Queens residents say they spotted a coyote roaming along a rooftop in Long Island City. (Credit: CBS2) Queens residents say they spotted a coyote roaming along a rooftop in Long Island City. (Credit: CBS2)

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) — People in Queens did a double take on Monday, when an apparent coyote was spotted roaming along the roof of a bar.

A sign on the door of the LIC Bar in Long Island City reads, “Only service dogs on a leash are allowed anywhere on these premises.” So maybe the animal wasn’t breaking any rules, because the entire neighborhood is convinced that it isn’t a dog at all.

“There was a coyote just hanging on the roof,” Birk O’Halloran told CBS2’s Weijia Jiang, “I grew up in Colorado and I’ve seen a lot. People say, ‘Oh that’s a dog.’ No, that’s a coyote. They look like a German shepherd, but grayer and more pointy.”

Cell phone video from O’Halloran’s office above the bar is something you have to see to believe.

“I think it’s a first for most of us. There’s not too many coyotes here in New York, but anything’s possible,” Laura Supper said.

Many people spotted the animal roaming on the bar’s roof on Monday, before it ran into a broken window of an abandoned building next door as cops tried to catch it.

“It seemed scared. It didn’t seem like it wanted to be found,” David Weitzenhoffer said.