Animal attraction
BY SHAMUS TOOMEY stoomey@suntimes.com

So a coyote walks into a Quiznos . . .
Sounds like the start of a joke.
It's not -- although dozens of downtown folks got a good laugh out of it
Tuesday.
A male coyote really did wander into the Quiznos sandwich shop at Wabash
and Adams -- in the Loop! -- just before 2 p.m. Tuesday. Workers had
propped open the front door for the warm afternoon, and in sauntered the
roughly 30-pound, 18-month-old wild animal.
"He probably smelled our prime rib," observed Bina Patel, 23, the shop's
manager.

The coyote tried to nose his way past a small, swinging door that leads
behind the counter, but worker Raymundo Zavala, 21, held his leg against
the door.
Fellow worker Ronneshia Mukes, 19, screamed at the unwelcome guest and
climbed onto the counter. The coyote then tried to jump over the
counter, but he didn't make it.
The coyote found a seat on top of a stack of Diet Pepsi in an open
cooler and settled in until an Animal Control worker arrived about 45
minutes later and safely removed him.

No one was hurt, although the coyote appeared to be bleeding slightly
when he first walked in, workers said.
'I didn't believe it'
There were four customers in the shop when the coyote wandered in. Two
left, but two stuck around to finish their chicken sandwiches. They took
photos until a police officer shooed them away, Patel said. The officer
didn't have far to go; he was at the Dunkin' Donuts next door.
After the workers left, the coyote had the run of the place, but he
never left the cooler. Outside, dozens of passersby craned for a look,
took cell phone pictures and cracked wise.

"He's chilling out for real," said Eric Campbell, a delivery man from
Elmhurst. "He's looking at us like wewe're crazy."
When Animal Control Officer Taurus Drake arrived, he calmly walked in,
put a catchpole around the coyote's neck and walked the thrashing animal
to his van. "They just gave me a call that he was in the Quiznos," Drake
said. "Of course I didn't believe it."

Downtown coyote sightings are rare but not unprecedented. Drake caught
one in Union Station a few years ago, he said.
The coyote was taken to the city's Animal Control facility for an exam.
He probably will be released at the Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation
refuge in Barrington.