1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,760 "The first time I understood I was not being watched by a person or some animal. 2 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:18,620 It was standing just beyond the reach of my porch light, with its head turned toward my 3 00:00:18,620 --> 00:00:22,160 kitchen window, where I stood. 4 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:24,160 It didn't move a muscle. 5 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,560 It stood there in the dark, watching me. 6 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:32,520 I had lived there my whole life, right there on the edge of the woods. 7 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:37,920 I'd seen all kinds of animals and strange humans come through there, and I'd never been 8 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:38,920 frightened. 9 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:53,000 But that all changed one night in 2019." 10 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:54,000 My name is Carla. 11 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,440 I'll be 74 years old this year. 12 00:00:57,440 --> 00:00:59,880 I live in South-Eastern Ohio. 13 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:03,400 In the same house I grew up in. 14 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:09,560 Before that night in 2019, things happened that I didn't give a lot of thought, too. 15 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:13,840 But then the first thing that I took notice of was my dog. 16 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,680 I had a blue healer named June. 17 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:21,840 Good dog, steady dog, not the sort to bark or spook easy. 18 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,280 She was nine years old then. 19 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:29,720 And every night before bedtime, I would let her out the back door for a few minutes. 20 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:35,880 One night I opened the door, and she stopped dead at the doorway and refused to go out. 21 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:37,640 Her ears went back. 22 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:40,440 The hair along her shoulders stood up. 23 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,760 She growled and backed up into my legs. 24 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:45,520 I remember being annoyed. 25 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,760 I was tired, and I just wanted to go to bed. 26 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:53,320 So I nudged her a little with my foot and told her to go on out. 27 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:55,720 She refused. 28 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:58,360 I looked out into the yard. 29 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,040 Nothing I could see as far as the porch light went. 30 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:07,480 But there was a feeling that I got when I looked out past into the darkness, like something 31 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:08,480 was out there. 32 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:14,760 I figured there was probably a coyote close, maybe some stray dogs. 33 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:19,160 I shut the door and took her out front on a leash instead with a pistol tucked into my 34 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:21,280 jacket pocket. 35 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:26,760 She hurried, used the bathroom, then pulled hard to get back inside. 36 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:31,360 The next morning there was nothing out there telling me what if anything had been out 37 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:32,360 back. 38 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:35,360 But it was the same thing the next night. 39 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:41,840 Now that time I got a flashlight and I stood on the back porch steps listening. 40 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:47,560 It was so quiet I could faintly hear someone's car alarm going off in town almost two miles 41 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:48,560 away. 42 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:52,200 Otherwise, dead silence. 43 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,040 There weren't even any crickets. 44 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,640 I swept the yard with the flashlight. 45 00:02:57,640 --> 00:02:59,880 I didn't see anything. 46 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:06,400 But when I hit the tree line with the light, I saw something dark move behind a tree. 47 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:09,800 This was at the far back corner of my yard. 48 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:14,960 At first I thought it was a person, and it wouldn't be the first time. 49 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:20,840 I thought it was maybe some idiot from town, or maybe those teenage boys about a quarter 50 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:26,920 mile down the road that had been causing trouble up and down the road for the last couple years. 51 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:33,560 I thought maybe they were trying to scare me, you know, the single older woman living alone. 52 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:38,800 I clicked the flashlight up to high and focused in on that area. 53 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:44,320 Nothing moved there, but I know I did not imagine that I had seen movement. 54 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:47,280 I called out somewhat aggressively. 55 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:49,600 Who's out there? 56 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:51,840 There was no answer. 57 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:58,720 I listened carefully for a few more seconds, and suddenly my skin started crawling. 58 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,560 I went in and quickly shut and locked the door. 59 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:07,000 I did a circle around the house checking all the doors and windows. 60 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:12,840 I'm used to living alone, and I don't usually spook like that, but I also know I needed 61 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:14,840 listen to my gut. 62 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:19,880 I kept the shotgun loaded and within reach from then on. 63 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:24,560 The third night it was becoming something of a routine. 64 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:29,920 June now refused to go out back at all after sundown, and she didn't stay long out there 65 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,200 even during the day. 66 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:38,000 I put it down to her getting older, but my gut wasn't so sure. 67 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,400 There were still small things that I began to notice after that. 68 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:45,840 I had a bird feeder and a bird bath out in the yard. 69 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:47,400 It was one of the cement kinds. 