1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 [Crying] 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:13,440 If you'd asked me ten years ago, what could shake a camper hard enough to rattle the dishes, 3 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:19,520 but not leave a scratch on it? I'd have told you a good old Ohio Thunderstorm, and that 4 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:24,400 would have been the end of it. These days, though, if somebody mentions pounding on a 5 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:30,400 camper in the middle of the night, I get real quiet. Because once you stood in your socks 6 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:35,400 on a cold floor at two in the morning with the walls of your little home flexing around 7 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:42,000 you like a candy box in a kid's hand, and you know there isn't anybody out there that's 8 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:50,800 supposed to be? It changes the way you feel about the dark. That's what happened to me. 9 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:58,160 My name is Jacob. I'm in my early forties, divorced, no kids, and I've lived in southeastern 10 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:05,440 Ohio my whole life. We're talking rolling hills, second-growth woods, and more old logging 11 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:13,040 roads than actual paved ones in some spots. My cousin owns about forty acres that back 12 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:18,760 right up against a big chunk of the Wayne National Forest. It's mostly woods with one 13 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:23,640 little cleared spot up near the county road, where an old house used to sit before it was 14 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:29,920 burned down in the seventies. About four years ago, I bought a big square of that land off 15 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:36,360 my cousin, and I got that bright idea I was going to build myself a small house up there. 16 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:40,840 Nothing fancy, just a simple place that I could afford without a mortgage hanging over my 17 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:46,920 head. I worked maintenance at a factory about twenty miles away, so I'm pretty decent 18 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:51,880 with tools. And for three years right after high school, I worked construction on new home 19 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:58,280 builds, so I had the knowledge. I knew how things went together, and I had a lot of backpower, 20 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:04,840 so I figured I'd do all the work myself. Now to save money, I bought a used 24-foot travel 21 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:10,560 trailer off Facebook Marketplace and parked it up there while I built. We ran power from 22 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:16,120 the pole, and I figured out all the other logistics that I'm not going to bore you with. 23 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:23,320 It wasn't glamorous, but it was mine, and I didn't owe a penny on it. And other than the occasional 24 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:31,000 raccoon knocking over the trash can, it was really quiet. At least at first. 25 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,520 The camper was one of those older ones, with the fake wood paneling inside, and then aluminum 26 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:41,960 siding outside. You could knock on the walls, and it sounded like you were tapping on a soda 27 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:49,480 can. I had it backed up so the rear end was facing the woods, maybe twenty yards from the tree line. 28 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:56,760 On the door side, I'd set up a little gravel pad with a couple of long chairs, a firing, and my grill. 29 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:03,320 About fifteen feet out from the door, there was a single pole light, just one of those yard lights 30 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:09,560 that me and my cousin put up. It was one of the dusk-to-don deals with a greenish LED bulb. 31 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:16,840 Between that light and the one out at the road, the clearing was pretty well lit. Outside that 32 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:24,840 circle of light though, it went to black real fast. My closest human neighbor was over half a mile away. 33 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:32,840 You couldn't see another house from my spot. At night, it was just me, the trees, and whatever lived 34 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:40,200 in them. Like a lot of guys in this area, I grew up hunting. I've camped all over this 35 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:48,520 part of Ohio, and a lot of other states too. Coyotes, foxes, deer, owl. You name it. I've heard it, 36 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:55,960 smelled it, ran into them, or I've stepped in what they've left behind. The dark has never bothered 37 00:03:55,960 --> 00:04:03,240 me much. But living alone out there with nothing but a thin skin of aluminum between me and the woods, 38 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:11,640 well, you develop a different awareness. You notice every little noise, and that's how this all started 39 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:19,400 with noises. The first time I heard the knocking, I honestly thought it was a branch. I'd been in the 40 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:26,600 camper for about three weeks. It was late September, just starting to cool off at night. I was in bed 41 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:31,480 dosing off with one of those little twelve volt fans worrying on a shelf above me, 42 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:39,640 and that's when I heard three solid thunks from somewhere behind the camper. Not loud enough to be 43 00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:46,520 a car door, not metallic like somebody hitting the siding. It sounded like a stick smacking another 44 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:56,760 stick, dull, but hollow sounding. Thunk, thunk, thunk. