Customers and staff at Richmond Hill’s BMW dealership have been hearing a different sort of honk — as well as the odd hiss — at the entrance to the service centre over the past few months.

Those sounds were often proceeded by a nip, bite and even a kick to the back.

“At the end of the day it’s very entertaining,” said Tina Lei, 25, a BMW service adviser, “but in the moment, you don’t know what to expect. One minute you are running for your life and the next minute laughing about it.”

It all began on a small grassy island near where cars enter and exit the dealership located on Ohio Rd., near Yonge St. and Elgin Mills Rd., in Richmond Hill.

That’s where a female Canada goose decided to lay her eggs at the end of March.

Since that day anyone who got too close to her have been chased, kicked, flapped over the head and even bitten in the back by her overbearing and overprotective husband who has been threatening and even assaulting anyone who comes close to the eggs.

Best of all, each and every one of the about 12 interactions have been caught on tape.

Lei, who has been working at the dealership for three years, said the geese have been coming back year after year, but this year when their landscapers removed some bushes near the rear of the building the geese sought out the last remaining bush which happened to be near the front.

This left them vulnerable to plenty of passing traffic, heightening the chance for a run-in.

“One time I dropped a set of keys and he attacked me, it must have startled them, and he chased me away,” said Sandro Francavilla, service manager.

“I ran like a son-of-a-gun,” said the Vaughan resident.

The next time it was worse.

“I tried to butter them up by feeding them, but it didn’t work,” he added. “He was on the roof (of our building) looking down and he attacked me from behind. He kicked me in the back and bit me in the back of the head. When he flaps his wings you will feel the wing bone elbow, it hurts, they’re powerful.”

Tina was also the victim of the male goose’s wrath.

“I was coming back from lunch when the male saw me, he jumped on top of my car so I protected myself with a booklet I had in my hands,” she said. “When I tried to run away, he flew in front of me, so I ran into the back entrance.”

The employees were not the only victims; customers were also chased. One time it was a pregnant woman and her child, another time it was a young girl.

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Unfortunately, in the end the eggs did not hatch and the nest was abandoned.

The geese who remain are now much tamer and have not lashed out at anyone since the nest was abandoned two weeks ago.

“I hope next year it goes smoother and the mother has babies,” added Lei. “I want to see little babies waddling around.”

Correction - May 31, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Sandro Francavilla's surname.

JG Jeremy Grimaldi is a crime and justice reporter for YorkRegion.com and its sister papers. Reach him via email: jgrimaldi@yrmg.com

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