Dealership techs help rescue coyote stuck in car's grille

Service technicians at a Toyota dealership in Florida were surprised to find a live coyote trapped in the grille of a customer's sedan.

Peter Boulware Toyota in Tallahassee worked with a local wildlife group to dislodge the coyote and get it to a veterinary hospital for surgery on a broken leg.

The St. Francis Wildlife Association posted photos on Facebook showing the female coyote peering out from behind the grille, where it had been stuck since being hit on a road the previous night. Technicians removed the grille so Emily Brann, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, could move the 20-pound creature into a crate.

The coyote, estimated to be just under a year old, was sedated and taken for X-rays, which found two broken bones in one of its front legs.

"She handled surgery like a champ, and is expected to make a full recovery in just a few months," the group wrote.

News coverage of the unusual ordeal helped the association quickly raise the $4,000 needed to cover the cost of the surgery and postoperative care.

"The public just rushed to her aid," Brann, who initially thought the coyote likely wouldn't survive, told the Tallahassee Democrat. "It was a perfect rescue, a perfect set of circumstances."