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling. 45 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:07,240 The fan kept humming, then nothing. I laid there a few minutes listening, told myself it was just a 46 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:15,240 limb falling, or maybe a deer bumping into something out there. After all, trees make noises. 47 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:23,320 The woods are full of dead limbs that finally give up the ghost. But the next night, it happened again. 48 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:31,320 This time it was off to the left toward the little logging road that runs along my cousin's property line. 49 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:41,000 Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. That time it broke the pattern. It made me think of somebody 50 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:47,000 fooling around with a baseball bat on a telephone pole. I got up, slipped on my boots, 51 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:52,760 and stepped outside under the little gravel pad that I used as a front porch. The yard light 52 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:59,640 popped on over my head. Everything looked normal. I stood there in the cool air listening. 53 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:06,600 The woods sounded healthy, crickets, a barred owl off somewhere, and a distant 54 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:14,680 yet of coyotes. There was nothing that screamed trouble. After a minute or two, I went back in. 55 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:23,400 Those knocks happened on and off for about a week, never in the same place twice, always two to four 56 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:30,840 hits, and always after full dark. I'd catch myself sitting on the little sofa with the TV on low, 57 00:06:30,840 --> 00:06:36,920 just kind of waiting for it, listening, waiting for the thunk. 58 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:44,520 Now sometimes I'd step out and I'd shine a flashlight around, but nothing moved. Nothing 59 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:50,200 crashed away, off into the woods, nothing that was saying, "Hey, you caught me." 60 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:57,560 I started thinking I had a mischievous neighbor that I hadn't met yet. Maybe some kid from down 61 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:03,560 the road coming up through the woods just to get some kicks. I considered walking the fence line 62 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:10,360 in the daylight to look for a path, but life and work kept getting in the way, and I kept putting it off. 63 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:18,680 I wish now I hadn't. The first time something actually hit the camper 64 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:24,680 was on a Tuesday night. I remember because I was dead tired from working overtime that day. 65 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:31,480 I'd gotten home late, grabbed a quick shower, and heated up some leftovers in the little microwave. 66 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:36,600 By the time I crawled into bed, it was close to midnight. 67 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:45,240 Some time later, I don't know how long, I was in a deep sleep, and I was jerked awake by a sharp 68 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:52,680 metallic ping from right above my head. The whole camper shivered a little, like somebody had 69 00:07:52,680 --> 00:08:00,840 flicked it with their finger. I sat up, heart pounding, the fan was still going. The yard light 70 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:07,400 through the blinds looked steady. Then I heard something small rolled down the curve of the roof and 71 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:14,200 plop off the side of the camper. Now that's a very distinct sound, and you know it if you've ever 72 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:22,840 camped in one of those old rigs. It wasn't a squirrel or a raccoon. It was solid, like a rock, or maybe a nut. 73 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:32,360 I lay there, listening so hard my ears hurt. After a few seconds there was another ping farther 74 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:39,320 back toward the back this time, in another one toward the front. This wasn't hail. 75 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:44,520 The sky had been clear when I went to bed, and there was no rain on the roof, 76 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:49,320 just these individual strikes spaced out by 10 or 15 seconds. 77 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:56,440 I slid out a bed, pulled on my jeans and boots, grabbed the flashlight that I kept by the door. 78 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:03,480 When I stepped outside, the yard light kicked on with that soft, womp, electrical sound. 79 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:11,480 The air was cool and damp, that foggy kind of night where sound travels, but in weird ways. 80 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:18,920 Nothing moved out there in the clearing. I walked around the camper sweeping the beam of light 81 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:26,040 around the ground. That's when I saw it. Right by the back corner of the trailer, just under the 82 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:33,240 little drip line. There was a chunk of gravel about the size of a golf ball. My driveway in the 83 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:40,600 pad out front of my camper are made of limestone gravel, so gravel in itself wasn't weird. 