A little girl was almost dragged away by a coyote seconds after stepping outside her family’s stunning $2.3 million home in a ritzy Seattle suburb.
Chang Tong was right behind his daughter Lena when she stepped outside their gorgeous Craftsman home and was immediately attacked by the wild dog on Tuesday.
Tong said they thought the gray-and-white canine was a pet dog, so Lena reached out to pet it – but it responded by latching its jaws onto her palm and dragging her.
‘She was about to pet the dog at that time, and with just one second, the coyote just bit her hand and tried to drag her,’ Tong told CBS affiliate KIRO.
‘She was dragged to the ground.’
The horror unfolded on the doorstep of their gorgeous home with an expensive Rivian SUV parked on its driveway in the desirable Bellevue neighborhood.
‘It was just walking on the mat,’ Tong recalled, adding that he was standing just inside the house while his daughter pushed the door open and took a step outside.
Tong’s fatherly instincts kicked in, and he reacted by screaming at the coyote to scare it away.
An adorable four-year-old girl (pictured) has been bitten and dragged across the ground by a coyote just inches from her family home in an affluent area of Washington state
The girl’s father, Chang Tong, said they thought the gray-and-white canine was a pet dog, so Lena reached out to pet it – but it responded by latching its jaws onto her palm
The wild animal attacked four-year-old Lena outside her family’s $2.3 million home (pictured) in Factoria, Bellevue, close to Seattle, Washington, on Tuesday this week
The animal backed off, and Tong took Lena to the emergency room, where medics treated her for minor injuries to her palm and gave her a rabies shot.
Tong said he will be keeping his front gate closed moving forward, and will speak to his young children about the dangers of coyotes.
‘We may have some weapons, like a stake or a knife, somewhere handy,’ he told KIRO. ‘If a neighbor saw it, it’s better for them to recognize it’s a coyote. It’s not a dog.’
The affluent Bellevue city has been plagued by coyote attacks recently.
The same day that Lena was bitten, a coyote also approached a group of school students waiting at a bus stop in nearby Factoria and tried to bite them, tearing their clothes.
On Monday, another coyote stole a backpack after a student left it on the sidewalk close to Tyee Middle School.
‘She was about to pet the dog at that time, and with just one second, the coyote just bit her hand and tried to drag her,’ father Chang Tong said as he recalled the horrific incident
There have been several coyote attacks in the Bellevue area of Washington over the past week
A week before that, coyotes bit two adults in separate incidents.
One of the wild animals bit a man on his leg close to a garage in Factoria, while a woman was bitten on her leg while sitting on her patio in Norwood Village.
Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife responded by killing one of the coyotes involved, and they are still searching for another.
‘We have officers in the morning coming out here when the kids get on the bus,’ Sgt. Carlo Pace told KIRO.
It is unclear why the animals are becoming so bold.
Wildlife experts have warned that providing wild animals with easy access to food – or even feeding them – may make them lose their inbuilt fear of humans.
Coyotes are also causing carnage beyond Washington state. A pair of the adventurous animals were spotted in an unexpected place earlier this year – San Francisco’s subway system.
The furry animals entered the Central Subway tunnel before dawn on January 27 and led baffled employees on an underground journey for more than one mile.
Early morning workers on board SFMTA’s sweeper train first spotted the canines during a routine inspection before opening the transport system for the day.
A pair of adventurous coyotes were also spotted in an unexpected location – San Francisco’s subway system. An image from the subway’s surveillance system (shown above) showed the animals during their quest near Fourth and Bryant streets on January 27, 2025
They pursued the duo for more than a mile to the end of the line at Chinatown’s Rose Pak Station, while trying to plot how to capture the creatures if they needed to do so.
The workers attempted to call San Francisco Animal Care and Control, but it was too early, and none of the officials were around to pick up the phones.
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency interim Chief Julie Kirschbaum told SFGate she received a call about the subway invaders before 6 am.
She said the wake-up call was a real surprise. ‘You never know what you’re going to get,’ Kirschbaum told the newspaper.
Luckily, the animals politely departed the subway by themselves before the first scheduled train of the day, so the intruders did not cause any disruption.
