Veterans Home Care Funding in Coyote, CA

PASADENA, Calif. (KABC) -- Frightening surveillance video from a home in Pasadena shows a coyote chasing a toddler through the front gate of his home.

A scream and call for Mom can be heard as the video shows 3-year-old Salvo Bessemer's close call with the large coyote.

Once the toddler is off camera, a loud scream is heard, and the coyote runs away.

"Sal went out the gate like he always does before me. Then I heard a scream, and Sal came running back. He grabbed onto my legs, then I screamed because I saw a big, giant coyote," the boy's mother, Aida Svelto, said.

It happened in the middle of the afternoon on Monday on Tamarac Drive in Pasadena.

The video shows the toddler headed for the car when he stops in his tracks and races back inside. The coyote can be seen following right behind him through the family's front gate.

"She texted me. She's like, 'A coyote just chased Sal,' and I was like, 'How?' I checked the cameras. I was flabbergasted," the boy's father, Leonard Bessemer, said.

Salvo was not hurt in the encounter.

Seeing coyotes is nothing new in their hilly neighborhood, but the family says they've never seen an animal come that close.

"We have seen them, but they typically just stay on the street. I really didn't feel nervous. Now I'm nervous," Svelto said. "This one was bigger and scarier, and I just really didn't think that he would go after a kid. It's one thing to see them go after a chihuahua or rabbit or whatever, but he's pretty big, so it was scary."

Coyotes are a common part of life in Southern California, and experts say this time of year, the animals are especially active and inquisitive.

"It's mating season, so they are out there at all times of the day. We're going to be seeing them. We have seen them more in the last few weeks," said Kevin McManus with Pasadena Humane. "Just be extra cautious. Keep an eye on your kids. Keep an eye on your pets."

A family residing in San Diego decided to take action after noticing some of their chickens and cats had vanished. Assuming a coyote was the culprit, they set up a coyote trap in their backyard. Imagine their surprise when they checked the trap and found a mountain lion inside.

California Family Accidentally Catches A Mountain Lion

Imagine trying to catch a coyote and catching a mountain lion instead. That is exactly what happened to this one California family. PEOPLE and KTLA shared the details of this encounter. The Hernandez family, who live in Fallbrook, California, decided to set up a humane cage trap in their yard. Their intent was to catch the coyote they suspected was responsible for their missing chickens and cats.

According to the family, “There was a big hole on the rooftop, and there were chickens missing and there were feathers all over the place.” Additionally, four of the family’s cats vanished, one of which was pregnant. However, when the father went outside to check on the coyote trap, he found a mountain lion waiting inside.

In his surprise, the father decided to wake up the entire family and show them the impressive catch. Naturally, everyone was shocked to see a mountain lion in the coyote trap. Additionally, they were amazed at the massive size of the creature.

After some of the shock wore off, the family decided to call 911 to help remove the animal. People Magazine shared that “State wildlife officials arrived Friday morning and released the cougar from the trap.” Happy to be free, the mountain lion ran off. Although the family was happy that the animal was free, they did express some concern. They had hoped that the wild animal would have been released a bit further from their home and livestock.

Surveillance video from a Pasadena home has captured a frightening encounter between a large coyote and a 3-year-old boy.

On Monday afternoon, little Salvo Bessemer was walking toward the family car when he suddenly stopped, turned around and sprinted back through the front gate.

“He walked out to go to the car and came back running and screaming ‘Mama! Mama!’ and when I looked at him there was a massive coyote right behind him,” his mother, Aida Svelto, told The Times in an interview Tuesday.

Svelto wasn’t sure if the coyote was approaching her son until her partner Leonard Bessemer sent her the doorbell video and she watched the coyote follow Sal through their front gate from the street.

“I grabbed Sal and screamed,” she said. “The coyote turned around and left.”

Svelto is accustomed to seeing coyotes roaming around her neighborhood in Pasadena but they’re usually a lot smaller and mangy.

“There were a lot of coyotes around our old house in Echo Park,” she said.

The incident comes during , which typically runs from January through March and peaks in February, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Agricultural Commissioner. During this time, the animals are constantly moving around in search of mates and food sources. They are active at all hours and can be bolder than usual.

Coyotes are a familiar presence in the foothills around Pasadena, Altadena and Burbank, where residents have grown accustomed to spotting the animals in streets and on doorstep cameras. After the Eaton fire displaced wild animals from their natural habitat, the sightings grew. captured a coyote and a bear together, searching through the fire-scarred streets for food and water.

Suburban sprawl has brought humans and coyotes into increasingly close contact in recent decades as the Los Angeles area has some of the highest coyote population densities in the nation, according to

Coyotes are generally shy and wary of people, although they are opportunistic when it comes to food and have become conditioned to relying on trash in areas bordering their natural habitats — but attacks can still happen. while watching his sister’s softball game at Del Amo Park in Carson. The animal bit his head, neck and leg before his mother ran over and scared it off.

“I found that standing your ground and telling them to leave is what they need to go away,” Svelto said. “Having a whistle on my keys could be useful especially during mating season.”

A toddler narrowly escaped a run-in with a coyote in front of his Pasadena, Calif., home.

On Monday, Feb. 23, home security footage captured Salvo Bessemer, 3, walking out onto the driveway of the home he shares with his family, then immediately turning around and running back inside, letting out a terrified shriek as a coyote followed closely behind.

"Sal went out the gate like he always does before me," the child's mom, Aida Svelto, told local outlet ABC7. "Then I heard a scream, and Sal came running back. He grabbed onto my legs, then I screamed because I saw a big, giant coyote."

Once the toddler was safely back inside his home, the coyote could be seen retreating down the driveway after reaching the front door of the family's home.

After seeing the footage, Sal's father, Leonard Bessemer, expressed that he was "flabbergasted" by the rare event.

“[Aida] texted me. She's like, 'A coyote just chased Sal,'" he recalled. "And I was like, 'How?' I checked the cameras. I was flabbergasted."

After all, Aida emphasized that "coyotes typically just stay on the street" when they are seen wandering around their California neighborhood.

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"I really didn't feel nervous. Now I'm nervous," the mom noted after her son's close encounter. "This one was bigger and scarier, and I just really didn't think that he would go after a kid. It's one thing to see them go after a chihuahua or rabbit or whatever, but he's pretty big, so it was scary."

As Kevin McManus, the director of PR and communications for Pasadena Humane, told the outlet, coyotes are more active around this time of year due to mating season.

"We're going to be seeing them," he explained. "We have seen them more in the last few weeks. Just be extra cautious. Keep an eye on your kids. Keep an eye on your pets."