84 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:47,160 But this rock was sitting in a little patch of bare dirt where there shouldn't have been any loose 85 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:54,600 gravel. I found two more along the side where I'd heard all the hits. One of them had a little 86 00:09:54,600 --> 00:10:01,720 fresh scrape on it, like it had been bounced off of something metal. I stood there with the flashlight 87 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:09,720 in my hand and this slow, cold realization then crept up on me. Something had been standing out 88 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:17,080 there in the darkness, picking up rocks and checking them at my camper. Not hard enough to break anything, 89 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:25,640 but enough to get my attention enough that I came out of the camper into the dark night to have a 90 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:32,440 look around. Now I can already hear folks saying, "Oh, that was probably just some kids doing that." 91 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:41,000 And I'll be honest with you, I was still in that camp too. Kids throw rocks, drunks throw rocks, 92 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:47,560 bored people with nothing better to do throw rocks. But I will also tell you that I walked that 93 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:54,200 drive with the flashlight for a good half hour that night and there were no fresh tire tracks, 94 00:10:54,200 --> 00:11:00,200 no footprints that looked like boots, nothing to suggest a vehicle had pulled in and turned around. 95 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:08,760 And if one had, I'd have heard it. And if it was some kid on foot, boy, he was sneaky and fast, 96 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:15,800 and he was persistent to keep coming back like that. I didn't sleep very well for the rest of that 97 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:22,600 week. The night at all came to a head was a Saturday, about two weeks after the rock incident. 98 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:29,240 It had been a long day. I'd been setting post for what was going to be the front porch of my little 99 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:36,760 house. I was digging holes, mixing concrete by hand and rustling with lumber. It was one of those days 100 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:43,640 where your back starts complaining before lunchtime. But you keep going because your stubborn, the weather's 101 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:52,360 nice, and you know winter is coming. By the time the sun went down, I was whipped. I grilled up a 102 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:57,880 couple of burgers on my little charcoal grill, had a couple of beers and sat by my small fire, 103 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:05,000 and to the mosquitoes said it was time to call it a night. I locked the camper door, turned off 104 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:12,120 the inside lights, and left just the yard light on the outside on. I do like a little glow coming 105 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:19,560 through the blinds. I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. Somewhere deep in the 106 00:12:19,560 --> 00:12:25,720 night, a boom hit the side of the camper so hard, I really thought something had exploded. 107 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:33,080 The walls flexed in, the window above the dinette rattled, and a couple of plates in the cabinet 108 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:40,520 clinked together. The whole trailer rocked on its stabilizers. I came out of sleep mid-air, 109 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:48,760 I swear to you. My heart went from zero to sprinting in one second. Before I could even process 110 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:57,800 that first hit, another one landed, this time on the back wall. Boom. Now that one made the little 111 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:05,480 shelf over my bed shake. The fan wobbled and almost fell. The camper rocked again, harder. 112 00:13:06,680 --> 00:13:11,880 I heard myself yell something. I don't think it was really words just yelling out sound, 113 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:18,440 and I did that as I scrambled out of the bed, fighting with the blankets nearly falling on my face 114 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:26,920 as I did so. The air inside the camper felt charged, like right before a storm. My ears were ringing 115 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:34,680 from the impacts. A third hit came. A little farther down the side this time, like somebody walking 116 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:40,440 along and hitting the wall as they went. Thud. Thud. Thud. 117 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:49,640 Every time the whole rig would sway, creek, and then settle. My first half awake thought was truck. 118 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:56,920 I somehow imagined some drunk idiot had swerved off the driveway, clipped the back of the camper, 119 00:13:56,920 --> 00:14:04,600 and that's what I was hearing. But there had been no engine noise, no headlights, no screeching tires, 120 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:12,920 no gravel, no nothing, just pounding, and then more pounding. A truck hitting the camper 121 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:20,040 well, wouldn't do that. I grabbed the flashlight and my phone from the little net pocket by the door. 122 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:27,240 I didn't have a firearm handy, and that's something that I have since changed in the way I do things. 123 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:33,240 But at that time my pistol was locked up in the truck out front, which didn't do me look 124 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:40,920 a good right then, did it? I stood there in my T-shirt and jeans, barefoot, breathing like I had just 125 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:48,680 run a race. I was staring at the door. There was another lighter wimp that hit the back corner, 126 00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:53,960 kind of like a test shove. Because the camper moved under my feet. 127 00:14:55,560 --> 00:15:04,600 Something big was out there, something really big. I don't care who thinks I'm a coward. I did not 128 00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:11,400 fling that door open right away. Now I stood there with one hand on the knob, listening, trying to 129 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:18,440 decide if I was safer inside my little aluminum coffin or outside, where I could at least see what 130 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:27,080 was about to kill me. Then everything went quiet for a few seconds. Then I heard it. From just 131 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:33,720 outside the rear wall, maybe six or eight feet from where I stood, there came a deep, heavy breathing. 