1 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,320 Speaker 1: I have had reservations about telling anyone the events that 2 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:17,879 have happened, but I figure if I get this off 3 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,679 my chest, it'll help me. I was driving back from 4 00:00:21,679 --> 00:00:25,239 a family thing in Kansas, just past the border into 5 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:29,120 Missouri where the highway curves after a turn off around 6 00:00:29,239 --> 00:00:33,640 Cleveland going to Freeman. It was past midnight, and as 7 00:00:33,679 --> 00:00:36,200 I picked up speed, my attention was drawn to the 8 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:39,600 right side of the road. With my own eyes, I 9 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,359 saw the biggest figure I had ever seen, standing in 10 00:00:42,399 --> 00:00:46,079 a ditch. I drive a Hommer and it has great headlights, 11 00:00:46,439 --> 00:00:49,240 but what I saw shook me to the core. It 12 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:53,039 was no less than four solid feet across at the shoulders, 13 00:00:53,359 --> 00:00:56,840 and the head was covered in long hair, not a cone, 14 00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:00,679 but it was round. As my headlights hit the figure 15 00:01:00,759 --> 00:01:03,359 dropped down to its belly in the ditch, like it 16 00:01:03,399 --> 00:01:07,840 was dropping for cover. The mass of this thing was unbelievable. 17 00:01:08,159 --> 00:01:11,120 I drove past, never thinking about stopping, and I couldn't 18 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:14,159 believe my eyes. And for the next hour driving home, 19 00:01:14,359 --> 00:01:17,799 I replated in my head, well, this weight on me 20 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:21,719 because I was never a believer in the momo booger squatch, 21 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,959 or whatever the kids call it these days. A week later, 22 00:01:26,079 --> 00:01:27,840 I went back to the spot where I had seen 23 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:30,319 this thing, and when I pulled off the highway to 24 00:01:30,359 --> 00:01:32,840 look where it stood, I was shocked to see that 25 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:35,560 based on where it had been standing in the ditch, 26 00:01:35,599 --> 00:01:38,799 which was at least four feet deep, this thing was 27 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:42,239 at least eight feet tall. Now, if you skip forward 28 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,439 to the winter, the kids and I went for a 29 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:48,200 nature hike outside of Clinton, Missouri. It was the first 30 00:01:48,319 --> 00:01:51,159 nice day that winter, and we walked a good three miles. 31 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:54,719 That day, I took the camera for kid picks, and 32 00:01:54,799 --> 00:01:58,159 we got a little more than we anticipated. In the 33 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:02,120 frozen ground. We found some deep, barefoot tracks crossing the trail, 34 00:02:02,599 --> 00:02:04,560 and for the life of me, I could barely make 35 00:02:04,599 --> 00:02:08,199 a dentt in that ground with my own boots. The 36 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,520 tracks were eighteen inches long with a stride of around 37 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:16,199 six feet. My daughter is a complete doubter and made 38 00:02:16,199 --> 00:02:19,199 fun of my excitement. But as we moved on down 39 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:21,759 the trail, we came across a second set of prints. 40 00:02:22,719 --> 00:02:24,639 They were not the same size, but they must have 41 00:02:24,719 --> 00:02:27,439 been heavier because they were stamped a lot deeper into 42 00:02:27,479 --> 00:02:31,199 the frozen ground. As I was taking pictures, my daughter 43 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:35,599 got scared and demanded that we go home. Not long 44 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:38,319 after that hike, I asked the newspaper editor if he 45 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:41,879 would put my pictures in the paper, and to my amazement, 46 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,080 he said it wasn't the first time he had seen 47 00:02:44,199 --> 00:02:47,719 tracks like this, but he could not print the pictures 48 00:02:47,759 --> 00:02:50,000 because it would draw the wrong kind of attention to 49 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,199 our area. I was caught up by the fact that 50 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,080 this type of thing is already known, but nothing has 51 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,840 been said or done to bring the truth out, and 52 00:02:58,879 --> 00:03:02,759 that just kills me. I work out in the country 53 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:05,560 on a large piece of property for some good people. 