Maybe it was thirsty.
A coyote scampered back and forth across the roof of a Long Island City bar on Monday, as stunned locals gawked at their wild neighbor.
“He didn’t pay his bar tab, so he ran out onto the rooftop,” quipped L.I.C. Bar owner Brian Porter.
Tenants with views of the Vernon Blvd. watering hole spotted the four-legged visitor from their windows and alerted Porter, he said.
The bar owner thought they were joking until he saw the beast for himself.
“I’ll tell you one thing, he was well-fed,” Porter told the Daily News. “He wasn’t one of the scrawny coyotes I’ve seen in my time.”
He said he suspects the coyote was living in a vacant building next door and hopped through an open window onto the roof.
The predator drew a crowd of onlookers, including a worker from a nearby veterinary clinic, who scaled a wall to get a closer look.
She scurried back down when she realized it was a coyote and not a stray dog.
Police soon arrived and tried to snare the coyote with rope loops fixed to the end of poles, but they didn’t have any luck, Porter said.
“He escaped two police officers, and he jumped on the roof adjacent to me and then jumped through the window” of the vacant building, Porter said, adding that “he’s still at large.”
A police spokeswoman told The News she had no information about any coyote sightings on Monday.
The furry fugitive had some familiar company on Monday night.
A band named Coyote Anderson was on the calendar to play a 9 p.m. gig at L.I.C. Bar — a booking Porter swears was made in advance.
“You can’t make this up,” he said. “You really can’t.”
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