132 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:42,920 This wasn't fast panting like a dog, and it wasn't a deer snorting. This was a slow and powerful 133 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:49,800 breathing, like someone had a chest the size of a 55 gallon drum, and they were filling it all the way 134 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:59,320 up, and then letting it out again. In and out. In and out. I didn't realize I was holding my breath 135 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:07,800 until my lungs started to burn. Well that did it. I had to know what was out there. Now looking back, 136 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:14,440 I don't know what I was thinking. I'm just telling you what I did. I went out there in the dark, 137 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:23,160 unarmed. Yes, stupid. I do know. I flicked on the flashlight, took a deep breath and yanked the door 138 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:30,280 open. The yard light kicked from its dim mode into full brightness as soon as the motion sensor 139 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:39,160 registered me out there. That sickly greenish white glow washed over the clearing. For a second, 140 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:45,960 all I could see was the empty gravel and my old pickup sitting off to the right. The night air hit 141 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:53,400 me cool and damp full of the smell of wet earth and leaves. Then I stepped out onto the little 142 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:58,680 pallet porch and leaned around so I could see down the side of the camper toward the back. 143 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:05,880 There was something standing there at the rear corner just outside the circle of the yard light. 144 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:13,480 At first it was just a darker shape among the shadows, big and wrong and too tall. 145 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:19,000 I raised the flashlight and the beam hit it square in the chest. 146 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:27,160 What I saw in that cone of light is burned into my brain. It was standing upright on two legs, 147 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:33,960 turned slightly toward the back wall of the camper. One arm still half extended like it had just 148 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:41,320 pushed the other hung down by its side. The first stupid thing my brain tried to tell me was 149 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:49,800 man in a coat, but that thought didn't last long. This thing's shoulder was level with the top 150 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:56,120 of the back window of the camper. I measured that window later. It was just under seven feet. 151 00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:00,840 That put the top of its head at eight, maybe eight and a half feet. 152 00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:08,200 The body was thick through the chest and shoulders, like somebody had wrapped a refrigerator in fur. 153 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:15,480 The arms were long, hanging well below what would have been its belt line if it was wearing one. 154 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:22,120 The hair or the fur, whatever you want to call it, looked dark brown or black, 155 00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:28,600 with some lighter almost rusty strands here and there. The face is what really locked me in place. 156 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:35,400 It turned its head toward me when the flashlight hit it, and for one moment in that light filtering 157 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:42,360 up from the beam of light on its chest and the yard light combined for one moment I saw it clear. 158 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:50,680 The brow stuck out heavy over deep set eyes. The nose was wide and flat, somewhere between a human 159 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:57,880 nose and an apes with big nostrils that flared slightly when it breathed. The mouth was wide and 160 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:05,640 set in a tight line. Lips darker than the surrounding skin. There was hair on the cheeks and along the 161 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:12,280 jaw, but less around the nose and mouth, so I could see patches of leathery looking skin, a dark 162 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:20,760 charcoal color. The eyes reflected a dull amber glint, not glowing like headlights, but just 163 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:27,640 catching the light like a deer's will, but they were set in that very human looking, intelligent face. 164 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:35,880 By intelligence, I'm saying it didn't have that detachment of most animals that I have ever encountered. 165 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:44,600 You know a thinking, reasoning creature when you encounter one. Trust me. We stared at each other. 166 00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:52,360 My brain ran through a whole list of options in a nanosecond. It went through the idea of someone 167 00:19:52,360 --> 00:19:58,520 in a costume, to a mutated bear, to several other things, and less than that nanosecond. 