70 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:50,680 It looks like a big half shell on a pedestal. 71 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:53,960 It's heavy, solid, concrete. 72 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:59,840 One morning it was empty, and it was sitting on the ground a few feet away from the pedestal, 73 00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:02,320 which still stood upright. 74 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:05,760 The bird feeder was destroyed. 75 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:10,800 My ex-husband is the one who placed that bird bath there for me years ago. 76 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:17,280 Now mind you, in 2019, I was 67, and I'd already been through two spinal surgeries in previous 77 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:21,280 years, and I tried to pick up that bird bath top. 78 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:23,440 But there's no way I could do it. 79 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:26,440 I ended up calling my ex for some help. 80 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:32,280 Now for perspective, we bought it way back in the 90s at an estate sale. 81 00:05:32,280 --> 00:05:38,080 The daughter of the elderly people who had passed away told us her parents bought it sometime 82 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:40,360 in the 1950s. 83 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:44,040 It was bigger than the ones you see today at Walmart. 84 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:47,800 I bet the top piece was 80 pounds just by itself. 85 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,800 But something had picked it up. 86 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:56,000 It was now set on the ground in a way that you could see it hadn't been knocked over. 87 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,200 Over the next week I found that quite often. 88 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:04,200 I would go through the trouble to put it back up on the pedestal and refill it. 89 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:08,800 And often I would find it empty and laying somewhere else. 90 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:11,720 As for the bird feeder, I never replaced it. 91 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:13,840 It was futile. 92 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:16,960 I still didn't know what was happening. 93 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:21,840 Every couple days I was finding something else that told me something was coming around 94 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:23,880 my house. 95 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:28,800 One day I went out to find a full-size patio cushion was missing from a chair. 96 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:31,560 There had been no storms and no wind. 97 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:33,320 I thought that was strange. 98 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:36,880 Who takes one patio cushion? 99 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:41,680 Another day I came not to see that all of my orange ditch lilies that had been planted 100 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:46,480 along the back fence had all had the top eaten right off. 101 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:51,880 Now, if you aren't familiar with those flowers, they're pretty tough and deer don't eat 102 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:52,880 them. 103 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:58,680 But something ate every single flower off the top of the stems and they had been eaten. 104 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:01,200 You could look at it and tell. 105 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:08,080 My mom planted those way back in probably the late 1950s or very early 1960s. 106 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:10,800 I remember when she planted them. 107 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:17,160 So in over seven decades, not once has anything ever eaten a single one of them. 108 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:19,880 So I was pretty stumped. 109 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:25,480 At first, each thing that happened seemed like it was just an oddity on its own, something 110 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:27,000 separate. 111 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,520 More and more things were happening though. 112 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:35,160 Some things like June refused to go out the back at all, whereas previously I had trouble 113 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:38,040 to getting her to come back in. 114 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:43,720 But more and more happened, and after a while I began to think of them as not separate, 115 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:45,760 but connected. 116 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:50,360 I caught myself avoiding the back of my yard from sundown onward. 117 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,560 I told myself I was letting June make me paranoid. 118 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:59,600 But I could not shake the feeling of being watched and that something was somehow different 119 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:01,400 out there now. 120 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:06,080 I used to see a lot more animals out there, and I didn't anymore. 121 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:09,200 There didn't seem to even be squirrel chatter. 122 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:12,640 And almost no deer was seen that whole summer. 123 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:18,440 And there were no foxes, no coyote that I saw, although I did hear them often the distance 124 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:20,720 quite often. 125 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:23,880 One night, and this was in late August. 126 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:28,440 I was standing at the sink, washing a couple dishes by hand. 127 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:31,360 I suddenly got that really weird feeling. 128 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:36,040 I swear it felt like my hair was marching across my head. 129 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:39,960 The only light on in the kitchen was the one above the sink. 130 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:45,320 I reached over, and I flipped the switch to turn that light off so I could see outside without 131 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,560 looking through my reflection in the window. 