PHOENIX -- Wary customers at North Valley grocery stores keep a watchful eye after several shoppers were recently threatened by three brazen coyotes.

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The animals were killed after they were trying to snatch white grocery bags from customers at a Fry's supermarket at Tatum Road and Cave Creek Road.

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"Coyotes are very smart animals," said Kriselle Colvin with Arizona Game & Fish.

"Once they know where food source is, they know white bags have food in them, so they'll go up and grab them," Colvin said.

One of the biggest reasons for the problem is well-meaning people feeding them, Colvin said.

In the Biltmore area a few years ago, a woman was buying rotisserie chickens from the store and leaving them out for the coyotes.

Elsewhere, coyotes have made themselves at home in Kathy St. Hilaire's North Valley neighborhood.

"We see them walking up and down streets down subdivisions, in front of houses looking for food," she said.

Wildlife officers said they field complaints every week about people feeding wildlife all across the Valley and it's usually because they think the animals are hungry.

But if coyotes learn to expect food from people, it could make them dangerous to children and small pets, Colvin said.

"I don't even know if there's such a thing as a starving coyote," Colvin said.

"I mean, all these are very well fed and there are plenty of food sources. Golf courses have rabbits for them to eat."

It's against the law in Arizona to feed any wildlife with the exception of birds and tree squirrels.

Violators could fined $300.

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