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Speaker 1: My brother in law and his wife live in East Texas,

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out in what we affectionately call the Boonies. I guess

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boondocks would be the technical term. They live in a

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farmhouse on top of a hill, looking down into an

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open meadow with pine woods beyond that. It's beautiful and

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it's peaceful there, well, it used to be. Last fall,

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my husband and I went to their home so my

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husband could help his brother with some carpentry work. This

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is not my forte, so I decided to take the mule.

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I think that's the term for a four wheel type

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vehicle that you can haul stuff with, although I think

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I would have preferred an actual mule because the mechanical

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one I rode was about as smooth as taking a

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spin and a washing machine, not that I've ever done that.

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I took some trash bag so that I could gather

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pine needles to use my chicken coop and garden. After

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an hour of bouncing up and down on that hard seat,

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I found a great spot to gather up some pine needles.

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It was at the back of their property, where there

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are a lot of trees in a creek that zig

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zags back and forth across the property. It was a

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beautiful fall day. The only thing I was concerned about

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at this time was watching for snakes as I gathered

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the pine needles, and I love listening to the birds

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seeing as I went about my work. I had gathered

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a lot of pine needles and loaded them on the mule,

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and I was still wishing it was the four legged

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kind of mule. I decided to walk for a little

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while before I bounced back to the house, thinking maybe

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I could somehow use one of the bags as a cushion.

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I'd been walking for about a half an hour and

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had come to a washed out area that made sandy

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high banks on each side. The banks were fifteen feet tall.

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There were several rocks exposed from the creek flooding, I guess,

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and some of the rocks were really pretty, so I

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amused myself by digging around and looking for neat rocks.

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Now I had been doing this for a while when

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I noticed everything got real quiet. It was then that

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I heard a rustling coming from the top of one

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of the banks. I couldn't see anything from where I was,

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so I just froze, waiting to see what was going

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to happen. And then I smelled it. It was horrible smell.

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It was the worst thing I've ever smelled in my life.

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It was a combination of cat poop, smelly old mop water,

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and skunk that had been dead in the road for

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a while. And then the rustling stopped. I was getting

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nervous now, thinking it was a wild hog, because I've

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heard they can be mean. I decided just to stay

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still and hope it would go away, not that my

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legs would have worked right then anyway. And then I

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heard the oddest sound. It sounded like someone clucking like

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a chicken. It was comical and amusing, and I wondered

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what in the world was going on. A million things

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flashed through your mind. I began to think that I

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was going to be murdered by a mad clown that

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thinks he's a chicken. I leaned up against the bank

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and still hoping it would go away, and then a

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rifle shot rang out, and it sounded like a cannon,

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and it was followed by a big thud, and then

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I heard voices. There were men's voices talking. I was

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thinking that it was the hunters and they had shot

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the hog, and one of them said, damn, good shot.

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You got that, Sorry devil, Steve, You're one crazy son

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of a gun. I can't believe that stupid chicken dance

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of your still works. And then one said to get

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the head. And I heard a chopping noise and a

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thud and a thunk and a thud, and something came

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rolling down the bank and it was the head. It

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was a huge, ugly, hairy but it wasn't a hog.

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All I could do was stand there frozen, thinking, there

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really are bigfoot creatures in these woods. No, it can't be.

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I must be having a stroke, I thought. I was

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jerked back to reality by someone saying, you go get it.

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You're the one that dropped it. The next thing I know,

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here comes a man scrambling down the bank with a

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burlap sack. In kind of a Southern voice. He said,

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excuse me, ma'am. I didn't mean to startle you, dear,

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but I really do need to get that head that

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I dropped. He came over and he shook my hand,

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introducing himself as Steve Lily. He gave me his thanks

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and said they were sorry to have bothered me. He

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picked up the head and put it in the sack,

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and then he tipped his hat and he said, well

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by now, and he climbed back up the bank. And

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that's how I met Bigfoot and the hero named Steve

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Lily that apparently saved me from a Bigfoot. It's been

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seventeen years since this incident took place. Until recently, we

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had not discussed what happened to the five of us

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while camping at Bailey Cove Campground. It always felt like

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a taboo subject to bring up. This past Mother's Day

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in twenty twenty one, we were able to get all

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of our adult kids to travel home to celebrate their mother.

