Across Las Vegas, residents have been having close encounters with coyotes. A viewer recently sent 13 Action News video of a coyote and a pup from near Lake Las Vegas Parkway.
But Helen Hartmann's heart stopping experience happened at 3 a.m. last week inside her own home. She was asleep in bed with her Yorkie nearby.
"All of a sudden she jumped up barking and growling," Hartmann said. "And I saw this shadow moving by the door and around to my side of the bed."
She jumped out of bed.
"I kept trying to keep him from getting to the dog, " she said "He kept looking at me and back to the dog. Looking at me. And back to the dog. So I grabbed my purse and I just started screaming even louder and waving even harder and slapping this thing in its face! It was by now like, two feet from me."
But they coyote was unfazed.
"He started to growl and turned toward me. He bared his teeth. That was really scary! And at that point I was really screaming! He must have thought I was a crazy person and he just ran out."
He escaped through the same door he came in -- the doggy door.
"I never thought of anything coming through the doggy door. I had to train my own dog to come through the doggy door," Hartmann said.
Her home is in Anthem Highlands. She said coyotes frequent a nearby ravine and neighbors post about them online often.
"Where people have been attacked. Their dogs have been snatched from the driveway 10 feet from that at 9 a.m. Where they have come home in broad daylight and found their animals just ripped to shreds all over the backyard," she said.
She said she called 311 and the city told her there's nothing they can do. So from now on, the doggy door is sealed tight.
"My poor dog is incarcerated, but safe!"
