Tenant Joe Moderski says he thought he had missed a pillow fight because there were so many feathers in the hallway of the Upper West Side building.
Moderski says he arrived home around 3:30 p.m. Sunday to find the hawk outside his top-floor apartment. He says the raptor flew at him, just missing his face, so he took off running.
Police tried unsuccessfully to catch the hawk by tempting it with bread crumbs. Two emergency service police officers eventually caught the bird and took it to the city's Animal Care and Control center.