132 00:08:48,560 --> 00:08:53,640 The back porch light was still on, so I could see out in the yard. 133 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:55,640 I didn't see anything. 134 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:59,320 But I stood still for probably a full minute looking. 135 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,080 Then I thought foolish. 136 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:05,360 And I was about to flick the light back on when June, who had been lying in the kitchen 137 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:11,600 doorway behind me, stood up and walked over to her food and water dishes, which were at 138 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:16,440 the end of the counters there, near the sliding patio doors. 139 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:22,760 She took one by the food, stopped, looked out the doors, then began to growl, marched 140 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:26,560 over to the doors with her fur bristling. 141 00:09:26,560 --> 00:09:28,680 That was really unlike her. 142 00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:33,960 So I walked over, staying back in the darkness of the kitchen, and I looked out where I thought 143 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:35,680 she was looking. 144 00:09:35,680 --> 00:09:36,680 There. 145 00:09:36,680 --> 00:09:38,560 I just saw it. 146 00:09:38,560 --> 00:09:42,200 There was something out at the far edge of the yard. 147 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:45,080 It wasn't in the trees this time. 148 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:46,800 It was in the open. 149 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:51,600 But right at the point in the yard were the light started to vanish. 150 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:57,320 It was standing near the old clothesline pole, which was at the farthest bit of light. 151 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:02,920 And for a second, my mind still tried to see it as a person. 152 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:04,520 Then it moved. 153 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:09,160 It straightened up, and I got a real idea of its size. 154 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:14,480 The clothesline pole was at least a foot shorter than what I was looking at. 155 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:20,120 And what I saw was broader across the shoulders than any human I've ever seen. 156 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:23,000 And I've seen some really big ones. 157 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:28,760 I had a hard time seeing where the arms ended in the darkness, but I know they didn't end 158 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:31,800 where they would have ended on a person. 159 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:36,920 And I could tell its whole body was angled toward the house. 160 00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:42,680 It had been watching me all lit up there at the sink like I was on television. 161 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:46,600 There was no curtain on that window, just to top the lance. 162 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:48,080 I had never meted one. 163 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:51,440 There's not a neighbor in sight. 164 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:56,520 I couldn't tell you the exact height, just that it was taller than my clothesline pole, 165 00:10:56,520 --> 00:11:00,120 by at least a foot, maybe much more. 166 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:03,560 And that pole is just over six feet tall. 167 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:07,480 So we're going to say seven feet plus. 168 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,800 It was all dark brown or maybe black. 169 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:14,480 Everything I saw was dull looking, not shiny. 170 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:20,040 I couldn't see all the detail, but I saw the shape and it was covered solid. 171 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:25,440 What I mean is, there were no clothing line breaks, which you would see. 172 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:29,440 You would see where a jacket or a coat would end at the bottom him. 173 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:31,920 You would see the pant legs. 174 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:33,880 But I didn't see any of that. 175 00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:36,800 It was solid and unbroken. 176 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:39,840 There was no different color to the face either. 177 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:43,840 It was very solid and very large. 178 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:46,760 And I remember one clear thought. 179 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:49,640 This isn't possible. 180 00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:52,320 June started barking and growling. 181 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:54,960 It must have hurt her and it moved. 182 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:58,760 It began to walk away toward the trees and the darkness. 183 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:05,520 It wasn't running, but it moved fast in a way that seemed out of sync for its size. 184 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:10,640 I quickly called my ex-husband Jim, who just lived a few minutes away. 185 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:15,320 And just so you understand, we get along good after our divorce and we are good friends 186 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:16,640 to this day. 187 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:19,320 We rely on each other a lot. 188 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:25,080 I called him and he came right over with a spotlight, a pistol and a rifle. 189 00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:27,000 Jim has hunted his whole life. 190 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:29,400 He grew up down the road too. 191 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:31,480 He's also a Vietnam veteran. 192 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:36,320 He then served in the Marine Corps for another 22 years after Vietnam. 193 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:37,680 I'm just saying. 194 00:12:37,680 --> 00:12:43,760 He's not the kind that's afraid to go after something, even in the dark, you know? 195 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:49,320 Jim got there and checked the yard and it looked like something had sure been coming around. 196 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:53,920 It had even made tracks up to the porch and the kitchen window he said. 197 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:56,720 Dang to find out how he could tell all of that. 198 00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:59,240 We hadn't had any rain for a month. 