. Wildlife experts believe it was because people were actually feeding coyotes.
The one that went after Marcy may have been looking for a handout.
"That animal was responding, so that's what made me think it has been fed by people. And it's comfortable approaching people and maybe that's what's happening there," said Dave Wattles of Massachusetts Fish and Game.
It's well established that if one is confronted by a coyote, you don't turn your back. You make yourself as big as possible, and as loud as possible to scare it. For tips on how to prevent conflicts, visit mass.gov.
Sterlis did all the right things, but the coyote wasn't buying it.