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We had a great visit with everyone, and one of

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the big topics of discussion was our upcoming camping trip

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into the Sierra Nevadas. Later that evening, we were all

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out on the patio talking about the upcoming camping trip

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when my youngest spoke up and said, hopefully we don't

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have any unwelcome visitors this time. Everyone laughed, and then

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my oldest spoke out, Hey, Dad, what do you really

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think happened to us that time on Shasta Late Oh Man,

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I thought to myself, please let this be going in

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the direction that I I have wanted it to go.

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For the last seventeen years. What trip does Shasta Lak

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are you talking about? I ask Dad? Everyone said, are

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you talking about the Bailey Cove campground trip? Yes? That trip,

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said everyone. I glanced at my son and daughter in

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laws and saw a bit of confusion in their faces.

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So I said, let's talk about it, but maybe we

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should start at the beginning, so folks here that weren't

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present at the time can better understand what happened. The

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next ninety minutes was great. I started off the conversation

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and we all took turns telling what we remembered happening.

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I think it was good therapy for all of us

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to talk about it. September tenth, two thousand and four,

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would forever change our young family and the belief that

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only four legged creatures live in the wilderness. Our family

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had a summer routine of two camping trips each year.

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September approached in two thousand and four, we had not

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been able to go camping yet. It had been a

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busy summer. My wife mentioned that she wanted to plan

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a quick camping trip to Shasta Lake for the following weekend. Well.

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I thought it was great idea because I had the

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next Saturday through Monday off from work. We just needed

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to decide what campground we wanted to use. My wife

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suggested Bailey Cove Campground because it was only a twenty

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minute drive. Now I was able to get the reservations

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with no problems. We arrived at Bailey Cove Campground and

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checked in with the park ranger, who told us not

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many folks were there and we could choose our own campsite.

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We got the trailer backed onto the pad. Not long

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after we were cooking hot dogs over the campfire, and

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then we got the kids ready for bed and tucked in. Afterward,

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I joined my wife out by the fire pit. We

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stayed up for another couple of hours, enjoyed the evening.

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Once the flames had died down, I doused the coals

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with water, and by eleven thirty PM we were all asleep.

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At some point in the middle of the night, a

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loud cracking sound woke me. A large branch was snapped

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off a nearby a tree. It was loud and I

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could hardly believe I was the only person awake. I

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thought about shaking my wife away, but it was quiet outside. Now,

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maybe I had imagined that loud noise. I lay there

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on my back with my eyes wide open and listening,

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and all I could hear was my heart beating. And

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then I thought that was no sound at all. I

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must have dreamed it. It was freakishly quiet though there

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were no crickets, no breeze, no traffic sounds. It was

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almost suffocating. That's the only way I can describe it.

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And then I heard the sound of footsteps on pine

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needles and twigs. Whatever it was, it was toward us.

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My imagination was starting to mess with me too many

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CSI Las Vegas episodes with a crazed killer on the loose.

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I guess it was most likely a deer. I thought

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maybe a bear or a raccoon. So I closed my

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eyes and I think I fell back to sleep. But

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what happened next is when things got real. My eyes

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opened with a loud, crunching sound of something walking on

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the crushed rock that surrounded the asphalt pad, and I

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sat straight up. I noticed that my wife and son

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were now moving and confused. One of the kids asked

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about the sounds. It's probably a bear, I said. Whatever

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was outside started walking slowly back and forth in the

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crushed rock, I could tell it was heavy. My wife's

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white knuckle grasp on my arm was intense. She finally

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spoke up and said, it sounds like person walking, not

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a bear. That's exactly what I thought, but I played

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it off again as a bear, and through the mesh

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screen we couldn't see anything moving. Now. Finally, I said,

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whoever's outside, you need to leave now. I'm armed and

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we're about to call the police. That only woke up

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our two daughters and the youngest one immediately since the

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tension of the situation, and she started crying. I told

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my wife to call nine to one one, and she

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asked me if I was really armed, and I told

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her to know that I had left the handgun locked

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up in the truck. Whatever was out there ignored my

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demands anyway, and the pacing increased. There was no cell

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service where we were. I couldn't believe how close we

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were to civilization with no cell service. You know, twenty

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years later, nothing's really changed. It was two thirty am

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at this point and all five of us were in

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the die in Nette area. I double checked to make

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sure the flimsy camper door was locked, and I grabbed

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the flashlight I called out again, and the pacing back

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and forth stopped. One of the kids said, Dad, you

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should go outside and check to see if it's still there. Well,

