Wanted man climbs tree to escape coyote attack: OPP

Ontario Provincial Police has arrested a 28-year-old man after he climbed a tree to allegedly escape a coyote attack.

Someone called police around 2 a.m. on Tuesday to report a suspicious pickup truck parked in a laneway on Gorrie Lane in Howick, Ont.

Police learned a man who was wanted on several outstanding charges may have been driving the truck.

Officers began searching for the suspect and started to follow a set of footprints. They discovered what appeared to be a set of animal prints running beside the suspect’s footprints.

“Officers lost the tracks at one point and it appeared as though the suspect may have been picked up and fled in a motor vehicle,” said
OPP in a news release. “However, luck wasn’t on the criminal’s side this time as officers picked up the prints again and followed them through a field and along a fence line where they ultimately came to a stop near a large tree.”

An officer then noticed a man hiding about 30-feet up in the pine tree.

Police say the “cold and shaken” man came down and told police he was chased by a coyote and had to climb a tree to avoid an attack.

The man was arrested and transferred into the custody of West Grey Police to face a variety of charges.