For 14 hours earlier this week, Worcester residents faced a dangerous public menace — a crazy, sick fox. The Boston Herald reports the creature went on a crime spree, terrorizing cats and pedestrians before finally being thwarted in its attempt to maim a gardener.

Pest controller Bob Ford was working in the neighborhood when he heard 76-year-old Wenyu Chen screaming. When he saw the snarling fox attacking the woman’s arm, he says he “ran up full blast and kicked it like a football.”

Witnesses who saw the fox’s earlier antics report it was clearly sick and aggressive. Three police gunshots failed to kill it, and finally it was euthanized.

The fox later tested positive for rabies.