Report Received From: The GCBRO Online Report Submission Form.
 

DATE:    1979-80
 

TIME:     N/A
 

LOCATION:   Alabama, Dallas County
 

TERRAIN:    Broken hardwood forest and open soybean/cotton fields.
 

OBSERVED:     It was late summer, I think.  The incident took place in a recently plowed over corn field.  I also remember it was hot even late at night.  The moon was nearly full, as I remember being able to see quite well, but fitfully if you can understand that.
    Anyway, we lived in a rural area.  There were about 4 of us, all teenage boys.  I was the oldest at around 14 at the time.  Sometimes we would all run together, but usually we would be split up into hostile groups.  This particular night two of the other boys were camping out on land belonging to one's family.  Another boy and I decided to slip out and put a scare into them.  We had done it a few times before, and they never knew it was us.  Those two were convinced that panthers were to blame, making awful noises next to their camp and such.
    Their camp was on the West side of the plowed under cornfield.  There was a dense fence row dominated by large hardwoods and a thick under story along the East side.  We approached by crawling on the ground across the middle of the field from the North, traveling straight South.  My two dogs, however, had followed us.  They promised to give us away and ruin the game.  We continued anyway.
    One of the dogs was a rather aggressive collie mix.  He went to the East side, along the fence row and there set up an awful din.  He was barking madly, and even more excitable than he usually was.  The other dog, a beagle, went to join him.  We went flat in the middle of the field and cursed the dog for giving us away.  We could see the other two boys standing by their campfire looking out across the field.  That ruled them out.  Of course they couldn't see us or anything.
    We assumed the dog had a possum or some such animal.  It really got us mad at that.  But whatever it was, it seemed big.  I don't know if I remember correctly, but whatever it was may have stomped on the ground a couple of times, causing the dog to back up a bit.  I may or may not remember that right.
    The two of us laying in the field got spooked then.  We pulled our sheath knives and started a slow trot, keeping low, back the way we came.  I think it was about then that all hell broke loose over in the fence row.  Something BIG came crashing at the dog.  The dog lost the last of his nerve and ran screaming back towards, and right past, us.  The thing in the 'row smashed branches and crashed right along the edge.
    Well, the other two boys had abandoned camp by that time.  We, as I recall, took the shorter and clearer route home.  That would be right along a cleared road right past their camp.  We never told the other two we were out there, but I guess they knew it by the dog barking.  We also never had a clue what it was out there.
    It could have been a loose cow or horse, but inside the fence row?  No, a cow or horse would be out in the open.  Besides, there was a barbed wire fence in the center of the row that would have precluded such a charge as the beast made.  A wild hog?  We never saw any such, and I don't think a hog would have smashed as much brush as that.  The only other logical animal would be a large buck deer.  But smashing brush like that just seemed plain wrong.
    I still have no idea.
 

Activities of Witness:   Sneaking out to scare some friends who were camping.
 

Description of Creature:  N/A
 

Other Notes:    N/A
 

Additional Notes and or Follow up Comments:  Upon contact the witness had no additional information to add to this report.

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