CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — We know dogs like to play with balls, but this is a new one.
When Tammy Huffman realized watermelons were disappearing from her front yard, she had her suspicions as to who the culprit was.
"For the longest (time) we thought the deer were coming up and getting in the watermelons, because they were doing it at night," she said.
Deer are prevalent in The Island's Sea Pines subdivision where she lives, she says, as well as other wildlife, because of the preserve that borders the neighborhood.
So when she saw the wily watermelon thieves caught on camera, she was surprised.
"We had no idea it was coyotes for a long time," she said. "Recently, they've gotten braver and started doing it even in the broad daylight."
The video, taken by her neighbor Joel Parker's security camera, shows coyotes picking up whole watermelons in their mouths and trotting down the street with them.
And if a watermelon is too heavy, Huffman said the four-legged larcenists split them open in the yard and eat them right there.
She said in the two years she and her husband have lived on the island, she's gotten used to seeing ducks, deer, and even the coyotes, but having them regularly come onto her yard is a little too close for comfort.
"I enjoy watching them but from a distance, but yeah, it's scary," she said. "We don't have small children or small dogs, but some of our neighbors do, so we've decided we're going to take the watermelons out and not have them in our front yard."