LONGMONT, Colo. — Andrew Dickehage probably will think twice before deciding to walk to work anytime soon.

Dickehage, 22, had been having car troubles, so at 5 a.m. Monday he was walking to his job at the IBM campus near Niwot, a bedroom community of Boulder. That’s when three coyotes attacked him.

Dickehage said he was walking on the shoulder of the road and heard a twig snap.

“I didn’t think much of it,” he said. “I thought it was probably a bunny.”

Dickehage said he turned on his flashlight to see what made the noise, and the largest of the three animals initiated the attack.

The coyotes lunged at Dickehage, biting and scratching him, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said.

Dickehage said the larger coyote launched at him a second time after the initial attack. After he smacked its head with the flashlight, the two smaller coyotes resumed their attack.

“They were continuously jumping on me one after the other after the other,” he said. “It was nonstop. It was so dark all I could see was the glimmer of their eyes.”

Dickehage said he felt like the attack would never end, but that the whole ordeal lasted about a minute and a half.

Dickehage was treated for his injuries at Longmont United Hospital. He said he received nine shots in the hospital, “everything from rabies to tetanus.”

Since Monday, he has been catching a ride to work with a coworker.

Wildlife officers have located and killed two of the coyotes and are seeking the third, Churchill said.

“This is not common behavior,” Churchill said of the coyotes’ aggression and attack. “This is really aberrant behavior.”

She said the coyotes were not defending their young or a food source.