168 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:05,720 And my mind projected all of them, like someone in a batting cage, docking each ball away as fast as 169 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:13,160 they were pitched. My hands started to shake. The beam of the flashlight wobbled over its chest 170 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:20,920 and upward toward the face. When the light hit it directly in the eyes, it squinted and turned away 171 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:28,120 slightly, like it didn't like the brightness. It huffed once through its nose, and irritated 172 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:36,120 almost disgusted sound. Then to my surprise it took a step back. It backed away from the corner of 173 00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:44,200 the camper, one slow backward step, then another, keeping its body angled toward me the whole time. 174 00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:52,440 I saw its legs as it moved, thick, powerful, with hair hanging in little plumpes around the knees. 175 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:57,080 I still couldn't see the feet clearly in the shadows and the gravel, though. 176 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:04,280 When it reached the edge of the yard light circle, it paused, and then it looked toward the 177 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:12,120 tree line, and it looked back at me one more time. I don't know how else to say this, but the 178 00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:21,400 expression on its face looked annoyed, ticked off, like I had somehow ruined its evening and its fun. 179 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:29,400 Then it turned its whole body, took three long ground-covering strides and slipped into the dark 180 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:35,320 under the trees. I stood there on that pallet with the flashlight pointed at nothing. 181 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:43,400 My bare feet were freezing. My heart was slamming against my ribs so hard I was afraid I'd pass out. 182 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:50,840 I didn't chase or yell. I instead backed into the camper, closed the door, 183 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:57,400 and locked the deadbolt and the little chain, like somehow that would do anything if it decided to come back. 184 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:05,480 It was a long night of no sleep, I'll say that. Now you'd think after something like that, 185 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:13,880 a person would call the sheriff or their cousin or somebody, but I didn't call anyone. Part of it, 186 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:20,680 I think, was probably shock in my own disbelief. Part of it was that I had no idea what I 187 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:27,080 would even say. "Hey, I've got an eight-foot hairy man out here beating on my camper. Could you send 188 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:34,040 out a car?" "Yeah, they'd have sent somebody out for me, all right. A van to take me straight to 189 00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:41,480 the psych ward." "So I sat in the little dinette in the camper with all the lights off, the flashlight 190 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:48,840 on the table, and my phone in my hand just staring at the door all night. Every creek of the camper 191 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:57,880 settling made me jump. Every brush of a branch outside made my skin crawl. At some point, I worked 192 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:05,240 up the nerve to pull one slide of the blinds up just a hair to look outside." The yard light hummed 193 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:11,160 peacefully, shining down on the gravel and on the front of my truck. Nothing moved. 194 00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:19,560 The woods beyond looked like a solid wall of black. It was a long, tense night for me, sitting 195 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:26,200 there upright at the dinette. Every now and then I'd almost doze off, then I jerked back awake. 196 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:35,000 The pounding did not start again. No more rocks hit the roof. Whatever it was, it seemed like it 197 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:43,240 had made its point. Whatever that point might have been. When the sky finally lightened to gray 198 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:50,920 and the birds started waking up, I eased the camper door open and stepped out. The world looked 199 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:57,720 completely normal. Due on the truck a little mist hanging in the low spots, squirrels scolding 200 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:04,840 each other in the trees. If it hadn't been for the way my hand still shook, I could have almost 201 00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:12,760 convinced myself that I'd dreamed the whole thing almost. And I walked around to the back of the camper 202 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:20,040 and the first thing I noticed were the smudges. About six feet up on the rear wall toward the left 203 00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:27,000 side, there were two big dark streaks on the aluminum siding. They weren't scratches or dents. 204 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:33,640 They were areas where something had smeared across the dust and pollen. Maybe it was an oily hand, 205 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:40,680 maybe it was just mud. They were about the width of my hand if you put two of my hand side by side. 206 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:47,560 The smudges were parallel, like something had shoved with its palm and the heel of its hand. 207 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:54,200 On the side wall between the back corner and the little bathroom window, there were a couple more 208 00:24:54,200 --> 00:25:00,520 smudges at about the same height, and one lower down like something had pushed or slapped there too. 209 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:07,960 In a couple spots, I noticed the aluminum was lightly dented inward. Nothing very noticeable, 210 00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:13,480 but if you put your side eye up against it, you could see if you looked down the camper side. 211 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:21,560 I put my palm over one of those smudges again. My fingers didn't reach the edges in any direction. 