Coyote check on aisle 5?
That’s what happened to shoppers at a Chicago-area Aldi grocery store after a wild coyote was found making itself home in the refrigerated section of the store.
And the whole ordeal was caught on camera.
Police officers in the Humboldt Park neighborhood responded to a call of an animal in the store, only the find that it was a coyote lurking in the shelves.
An officer eventually grabbed what appeared to be a tail poking out of the shelves and furiously pulled before the wild animal shockingly emerged and landed on the market floor.
Here’s a video clip of the capture:
A coyote is pulled out of cold food section at Aldi in Humboldt Park in #Chicagopic.twitter.com/nJTVcZvAL1
— 16th & 17th District Chicago Police Scanner (@CPD1617Scanner) January 13, 2025
The coyote quickly scurried back between cold products, but was later taken into custody by animal control around 10 a.m., according to reports.
“The animal is currently at our facility awaiting transfer to our wildlife rehabilitation partner, Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation,” Chicago Animal Control and Care told NBC Chicago.
“The coyote appears uninjured, but Flint Creek will conduct an assessment to confirm its health before releasing it back into the wild if deemed appropriate.”
A witness told ABC 7 Chicago the animal was wandering around the store parking lot before it snuck inside.
“It picked an odd location. They do this sometimes. They make a mistake. They’re trying to avoid us. They’re trying to hide from us,” Stan Gehrt with the Cook County Coyote Project explained to the station.