199 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,480 The ground was hard as I'll get out. 200 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:06,760 At one point he got down and he looked at something in the grass about ten feet from 201 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:08,840 my kitchen window. 202 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:14,160 I couldn't make out what he was looking at, but he sure saw something there. 203 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:19,400 He said something had stood there and shifted around for a while, probably watching me stand 204 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:21,800 at the kitchen sink. 205 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:26,760 Only other thing was he said that what he saw was older and it hadn't happened in the 206 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:29,240 last couple hours. 207 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:33,400 I asked him what was it, a bear? 208 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:34,880 He waited a second. 209 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:36,520 He kept looking at it. 210 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:40,200 Then he finally said, "Well, maybe it is a bear. 211 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:45,840 Maybe it stood here on its hind legs, looking in at you through the window." 212 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:51,040 He then walked the fence in the tree line again and there was nothing concrete there, but 213 00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:55,880 something he said had been trampling through the dry grass. 214 00:13:55,880 --> 00:14:01,800 Over the next week, whatever it was kept coming back, not in a way that I could predict 215 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:08,120 it and never enough to get a good look, but I wasn't trying to either, because I figured 216 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:09,480 it was a black bear. 217 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:12,760 That's also why I didn't call the sheriff. 218 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:16,800 I assumed it was just a wild animal. 219 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:22,640 The thing is, I didn't go back out after sunset anymore, and June got walked out front all 220 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:24,640 the time now. 221 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:29,080 I also bought a curtain that covered the whole kitchen window and I made sure it was closed 222 00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:30,800 at sunset. 223 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:35,120 After a while, I just got to where I left it closed. 224 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:40,920 The most disturbing night for me was when I realized it had changed its habits because 225 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:43,400 I had changed mine. 226 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:48,680 I was now taking June out the front before dark, but as the months went on and the days got 227 00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:51,560 shorter, sometimes we had no choice. 228 00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:55,640 We would have to go out again when it was a little dark. 229 00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:59,320 One night I took June out front as usual. 230 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:01,920 The porch light was on. 231 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:06,560 June was just finishing up doing her thing when she suddenly turns to look at the right 232 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:08,160 side of the driveway. 233 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:11,640 There's a runoff ditch over there on that side of the property. 234 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:14,400 It runs close to the trees. 235 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:17,040 I looked over to where she was looking. 236 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:21,720 She was now growling, bristling, and running back to the porch. 237 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:27,360 I about jumped a mile up when I saw a shape move in the darkness. 238 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:30,400 It was crouched right there in the ditch. 239 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:33,960 I could barely see it, but I saw it. 240 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:42,240 The thing was, as soon as it saw me see it, it stood up and jogged over into the trees. 241 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:43,560 And I do mean it jogged. 242 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:46,280 It was doing a type of a light run. 243 00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:48,840 Scared me out of my wits. 244 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:52,360 I had a hard time telling myself that's a bear. 245 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:54,120 I knew better. 246 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:57,280 I know I've never seen a bear run on its hind legs. 247 00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:00,120 I'm sureling not that fast. 248 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:05,720 I almost called Jim again, but from the first night that I had called him, I bet I'd called 249 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,440 him five or more times just over the last few weeks. 250 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,360 I couldn't keep doing that. 251 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:15,080 The real truth for me came the day. 252 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,160 I saw it in broad daylight. 253 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:23,600 I saw the top of its head, and one shoulder is its slid behind the shed as I looked out from 254 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:25,680 my laundry room. 255 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,800 I felt like I'd been hit by lightning. 256 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:30,560 I knew what it was. 257 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:31,560 That's Bigfoot. 258 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:35,200 Now that really shook me up. 259 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:36,640 But where the thing is? 260 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:42,480 I wasn't as scared as I was when I thought I had a bear out there prowling around. 261 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:44,720 It's something I can't explain. 262 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:50,120 I am not in the camp where I think Bigfoot is a big harmless, cuddly thing. 263 00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:54,800 But I also didn't feel like it was bear type of dangerous, either. 