This cagey canine sure earned his “Wily” name yesterday.
TriBeCa became the latest neighborhood gripped by coyote madness when one of the hounds was sighted darting through afternoon traffic before escaping from cops after a wild chase.
The coyote was first seen coming out of the Holland Tunnel at 3:52 p.m. He hardly had time to get reservations at Nobu before officers armed with a tranquilizer gun tried to hunt him down.
It’s unclear if this latest coyote was a bridge-and-tunnel type who came from New Jersey, or if he’s the same coyote spotted in Central Park and Chelsea over the past few weeks, who entered the tunnel headed toward the Garden State but thought better of it and turned back.
PHOTOS: COYOTE OUTFOXES COPS IN TRIBECA
After trotting around the traffic circle just outside the tunnel, he then headed south on Broadway.
About 90 minutes later, he was spotted on Thomas Street and surrounded by officers from the First Precinct and the Emergency Service Unit in a private park outside the AT&T building.
“I thought it was a little wolf,” said Demetrius Jones, 18, a painter who saw the coyote craziness.
“It looked scared.”
About 20 cops first appeared to finally have the coyote caught.
Officers chased after him with a noose on the end of a stick, and even loaded up a tranquilizer dart gun.
Cops were also seen warning a woman with a baby and a man with a dog to get away from the park for their safety.
But at 5:45, the coyote eluded cops by darting under a gate and disappearing down Church Street. He has not been seen since.
“It was funny how the cops couldn’t catch him,” said Marielli Cortes, 28, who watched the chase.
It was the second time in three weeks that officers appeared to have a coyote cornered.
On March 3, officers in Chelsea almost caught a renegade coyote in a park on a pier on West 23rd Street. It managed to escape, prompting cops to jokingly nickname him “Wile E.”
Downtown residents were nervous yesterday after learning that a coyote was still at large.
“I’m just afraid of him,” said Betty Englee, who was walking her dog on Reade Street. “I don’t know if he’s hungry . . . coyotes can be vicious.”
Additional reporting by Kirsten Fleming