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I didn't know what to say. I had to figure

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out a reply that made me sound like the protector

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of the family, but gave me any excuse for not

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going outside. I was about to speak when something or

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someone tried to open the door. Everyone freaked out, and

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the screaming inside the camper was deafening. I have never

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felt such fear in my life. I felt certain we

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were all going to die a horrible death. I really

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did feel powerless. Whatever was outside was now grunting and

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breathing heavy. Feeling like my next move was going to

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save us, I started zipping up all the windows actually,

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like that would protect us. Next, a loud slap from

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the side of the camper happened. It was near the

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back and on the same side as the door. One

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of the kids yelled at Dad, do something. I didn't

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know what to do. There's not a worse feeling as

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a father when you can't protect your loved ones. The

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next thing this monster did was a slap dead center

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on the roof of the camper. And then it scraped

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its fingers across the top, like fingernails across the chalkboard.

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Screams for help came from all of us inside the camper.

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My ears were ringing from the extreme decibel levels coming

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from everyone's cries. And then I heard footsteps in the

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crush rock again. I tried to get everyone to quiet

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down so I could listen. It was relatively quiet except

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for the heavy breathing and sniffing from inside the camper.

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I thought I heard a couple of small branches break

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and few faint footsteps heading up the steep hill. Maybe

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it was leaving. Everything was silent for five minutes, and

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I told my wife what I wanted to do next.

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My plan was to run to the pickup and drive

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off as quickly as possible with the trailer in tow,

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and get to the ranger station and then go from there. No,

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I had not unhooked the trailer from the truck. She

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liked the plan, and we explained to the kids what

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we were about to do. Trying to quietly open the

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camper door wasn't going as planned. Usually the thing just

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swung open at the slightest turn of the handle, but

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it didn't this time, so I turned the knob fully

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down to the open position and gave the door a

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pop with my right shoulder. The door popped open and

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flew out of my grip, smashing into the side of

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the camper. I rolled out onto the asphalt, and I

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sprinted like an Olympic hurdler, jumping over the fire pit

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and a chain or two as I headed around the

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front of the truck. Just as I got to the

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truck door, a blood curdling scream blew up the night.

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It was so deafening and long that it made my

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insides churn. It scared me so bad that I dropped

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the keys. I finally found them, and I fumbled to

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get the correct key and get it into the walk.

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I was doing all of this in the dark. Then

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the next scream came. You could not tell where this

240
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monster was. It sounded like it was coming from every direction.

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The truck started and I threw it into drive and

242
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floored the gas and I went forward a foot or two,

243
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and then the tires began to spin. That's when I

244
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remembered the wheels on the trailer were choked. I put

245
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the truck in reverse and backed up a little, and

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then put it back into drive and said, hold on, guys,

247
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and I pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The

248
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,919
truck shuddered and the trailer launched into the air like

249
00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:07,519
a kid jumping a BMX bike. And in the glow

250
00:15:07,559 --> 00:15:09,879
of the tail lights, I could see that the trailer

251
00:15:09,919 --> 00:15:12,799
was still behind the truck. And I kept the hammer

252
00:15:12,879 --> 00:15:15,159
down as best as I could on the narrow road.

253
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And when we got near the ranger station, I pulled

254
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to the side and then ran back to get my family.

255
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The door on the camper flew open, almost hitting me

256
00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:28,279
in the face. You've never seen a wife and three

257
00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:32,399
young kids sprint so quickly, and they dove into the cabin.

258
00:15:33,679 --> 00:15:35,639
I yelled to my wife to get behind the wheel

259
00:15:35,679 --> 00:15:38,759
and lock the doors while I unhooked the trailer, and

260
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in thirty seconds I was back at the truck and

261
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I met my oldest daughter's crying face at the window

262
00:15:44,759 --> 00:15:48,080
as she unlocked the door. Let's get the hell out

263
00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:50,799
of here, I said. As I slammed the door shut.

264
00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,440
My wife fish tailed up the road for two hundred feet.

265
00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:59,360
We climbed the winding road faster than any vehicle should

266
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be allowed. The crying now was because we had escaped

267
00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:07,080
whatever it was that had terrified us. What should have

268
00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:10,799
been a twenty three minute drive home took much less time.

