A coyote managed to scoot though double glass doors and trap himself in the rental shop at the Brookfield Place skating rink yesterday afternoon, and it was all recorded by quick-thinking Tribecan Craig Cramer, who was the first to realize this was no mere puppy, help staff clear the shop and call 911.

Craig has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years, but before that he lived for nearly a decade in the Presidio National Park in San Francisco, where coyotes have a permanent presence. This is how the madcap adventure (for the coyote) went down:

“My son and I were taking off our skates when what looked like a good sized German Shepherd dashed from the front to the back of the room. I saw that the animal was not wearing a dog collar and when I got a good look I recognized its face and body as that of a coyote.

“The young staff was kind of frozen (no ice skating pun intended) by the unexpected presence of what they clearly thought was a dog. They surely never expected to see a loose animal in the space, let alone a wild one. Most of the people sitting on benches changing into or out of skates seemed to not mind the presence of a dog or maybe didn’t even notice, as the animal dashed quickly through the door straight to the back of the structure where it laid down in the back behind the racks of skates. (See photo above.)

“After getting my son in his shoes and handing him off to my wife outside, I went back inside and called 911. (911 didn’t seem to quite understand the situation.) The staff closed the rink side entrance so no one else could enter, and ushered people outside. The first police officers to arrive took some convincing to understand there was a coyote. Once they did, they put batons through the handles of the two sets of doors so no one could enter. Skaters were not able access their shoes and as they left the ice, they walked around in their skates.”

About 45 minutes after Craig’s initial call, police with animal trapping sticks and ropes arrived. By then there were at least 20 police officers and about five mall security people, as well as a large crowd of maybe 100 people stopping to watch what was happening. “Someone asked me if there as a snake inside,” Craig said. Good guess!

Police eventually entered with animal trapping sticks and shields, forcing the coyote to a corner near the front and eventually trapping him/her in a crate.

The NYPD told me that the Emergency Services Unit responded to the scene, safely tranquilized and then transported the coyote to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which handles wild animals.

So there is a pair of coyotes who have made Central Park their full-time home, many live in the parks in the Bronx, and over the years there have been instances of commuters. I can’t recall a Downtowner, but they do travel as much as 10 miles in a day.

“Eastern coyotes, like many New York City residents, are naturally curious and adaptable,” the city’s webpage on coyotes reads. “They can explore as much as 10 miles of open space in a single day—that’s roughly the distance from Wall Street to the top of Central Park. And despite being skilled hunters, they can alter their diet to include whatever is available in their current environment. In a place like New York, that means discarded pet food and trash are on the menu. So if you cross paths with a coyote in New York City, respect them the same way you would any other New Yorker, and give them plenty of space. They just want the freedom to independently explore New York City too.”