Video shows 5-year-old girl narrowly escape coyote attack outside her family's Illinois home

VILLA PARK, Ill. -- A 5-year-old girl managed to escape a coyote that came after her while she played in her family's front yard, and the entire dramatic scene was caught on camera.

Christine Przybylski had just gone out to check her mailbox for her Halloween costume. Surveillance cameras show a coyote lurking, but Christine doesn't see it.

The costume hadn't come, so she turns back but doesn't immediately go back inside.

"I decided to go to the swing," Christine said. "When I went to the swing he run by and I was like, going, and then I was like 'Oh my god.'"

The coyote came charging full speed across the front yard, circled the tree, and charged right at Christine. It came so close it touched her.

"I feeled (sic) its ear," she said. "It almost bited (sic) my rib."

"We heard the scream," her mother Elizabeth Przybylski said. "She came in with this wild story."

"I was like, 'Mom! Mom! I saw! I saw a coyote!!'" Christine said.

Her parents pulled up the home surveillance footage and sure enough, there it was.

"He really pursued her violently, and I'm so glad she got away," Elizabeth said.

Her mother said Christine won't be playing unaccompanied in the front yard again any time soon.

Neighbors down the street believe the coyotes may live in a nearby wooded area. They said they've often heard them fighting and screaming at night. Now that a neighborhood child's been threatened, they plan to contact local authorities.