269
00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:14,879
Our youngest daughter, who was and still is the family's

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00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:18,320
back seat driver from hell, chimed up and said, Dad,

271
00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:20,679
it's okay that she's going fast. We just want to

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00:16:20,679 --> 00:16:24,759
get home. We made it home in ready and pulled

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00:16:24,799 --> 00:16:29,679
into our driveway just minutes after four am. Everyone rushed

274
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into the house, and I locked up the truck and

275
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headed for the front door. Once in the house, everyone

276
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had their pillows and blankets from their beds on the

277
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living room floor. Everyone laid there with their eyes wide open.

278
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I asked if anyone wanted to talk about what we

279
00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:52,159
had just experienced. Nobody said a word. That was fine

280
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:54,399
with me. I didn't want to talk about it anyway.

281
00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:59,960
Everyone eventually dozed off. It was the phone that woke

282
00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:03,840
the next morning at eight o'clock. It was the park ranger.

283
00:17:04,839 --> 00:17:08,039
She seemed concerned. Our camper trailer was left in the

284
00:17:08,039 --> 00:17:10,640
middle of the park road and our campsite was in

285
00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,720
total disarray. I apologized, and I told her that I'd

286
00:17:14,799 --> 00:17:18,440
be there soon to clean everything up. As I backed

287
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,680
up the truck, to the tent trailer. I saw the

288
00:17:20,759 --> 00:17:23,759
ranger was there waiting, and I told her I'd have

289
00:17:23,839 --> 00:17:26,440
our mess cleaned up within twenty minutes and be gone.

290
00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:30,480
She didn't seem too concerned about the mess, but more

291
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concerned about why we left so quick. She mentioned that

292
00:17:34,839 --> 00:17:37,559
the other family in the campground had packed up too

293
00:17:37,799 --> 00:17:41,799
and left before she arrived at seven thirty am. She

294
00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,519
said that they were supposed to have stayed another five

295
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:48,079
days and she hadn't been able to contact them by phone.

296
00:17:48,319 --> 00:17:50,400
I told her that we had had a couple of

297
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bears the night before, and they were not the normal

298
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:57,240
friendly type we usually see while camping here. I pretty

299
00:17:57,279 --> 00:17:59,920
much kept it at that, and our camp site well,

300
00:18:00,039 --> 00:18:03,680
isn't really that bad. One of the older lounge chairs

301
00:18:03,759 --> 00:18:06,799
was completely bent, and one of the large air mattresses

302
00:18:06,839 --> 00:18:09,200
that I had blown up before dinner had been ripped

303
00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:13,599
in half. I was five minutes from being finished with

304
00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:18,240
loading up when the ranger's truck pulled up alongside mine.

305
00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:22,039
She commented on how quickly I had loaded up. I

306
00:18:22,039 --> 00:18:23,880
felt like she was trying to get me to talk

307
00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:27,440
about what happened. I continued throwing stuff in the back

308
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:29,400
of the truck, and I started to cover it up

309
00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,839
with a tart. I was just about to say goodbye

310
00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:35,640
when she asked me where the iron grate insert for

311
00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:39,480
the campfire pit was. Well, I didn't know where it was.

312
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:41,799
It was there last night, I said, when we had

313
00:18:41,839 --> 00:18:45,960
our campfire. Well, it's missing. Now. If you can't find it,

314
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:47,960
we're going to have to bill you for a replacement.

315
00:18:48,079 --> 00:18:50,960
She said, go ahead and bail me. I said, because

316
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,279
I'm not looking for it. And I jumped in the

317
00:18:53,319 --> 00:18:57,920
truck and I left. The ranger called the house the

318
00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:02,240
next afternoon to let me know that the firepit grate

319
00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:05,599
had been found. It was two hundred feet away from

320
00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:09,400
our camp site. She made a big deal on how

321
00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:12,079
strange it was for that to have happened, and she

322
00:19:12,279 --> 00:19:16,039
asked me what really happened, And I told her those

323
00:19:16,079 --> 00:19:18,720
bears were just a couple of real pranksters, I guess,

324
00:19:19,319 --> 00:19:23,359
and I said goodbye and I hung up. After I

325
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:25,759
hung up, I wondered about the things that had happened

326
00:19:25,759 --> 00:19:30,039
that could not be explained. The heaviness of the bipedal steps,

327
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,519
the slap on the middle of the roof that was

328
00:19:32,559 --> 00:19:35,680
eight feet tall, and the turning of the doorknob on

329
00:19:35,759 --> 00:19:40,880
the trailer, ignoring the threat of being shot, the sustained guttural,

330
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:44,720
ear piercing screams and the howls, and the feeling of

331
00:19:44,799 --> 00:19:49,279
immense dread and shock I had. Why did that other

332
00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:52,960
family leave five days early? Did they have a visit

333
00:19:53,039 --> 00:19:57,559
as well? I'm sure they heard the insanely loud screams

334
00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:01,240
maybe most of all, How does a fifty pound, one

335
00:20:01,279 --> 00:20:04,359
inch thick iron grate travel two hundred feet up a hill?

