How would you react if you noticed three coyotes following you while you’re unarmed and vulnerable?
For Navya Sharma, a 12-year-old middle schooler from Scofield, Connecticut, the hypothetical question was all too real.
The Stamford Advocate reports Sharma was walking home from her bus stop earlier this week when she heard a sound coming from just off the road then noticed three coyotes watching her.
“They really were quiet,” she told The Advocate. “It was hard to see them. But they were following me.”
Sharma told the newspaper she continued walking while the coyotes continued following, then one broke away from the pack.
“It had that look in his eyes that it doesn’t like me,” Sharma told The Advocate. “He was like 10 feet away from me. He was faster than I thought. I didn’t know what could happen. I didn’t know why it wanted to attack me, if it didn’t like me or it was starving or it felt in danger.”
Sharma told the paper she saw the coyote’s teeth and that he started to growl. She fled and was able to make it home safely.
“I never heard of this happening. I never saw a coyote on my street,” she told The Advocate. “I saw a fox once a few months ago, just one by itself. But I could tell it was not the same. The fox was small. It didn’t look at me that way.”