212 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:30,200 Farther down the side, just behind the axle, I found what still makes my stomach flip when I think about it. 213 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:38,920 There, in a slightly dusty patch, was the outline of a hand, or something very much like a hand, 214 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:45,480 and it had been pressed up against the siding. I could make out where the palm had been, 215 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:50,120 and the lighter areas where four fingers in a thumb had left impressions in the dust. 216 00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:55,640 The middle two fingers were longer than my whole hand from wrist to fingertip. 217 00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:05,560 The thumb was angled down, compared to the fingers. I called my cousin then. He pulled up about a half hour 218 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:12,680 later in his work truck, sipping coffee out of a thermos, expecting, "I'm sure, something mundane." 219 00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:20,520 I didn't tell him all of it at first. I just said, "Something was messing with the camper last night. 220 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:26,520 Can you come out and look at this?" He got there, and he walked around back with me, 221 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:34,200 and then he leaned in close to the siding, squinting. "Well, I'll be," he said. "That's weird." 222 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:39,000 He put his hand up next to the smudge the same way that I had. 223 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:44,680 "That's a big somebody, all right?" "You reckon you got some pranksters out here?" 224 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:52,840 I looked at him and just believed, at two in the morning, out here. There's no tire tracks, no beer cans, 225 00:26:52,840 --> 00:27:02,920 no footprints. He shrugged. "Well, drunk kids do dumb stuff." I looked at him and said, "Drunk kids 226 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:10,760 don't walk around barefoot from the National Forest." Then before I could talk myself out of it, 227 00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:17,000 I told him the whole story. I told him about the pounding, the breathing, the rocks, 228 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:23,560 and what I had seen standing under the yard light. He listened with one eyebrow creeping higher. 229 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:30,920 His mouth went a little tight. When I finished, he took a long pull from his thermos, 230 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:36,760 and then he looked out toward the tree line. "You sure you weren't dreaming it?" he said. 231 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:43,560 "I've had bad dreams all my life," I said, and ate none of them left handprints on my camper. 232 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:53,080 He did not laugh. Instead, he said, "Well, I will tell you this much. I've had a few nights in a 233 00:27:53,080 --> 00:28:00,120 deer stand back there where the woods felt just wrong, and I always blamed it on my imagination. 234 00:28:00,120 --> 00:28:07,720 Maybe I won't anymore." We walked the edge of the clearing together for an hour, looking for prints. 235 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:13,800 The ground was mostly gravel and leaf litter, not good for holding tracks, 236 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:20,360 but we did find a couple of spots in some bare dirt where something had stepped and left deep 237 00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:26,840 roundish impressions. It was too big to be deer, and it was too wrong of a shape to be a boot. 238 00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:34,440 And the stride between them was very long. My cousin suggested calling the sheriff anyway, 239 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:40,360 just to have it on record. But the more we talked about it, the less since it made. 240 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:45,000 And what would they do about it? Write up a report that said, 241 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:51,640 "Unknown large animal startled resident," and then file it under weird stuff until the next 242 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:56,840 meth lab blew up? In the end, we didn't call anyone. 243 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:06,840 I had to stay in that camper until just after Thanksgiving. I never had anything pound on the camper again, 244 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:10,200 but I did hear knocks out in the woods a few more nights. 245 00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:17,400 Once I was sitting by my little fire, and a rock about the size of a plum dropped into the dust 246 00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:22,520 just outside the circle of firelight. It rolled a couple of feet and stopped. 247 00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:29,000 I looked up and I aimed my flashlight toward the trees, but there was nothing there to see. 248 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:37,560 The feeling of being watched though never, ever really left me. I took to keeping my pistol on the 249 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:44,440 little shelf by my bed, and I started going into town more often in the evenings just to be around people, 250 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:52,040 the quiet which I had craved and loved so much at first now started to feel very heavy. 251 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:58,040 I still worked on the house during the day, and I worked as fast as I could. 