336
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,440
I don't think a bear would do that. Well, that's

337
00:20:08,519 --> 00:20:11,319
my story, and it feels good to write this down

338
00:20:11,359 --> 00:20:14,200
and share our story with people who won't judge us

339
00:20:14,319 --> 00:20:18,720
as freaks. This event really happened, And even though I've

340
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,240
injected a little humor here and there, it was absolutely

341
00:20:22,319 --> 00:20:26,720
nothing funny when this happened. Maybe the humor I used

342
00:20:26,839 --> 00:20:29,839
is a self protection mechanism that helped me pin this

343
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:35,680
on paper. He says, I'm a truck driver and I've

344
00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:38,119
driven all over and I've seen a lot, but there's

345
00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:41,559
one piece of road from Coos, Texas, over to Conrod,

346
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,920
Texas that I'll never drive again, not after what I

347
00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:48,720
saw that night. I was driving the highway when something

348
00:20:48,799 --> 00:20:51,839
hit the road with a boom. There was a full moon,

349
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,279
so I could see it was there, but it wasn't

350
00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:56,920
until I got a ways down the road that my

351
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,920
headlights hit the body of a two hundred pound pig

352
00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:03,759
with its back quarter chewed off. I was just beginning

353
00:21:03,759 --> 00:21:06,680
to register what I was looking at when something jumped

354
00:21:06,759 --> 00:21:09,640
up out of the ditch and crossed both lanes in

355
00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,960
one step. I was pulling a flat bed with a

356
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,720
load of lumber, and I'd just come around the corner,

357
00:21:15,799 --> 00:21:19,200
so I was only going five miles per hour. The

358
00:21:19,319 --> 00:21:22,599
ditch there was about six feet deep. When it stood

359
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:27,319
up on two legs, I nearly lost control of my bowels.

360
00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:30,519
Even standing down in the ditch, there was at least

361
00:21:30,559 --> 00:21:34,440
four or five feet of upper body clearly above the roadway.

362
00:21:35,319 --> 00:21:38,319
It was covered in long, shaggy red hair with arms

363
00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:42,319
that reached down to its knees. It meandered along like

364
00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:45,359
it didn't even care I was there, swinging its arms

365
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,519
and walking with a weird gait. I will never forget.

366
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,400
The only words I can find to describe it are

367
00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:56,279
werewolf on steroids. Not long after that, I moved to

368
00:21:56,319 --> 00:22:02,279
Buena Buena, Buna, Buna, Texas. My next door. Neighbor's dad

369
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,000
had passed away and left him his truck. I was

370
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:08,599
parked behind the trailer I was living in, and we

371
00:22:08,599 --> 00:22:12,240
were using it for part storage. One night, I heard

372
00:22:12,279 --> 00:22:14,599
a bunch of rattling out there, and I assumed it

373
00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:17,559
was my neighbor digging some parts out until I smelled

374
00:22:17,559 --> 00:22:20,680
an odor coming through my window air conditioner that was

375
00:22:20,799 --> 00:22:25,519
like a rotten skunk sweat running through a backup sewer.

376
00:22:29,599 --> 00:22:32,559
I know this guy was probably scared, but oh man,

377
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:37,319
the the way you guys described these smells are just awesome.

378
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:41,319
They're just awesome. Uh. He said. It burned his eyes,

379
00:22:41,759 --> 00:22:44,400
and it burned his nose. It even burned my throat.

380
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:47,599
It was out there for three or four minutes. The

381
00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:50,319
smell was so bad and so strong that I couldn't

382
00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:53,559
even take a breath. Worse yet, I was afraid to

383
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,839
move and attract the attention of whatever was out there.