264 00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:59,040 I have zero logic for this, and I know it. 265 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,600 I started really looking for it after that. 266 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:06,880 But I only saw a shape move at night, right out of the light. 267 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:08,400 That happened a lot. 268 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:10,920 Now why it came out that one day? 269 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:13,680 I have no idea. 270 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:19,800 As autumn came on, I hesitated sleeping with my windows open, which had done my whole 271 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:20,800 life. 272 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:22,200 I thought it through. 273 00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:26,160 I still kept the shotgun within reach by my bed. 274 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:31,040 So I decided to cut some wood pieces to put into the windows so they could not be raised 275 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:35,400 more than a couple inches when I left them open. 276 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:39,360 If something tried to force the window, I would hear it. 277 00:17:39,360 --> 00:17:43,560 But I only did that for a few nights. 278 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:48,240 I started hearing things out there that I'd never heard there in my whole life of living 279 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:49,440 there. 280 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:53,160 Three falls, one or two a night. 281 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:55,040 Sometimes there were more of them. 282 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:59,280 And there would be no wind or storms to be knocking them down. 283 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:04,040 And they were spaced apart just right, like maybe two or three minutes. 284 00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:06,760 It seemed controlled. 285 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:11,280 And then I would hear these strange, garbled vocal sounds. 286 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:14,120 I don't know quite what else to call them. 287 00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:18,840 They weren't yells or screams, and it wasn't like that samurai chatter. 288 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:20,840 I don't know what to call them. 289 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:25,720 They were just strange calls that came in from the tree lines. 290 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:32,760 When June would hear them, she would either bark and growl or go hide behind the couch. 291 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:38,680 One night the windows were open just a couple of inches, and I woke up because June was digging 292 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:43,400 and scratching on the wood floor, trying to get under the bed. 293 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:48,320 I have those underbed storage boxes where I store extra blankets. 294 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:51,120 She was whining and digging like crazy. 295 00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:55,880 I remember I woke up, trying to figure out what was going on. 296 00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:59,080 I opened my eyes in the darkness and listened. 297 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:03,080 I was about to scold her when I realized what she was doing. 298 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:05,960 But then I looked over at the window. 299 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:12,240 As soon as my head moved, something moved outside my window. 300 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,120 It was there, then it was gone. 301 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:18,280 I heard the feet running away. 302 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:20,200 It scared the wits out of me pretty bad. 303 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:22,280 I can't lie. 304 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:27,320 I did not ever sleep with the windows open again after that. 305 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:33,840 I don't know exactly what it was doing other than just watching me, and I mean just watching 306 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:34,840 me. 307 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:37,720 I thought watched all the time. 308 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:40,520 But it was taking things too sometimes. 309 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:44,920 And sometimes it was reading my trash cans and would make a terrible mess. 310 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:50,800 And in all the years I'd lived there, nothing had ever bothered my trash cans. 311 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,760 I began to alter my habits more. 312 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:58,280 I did not do dishes at the kitchen sink at night, at all. 313 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:04,080 I tried to stay out of the kitchen completely after dusk, actually the whole back of the house. 314 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:08,920 I only went into the kitchen if I absolutely needed to at night, and I never turned a light 315 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:10,400 on. 316 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:17,320 I think my alteration of my habit is what caused the next thing to happen. 317 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:19,960 I think it got mad. 318 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:25,140 So one night I'm sitting there watching television in the living room, and all of a sudden it 319 00:20:25,140 --> 00:20:28,160 sounded like a tree hit the side of the house. 320 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,280 I mean big impact. 321 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,280 I actually jumped from the sound. 322 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:38,800 I had no idea at the time what it was, but I wasn't going out in the dark to find out 323 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:40,120 either. 324 00:20:40,120 --> 00:20:41,560 I couldn't call Jim. 325 00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:45,080 I knew he was up at Lake Eryon a fishing trip. 326 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:51,120 I thought of calling the sheriff, but I know that small towns have big mouths, as they say. 327 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:56,300 I turned off the lights and sat quietly in my recliner in the living room with the shotgun 328 00:20:56,300 --> 00:20:57,300 on my lap. 329 00:20:57,300 --> 00:21:01,680 I didn't mean to, but I fell asleep there. 330 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:05,120 The next morning I went out and investigated. 