There are a number of things that can spoil a shopping experience. Crowds... out-of-stock items... rude clerks... obnoxious kids...

An encounter with Cujo.

At 12:33 p.m. Thursday, a Wauwatosa woman reported that she had just been bitten by a dog that jumped out of the window of a vehicle in the Mayfair Mall parking lot and attacked her.

The victim said she was walking toward Macy’s with a group of friends when the dog leaped out and began to circle them, growling and barking menacingly, then lunged at her and bit her arm.

The screams of her companions drove the dog off, and some unknown person grabbed the animal and put it back in the SUV.

When a Wauwatosa police officer arrived, he found the dog inside an SUV with all its windows completely down, and he said the dog was “barking in a manner I believed to be very aggressive.”

The owner returned in about 10 more minutes and told officers that her "friendly" 8-year-old dog had never bitten anyone or jumped out of her vehicle before.

On second thought, she said, it had bitten another person when it was running loose on the beach when it was 1 year old.

The owner said the dog was current on its shots and she gave police the name of her veterinarian. She was ordered to quarantine the dog.

Police did later reach the vet, who confirmed the dog's vaccinations were up to date.

The bite victim was treated at the scene by Fire Department paramedics. The police report did not note the severity of her injury.