Phoenix coyotes go to the grocery

PHOENIX, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Three "very smart" coyotes apparently decided it was easier to snatch bags from Phoenix grocery shoppers than chase down rabbits.

Although the brazen wild canines were killed, grocery store patrons should keep an eye out for their friends and relatives, a conservation official said.

"Coyotes are very smart animals," Kriselle Colvin of Arizona Game & Fish told KPHO-TV, Phoenix.

"Once they know where food source is, they know white bags have food in them, so they'll go up and grab them," she said.

A lack of food is not the problem, she said.

"I don't even know if there's such a thing as a starving coyote," Colvin said. "I mean, all these are very well fed and there are plenty of food sources. Golf courses have rabbits for them to eat."