384
00:22:56,839 --> 00:22:59,680
Because the windows in those little house trailers aren't more

385
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,200
than a sixteenth of an inch thick. It wouldn't have

386
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,480
taken much to peel that window open like a sardine can,

387
00:23:06,519 --> 00:23:10,720
and I wasn't about to be a sardine. The next morning,

388
00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:13,039
I went out and walked around the trailer to see

389
00:23:13,079 --> 00:23:15,319
if I could find anything that might tell me what

390
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:22,759
had been there the night I keep thinking about this. Ooh,

391
00:23:23,279 --> 00:23:26,920
I'm sorry, y'all. I'm just gonna leave this in because

392
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:31,559
I gotta move on. Okay, where was I? The next morning,

393
00:23:31,599 --> 00:23:33,559
I went out and walked around the trailer to see

394
00:23:33,559 --> 00:23:36,160
if I could find anything that might tell me what

395
00:23:36,279 --> 00:23:39,720
had been out there the night before. Under the kitchen window,

396
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:43,920
I found a footprint. I've never seen one like it before.

397
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:48,079
It had three toes with long claw indentions in the dirt.

398
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,519
The size of it sent a shiver down my spine.

399
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,200
I took a picture of it, but I don't know

400
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,400
where it's at. It could be on a computer I

401
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,440
have that's broken right now, or maybe a on an

402
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:05,200
old cell phone. Either way, it's probably lost forever. My

403
00:24:05,319 --> 00:24:08,759
trailer was just off of ninety six, heading out of town,

404
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:11,920
and there were just a few houses and then nothing

405
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,519
but forest. My two neighbors, the guy down the road,

406
00:24:15,559 --> 00:24:18,640
and I all owned dogs. I had three, and my

407
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:21,519
neighbors each had dogs, and the guy down the road

408
00:24:21,599 --> 00:24:26,039
had two pit bulls. Three weeks after I found the footprint,

409
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,160
every one of those dogs, except my little rat terrier

410
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:33,720
was found dead. Not too long after that, I had

411
00:24:33,759 --> 00:24:36,799
gone over to visit my friend and his wife. They

412
00:24:36,839 --> 00:24:39,720
lived about fifty yards over from my trailer, off the

413
00:24:39,759 --> 00:24:42,880
main road. I got there at eight o'clock, so it

414
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,880
was already dark when I stepped through their French doors

415
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:49,440
into the deck for a cigarette. I was scanning the

416
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,920
tree line about twenty feet away when I saw a

417
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,880
pair of red eyes staring back at me. They had

418
00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:58,400
to be nine feet off the ground. I stared at

419
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:00,920
it for what felt like in a turity, but was

420
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,519
probably only a few seconds, and then I turned around

421
00:25:04,599 --> 00:25:08,079
and went back inside right away. My friend asked me

422
00:25:08,279 --> 00:25:11,759
why I came back in so quickly. I didn't know

423
00:25:11,799 --> 00:25:14,240
what to say, so I told him I forgot my lighter.

424
00:25:15,079 --> 00:25:17,640
We went back out together with a couple of beers,

425
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,279
but the eyes were gone by then. I can't help

426
00:25:21,319 --> 00:25:25,000
but wonder why I have these encounters. The first time

427
00:25:25,039 --> 00:25:29,200
I saw one was north of Roanokee, Virginia. After that,

428
00:25:29,319 --> 00:25:32,000
I didn't go outside at night for a long time.

429
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:37,720
After the incidents in Buena or Buna, a medicine man

430
00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:40,680
and a healer told me that I had great powers

431
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,680
and that's why I see them. They're drawn to me

432
00:25:43,799 --> 00:25:47,599
for healing. The worst part is the dark forces and

433
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:52,839
the demons, but that story is for another time. Oh

434
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,640
to the writer, what a great story. You really do

435
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,880
seem to attract these things. I mean, I counted one

436
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:04,880
to three encounters in your lifetime. And you know there's

437
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:07,960
people like me who never see anything. So I'm a

438
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:10,720
little jealous in a way. And you might say, well,

439
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,000
think about what you wish for, But I really do

440
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:16,440
wish I could see one. I do. I'm not lying.

441
00:26:16,519 --> 00:26:18,759
I really wish I could see one. But thank you

442
00:26:18,839 --> 00:26:21,200
for writing this. We had to edit it a little bit,

443
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,559
but it wound up being just a fantastic story to

444
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,079
share it and I really appreciate the man taking the

445
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,079
time to write it down and send it to me.

446
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:30,000
Thank you, sir,