Frightened Coyote Finds Refuge In Elevator

It sounds like updated Aesop or an Indian fable: A coyote being chased by crows ducked into the downtown Federal Building on Wednesday to escape.

But when the coyote ran into an open elevator, the door closed and trapped it.

Perhaps the moral of the story has something do with leaping out of the frying pan into the fire.

“Fortunately there was no one in the elevator,” said spokesman Ken Spitzer with the General Services Administration, which supervises federal buildings.

Animal-control officers removed the animal unharmed after about 2-1/2 hours, but it left a mess behind for building maintenance crews.

“I’ve been in this business 26 years and this is the first time I’ve run across anything like this,” Spitzer said.

A witness “saw the coyote, which he thought of course was a wild dog, running down First Avenue and it was being dived at by crows, and kind of being harassed,” Spitzer said.

As it ran past the Federal Building, an automatic door opened “and he darted into the building and right into the first available elevator that had the doors open,” he said.

“We responded right away by capturing that elevator” and keeping the coyote trapped there until the animal control people showed up.

There was no danger to the animal or the public from the bizarre episode, which began late Wednesday morning and ended shortly after 1 p.m., building manager Steve David said.

The coyote was released later Wednesday, in rural east King County, by the state Fish and Wildlife Department.