The morning was dark, the December air was chilly, and Kenji Sytz was face to the ground doing push-ups when it happened.

“All of a sudden I felt a little sting, then a deep sharp pain on my left leg,” Sytz said. “I rolled over and there was a coyote latched on.”

The 45-year-old Sytz lives near Campolindo High School, in the Bay Area community of Moraga where the attack took place just around dawn.

What struck him was that, despite the exercise group setting up lights and playing music as part of their exercise routine, the coyote still sneaked up.

“It was not like I was some deer in the dark or something,” Sytz said.

The same coyote has bitten four other people in Moraga and the neighboring city of Lafayette, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, citing DNA evidence collected from around the wounds of people like Sytz.

Sytz said he was shocked and a bit confused as he lay on the ground after the canine struck.

“I clenched my fist and gave it a punch to the nose,” he said. “It released and jumped up and I began yelling at it.”

Authorities say they are actively searching for the animal. So far, the canine remains elusive.

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