331 00:21:05,120 --> 00:21:09,480 I discovered the vinyl siding on the left side of the house looked like a meteor had slammed 332 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:11,160 into it. 333 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:15,200 All the vinyl was dented, cracked, and bent. 334 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:16,920 It was in a long shape. 335 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:21,400 It looked like someone had picked up a big log and used it like a baseball bat right up against 336 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:22,920 the side of the house. 337 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:25,080 I had no choice. 338 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,880 I had to file a report with the sheriff. 339 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:32,040 If I wanted to make an insurance claim, I had to have that. 340 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:37,400 I told him the truth as much as I could, which is that I didn't know what happened or 341 00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:39,680 what caused it. 342 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:45,560 The deputy never said anything, but I think he had his own ideas, and I found out a little 343 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:48,480 bit later on about that. 344 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:53,080 I was in town running errands, and I ran into a woman that I had known since kindergarten 345 00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:55,080 at the post office. 346 00:21:55,080 --> 00:22:01,800 She asked if I was the one seeing that other thing that had been behind the brewer's place. 347 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:05,520 I was shocked and I said, "What thing?" 348 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:09,900 She then told me something big had been seen crossing the road near the old gravel pit 349 00:22:09,900 --> 00:22:11,800 just a few weeks earlier. 350 00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:16,600 Now, I was perplexed how it came that she would ask me about that. 351 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:18,640 "Aha," I thought. 352 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,680 I suddenly remembered. 353 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,920 Her daughter works a dispatch for the county. 354 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,680 She'd have known about my siding incident. 355 00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:32,240 Then, she said another man had reported something killed two of his hunting dogs, ripped their 356 00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:35,760 cages open like potato chip bags. 357 00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:38,040 I stood there and listened. 358 00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:42,840 So I wasn't the only one with strange things happening. 359 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:47,680 But the worst night was the night I lost power. 360 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,400 Bad thunderstorms had rolled through. 361 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:52,160 Lots of lightning and thunder. 362 00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:55,040 The kind that made the house shake. 363 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,960 We lost power, which I have expected. 364 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:04,440 I lit two candles in sat in the living room working a word-cross puzzle. 365 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,520 June was sitting there pressed up against my leg. 366 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:11,040 She had always been terrified of thunder. 367 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,320 I was brought deep working that crossword puzzle. 368 00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:17,800 When I heard a sound I knew all too well. 369 00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:21,320 The back door handle began to jiggle. 370 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:25,160 As soon as that started, June lost her mind. 371 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:29,040 She was barking so hard she was slipping on the floor. 372 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:34,400 I stood up, grabbed the shotgun, and backed up toward the hallway where I could see through 373 00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,680 to the back door. 374 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:43,440 But the dark without power was so absolute I really couldn't see anything. 375 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:48,480 Growing up, the back door was a wood door with the upper half, nothing more than a set of 376 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:50,480 small window-pains. 377 00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:55,920 I seemed to recall the R9, three rows of three windows. 378 00:23:55,920 --> 00:24:02,280 After we moved in, Jim insisted on a more secure steel door with a very small wagon wheel-shape 379 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:04,280 window at the top. 380 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:08,920 I remember arguing, wanting to keep the other door out of nostalgia. 381 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:14,760 Plus, I could barely see out that door window without being on my tippy toes. 382 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:16,920 Jim won out. 383 00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:24,800 And right then I was thankful that there was a steel door and not one made of half glass. 384 00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:30,920 Something slammed the door so hard I felt the vibration through the floor where I was standing. 385 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,040 It wasn't like it was exactly trying to get in. 386 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:38,120 It felt more like a test of the door. 387 00:24:38,120 --> 00:24:41,800 I yelled out, "Get out of here!" 388 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,560 I yelled it as loud as I could. 389 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:51,240 I know it heard me because the jiggling stopped and nothing happened for a few seconds. 390 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:58,240 Then with the best or maybe the worst timing, however you want to consider it, the power 391 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,520 came back on right then. 392 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:06,800 The porch light was on when the power had gone out, so when the power came back, the porch 393 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,560 light came back on too. 394 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:16,640 And for a split second, I saw its face looking in at me through the little wagon wheel window. 395 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:19,640 It must have bent down to do that. 396 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:26,160 The thing was, as soon as the lights came on, we had instant eye contact. 