54 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:08,840 I worked pretty much by myself, and I've had some 55 00:03:09,039 --> 00:03:13,520 unsettling things happened to me out there. Last summer. As 56 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,719 I was clearing trees and gardening, I would occasionally get 57 00:03:16,719 --> 00:03:20,080 a gut feeling that someone was watching me. This time 58 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:24,919 went by. The feeling intensified. One day I was talking 59 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:27,599 to one of the owners. It was around noon and 60 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:30,439 we were standing by the lake when we heard owls hooting, 61 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,319 one right after another. It wasn't like anything I had 62 00:03:34,319 --> 00:03:37,639 ever heard before, and the intensity of it was alarming, 63 00:03:38,639 --> 00:03:40,599 one from one side of the lake and the other 64 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,479 from the other side, and I commented that it was 65 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,639 the strangest sounding owl I had ever heard, but the 66 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:51,479 owners quickly changed the subject. Days later, I was out 67 00:03:51,479 --> 00:03:54,800 again clearing brush, and it was the dog days of summer, 68 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:56,560 and at the end of the day, and I told 69 00:03:56,599 --> 00:03:59,199 myself I was going to fish in the backbond and 70 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:03,080 then go for AHM afterward. The end of the day 71 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:05,719 came and I jumped in a john boat and rowed out, 72 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:08,879 And as I fished, I had another gut feeling, this 73 00:04:09,039 --> 00:04:12,840 time a little different than usual. It was almost a 74 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,199 nauseating hunch that I was in for it, like I 75 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:18,279 was a kid and you knew your parents were just 76 00:04:18,319 --> 00:04:21,199 about to notice that you did something wrong, and you're 77 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:25,160 just waiting for the whooping. I'm talking toolshit whooping, if 78 00:04:25,199 --> 00:04:28,439 you know what I mean. I threw my bait out 79 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:31,279 and caught a catfish and reeled it in, and then 80 00:04:31,319 --> 00:04:33,600 I heard something in the woods by the lake crashing 81 00:04:33,639 --> 00:04:37,560 and breaking branches. It scared me to all ends, but 82 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:39,600 I had it in my head that I worked this 83 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,279 damn land and I earned my R and R time. 84 00:04:42,959 --> 00:04:45,240 My thought was that when I was done on the boat, 85 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:50,439 i'd go confront whoever was making their presence known. Unfortunately, 86 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:52,920 we have a lot of poachers that come on the land, 87 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:55,680 and it's nothing to have to run off a crackhead 88 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,759 with shotguns on a weekly basis. When I threw the 89 00:04:59,759 --> 00:05:02,040 fil back in the water, the woods sounded like a 90 00:05:02,079 --> 00:05:06,199 tornado was crashing through. It was more intense than any 91 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:09,120 poacher could have been, and that gut feeling I had 92 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:13,560 only intensified. Of course, I didn't listen to it. I 93 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:16,920 threw my bait out again, and the same thing happened, 94 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:20,600 even louder than before, until finally a feeling of pure 95 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:24,120 terror hit me. I finally listened to my gut and 96 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:26,199 rowed back to the shore and got out of there. 97 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,720 The next day, I knew I had work to do 98 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:32,680 on the dock of that same pond. I had shaken 99 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:35,439 a man's hand and it would be done. And that 100 00:05:35,519 --> 00:05:39,000 kind of thing means something in these parts. I loaded 101 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,360 up my tools and went out early the next day. 102 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:44,600 I replaced the boards on the dock, keeping one eye 103 00:05:44,639 --> 00:05:48,079 behind me the whole time. I hammered in the two 104 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:51,399 by sixes and I hit the nails with five solid hits. 105 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:55,800 Directly after the hits, I heard five knocks way off 106 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:59,560 in the distance. I wrote it off as an echo, 107 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,360 because trees do that sometimes. But the next time I 108 00:06:03,399 --> 00:06:07,199 hammered five solid times, the five knocks that answered back 109 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:11,399 were a lot closer. It sounded like something thick and 110 00:06:11,519 --> 00:06:14,959 dense pounding on the hardwood, and after hearing it, I 111 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,360 stood up and listened to the sound of something running 112 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:21,319 through the timber. The distance they covered was draw dropping. 