252 00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:05,160 By early winter, I had the shell done, the roof on, and doors and windows in, and there was enough 253 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:12,680 insulation and wiring to make it livable, even if it wasn't aesthetic or pretty. The night that I 254 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:17,960 moved my mattress into the house and slept under a half-danish ceiling with wires hanging out of the 255 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:25,000 walls. I felt safer than I had in that camper since the first knock started. I ended up selling the 256 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:32,360 trailer cheap to a guy who wanted it for a hunting camp, two counties over. I never told him why the 257 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:39,960 aluminum had a few light-dense in it on the backside. What do I think about it now? Well, I've had a 258 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:45,800 few years to chew on this. I've listened to a lot of stories on your channel as well as many others. 259 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:51,000 Some of the stories I take with a grain of salt, I think people make up half this stuff, 260 00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:58,520 but some of them make my hair stand up on my arms because they line up too well with what I saw. 261 00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:06,120 I don't think I need to tell you that it was bigfoot that I saw. I'm betting you already know that. 262 00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:14,600 I also can tell you what it wasn't what I saw. It was not a man in a suit. There's nobody in the 263 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:20,040 right mind that's going to spend hours wandering around the backside of a national forest in the dark, 264 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:27,000 just on the off-chance. That some guy in a camper will come outside so they can give him a show. 265 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:35,000 Somebody would have to come back night after night after night. Why would they bother? What 266 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:43,960 purpose would that serve? That's right, none. And no way was it a bear? Bears don't have hands like that. 267 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,880 And they don't stand there under your yard light and look at you like you're the one that's 268 00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:55,240 inconvenience them. Now folks around here just call it bigfoot saskwatch. And sometimes they call it 269 00:31:55,240 --> 00:32:03,240 the grass man. And I think whatever it was it had been watching me for a while. Looking back the 270 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:09,240 whole pattern makes sense. First the knocks in the woods, letting me know something was out there, 271 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:17,320 then came the rocks on the roof, testing how I reacted perhaps. Then when I didn't get the hint 272 00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:25,480 or didn't leave fast enough it came right up and put its hands on the camper. Then we had a good long 273 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:32,840 look at each other. Was it trying to scare me off? Was it mad that I had moved into its regular path 274 00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:39,720 along the tree line? I don't know. What I do know is that I got the message loud and clear. 275 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:46,920 I still lived there on that land. It's mine now. And I lived there in the little tiny house I built 276 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:54,840 and I love it. I still hear knocks now and then way back out toward the National Forest, especially 277 00:32:54,840 --> 00:33:03,160 in the fall. Once in a while the dog that I have now will stand at the back door. It's neck bristling 278 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:08,760 and it will rumble low when it's chest, staring out into the darkness like there's something there 279 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:15,720 that he can't quite see. And when that happens I check that the doors are locked. I make sure my pistol 280 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:22,120 is where I can reach it. And I remind myself that whatever is out there it had a chance to come 281 00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:28,760 through thin aluminum walls at two in the morning and it didn't. It could have lunched at me and 282 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:36,200 got me when I stepped outside that night, but it didn't. I had the real impression that it was 283 00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:42,520 annoyed with me or maybe just the camper being there and it was hitting the camper as a way to 284 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:50,040 let me know like venting frustrations. And then again all my thoughts and ideas could be very wrong. 285 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:57,480 All I can tell you is that's what happened to me. If you do decide to share this on your channel 286 00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:03,720 maybe it will help somebody else who's living in a camper at the edge of some dark patch of woods 287 00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:11,960 and they're hearing knocks they can't explain. Tell them they're not crazy and they definitely aren't alone. 288 00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:19,880 Tell them others have been through the same thing. And tell them if something starts pounding on 289 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:26,120 their camper walls hard enough to make your dishes rattle in the cabinets. Tell them they have to 290 00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:31,960 decide real quick if they're going to stick it out there or if maybe just maybe they should go ahead 291 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:37,400 and move back to town at least until they can get a sturdy house with thick walls built. 292 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:45,400 Well that's what I would tell them anyway. Thank you for reading this signed Jacob. 293 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:53,160 You've been listening to the Buckeye Bigfoot podcast. Find more stories hundreds more 294 00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:57,240 over on our YouTube channel. Just look for Buckeye Bigfoot. 295 00:34:57,240 --> 00:35:11,440 Thanks for watching.