397 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:32,560 What I mean is, I think it had had its eyes on me all the time, that it could see me in 398 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:38,760 the darkness because when the lights came back on, it wasn't searching for me in the hallway. 399 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,960 It already had its eyes on me. 400 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:46,480 I had that look at it for that second, then it took off. 401 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:49,680 I heard the porch board's creak as it left. 402 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:53,120 That was not my imagination. 403 00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:58,000 And you know, I don't know what came over me, but I ran to the kitchen window and had to 404 00:25:58,000 --> 00:25:59,760 look out. 405 00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,480 As scared as I was, I had to know. 406 00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:04,720 I had to see. 407 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:09,920 I got to the window just in time to see it running across the yard for the trees. 408 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:16,080 It went right over that fence the way me or you would step over something on the sidewalk. 409 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:23,440 But for one instant, I saw it clearly, the most clear up to that point. 410 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:28,800 It was massively built way more than I had first thought. 411 00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:34,800 It's really hard to appreciate the size of one of these things until you see it. 412 00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:38,400 I thought it was big and tall from what I'd already seen. 413 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:43,960 But watching it leap the yard, I got to look at the whole body, at least the backside, 414 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:45,720 top to bottom. 415 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:49,520 Massa Hartley describes it. 416 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,440 It ran with its head pushing forward. 417 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,040 The whole body was leaning forward actually. 418 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:03,320 It ran with a weird gate, like the lower legs rotated a little at the knees with every step. 419 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:09,400 That still isn't a good description, but I can't give a better one. 420 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:14,160 Then it was over the fence and gone into the darkness and back in the woods in just two 421 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:15,160 seconds. 422 00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:18,440 I frantically called Jim. 423 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:23,040 He came and he picked me in June up and took us to his house for the night. 424 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:27,800 I ended up staying there for the next several weeks. 425 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:33,480 I moved back to the house when Jim and two of his friends cut trees and brush further 426 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,800 back from the back edge of the yard. 427 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:42,560 They also wired up brighter floodlights with dusk to dawn auto lighting. 428 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:49,000 To my knowledge, the big foot never came back onto the porch again. 429 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,280 As winter came on, it got quiet. 430 00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,800 There was no activity. 431 00:27:54,800 --> 00:28:01,280 Then in the spring there were a couple times that June acted as if it was out there again, 432 00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:03,720 but I did not see it. 433 00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:05,560 Then everything stopped. 434 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:08,520 The best I can figure is it moved on. 435 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:11,080 Yes, I still live here. 436 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,000 This has been my home for my whole life. 437 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:19,920 My children were partly raised here and my grandchildren have a lot of memories here. 438 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:21,120 This is home. 439 00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:25,840 I don't intend to leave until the corner takes me away. 440 00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:31,360 I'm not afraid to go outside after dark now, and I don't necessarily feel watched. 441 00:28:31,360 --> 00:28:36,320 But I also don't go standing around in the backyard looking into the trees. 442 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:41,240 And I'm careful not to leave the curtains open at night, even though there are no neighbors 443 00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:45,440 who could look in, except for the ones that live in the woods. 444 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:50,920 I'm just careful not to frame myself as if I'm on television at night. 445 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,640 I think you understand that. 446 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:57,520 There are people who ask if I believe in Bigfoot. 447 00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:02,240 I always tell them, "That is the wrong question." 448 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:06,280 "Believe is for something you have not seen." 449 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:10,640 I saw Bigfoot, and he stood out there for many, many nights. 450 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:17,800 Probably more than I ever will know, studying my house and studying me. 451 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:22,600 As for his behavior and the actions, I can't explain them. 452 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:29,960 Someone better versed in Bigfootology might be able to, but I can't, and I don't care to. 453 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:34,800 It will be five years this spring since it all happened, and I hope I live the rest of 454 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:38,560 my life here, without anything else ever happening. 455 00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:39,560 And I never... 456 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:43,560 There's my story as I promised you. 457 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,640 Signed, Carla. 458 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,560 We've been listening to the "Buck-I-Bigfoot" podcast. 459 00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:53,960 Find more stories, hundreds more, over on our YouTube channel. 460 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:55,800 Just look for "Buck-I-Bigfoot." 461 00:29:55,800 --> 00:30:05,800 [MUSIC]