113 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,519 It just didn't make sense. They crossed that hilly brush 114 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,639 covered woods like a cheetah on an open plane. And 115 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:31,959 the time it took me to start walking the twenty 116 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,560 feet off the dock, I heard the sound of someone 117 00:06:34,639 --> 00:06:39,360 with two feet jump and then along silence. Only when 118 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:41,319 I made it off the dock did I hear the 119 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:44,399 thud of the landing, and it hit the dead foliage 120 00:06:44,439 --> 00:06:46,879 with its feet and slid to a stop not thirty 121 00:06:46,879 --> 00:06:50,319 feet from me on the hill above. But what came 122 00:06:50,399 --> 00:06:53,600 next scared the hell out of me. I couldn't see 123 00:06:53,639 --> 00:06:56,000 past the trees in the brush, but I was frozen 124 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,160 in fear because I knew it was right above me, 125 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:01,720 and I could hear it breathing in and out in long, 126 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:05,000 deep breaths, like it was sniffing me or smelling me. 127 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:08,480 Longer than any human can hold air, and then the 128 00:07:08,519 --> 00:07:12,600 EXHL came. It was long and gurgled. I've never been 129 00:07:12,639 --> 00:07:14,759 so scared in my life, and it shook me to 130 00:07:14,839 --> 00:07:18,560 my core. I left my tools and backed away a 131 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,560 few steps to get into my ride, and as I 132 00:07:21,639 --> 00:07:24,040 backed up, I saw the outline of what looked like 133 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,560 the thing I saw the year before in the ditch. 134 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:29,800 I got in my vehicle and drove off like a 135 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,920 bat out of hell, heading back into town. I called 136 00:07:33,959 --> 00:07:36,639 the owner and told him exactly what happened, and the 137 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:41,079 most alarming part of the entire ordeal was his response, Well, 138 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:43,680 don't go back in there again unarmed, he told me. 139 00:07:44,839 --> 00:07:47,040 I told him that I had a twenty two long 140 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:49,839 rifle with me, but he just snickered and told me 141 00:07:49,879 --> 00:07:53,079 it wasn't big enough. He must have sensed the fear 142 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:55,959 in my tone, because he tried to calm me by 143 00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:01,000 playing the experience off as being another poacher. After that, 144 00:08:01,199 --> 00:08:03,279 I sort of got used to the idea that there 145 00:08:03,279 --> 00:08:06,160 were strange creatures in the land, and I have gotten 146 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:09,639 used to the feeling of them watching me. The area 147 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:12,519 where I work is surrounded by caves, and after I 148 00:08:12,639 --> 00:08:15,800 told him what happened, the owner told me about one 149 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:19,839 cave in particular, that I should absolutely stay completely away 150 00:08:19,839 --> 00:08:23,480 from Hey after what I saw, you don't have to 151 00:08:23,519 --> 00:08:27,839 tell me twice. When I got home, my wife told 152 00:08:27,959 --> 00:08:31,000 me that I was white as a ghost. I tried 153 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:33,679 to tell her what had happened, and she encouraged me 154 00:08:33,799 --> 00:08:37,399 to share my experience. I sent my story to a 155 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:40,200 man who works for the government, and a day later 156 00:08:40,519 --> 00:08:42,879 I happened to check my email and found out the 157 00:08:42,879 --> 00:08:45,960 message hadn't been sent at all. It was still in 158 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,159 my drafts, not sent yet, like I hadn't written the 159 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,399 email in the first place. So I wrote the email 160 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:55,039 and I sent it a second time, and the same 161 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:58,320 thing happened. Well, I was starting to think somebody didn't 162 00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:01,879 want me talking about my experience. Well here I am 163 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:06,279 attempting this one last time. If my story gets to you, 164 00:09:06,799 --> 00:09:08,039 I will be amazed.