DATE:    1973

TIME:     Evening/early night around 8 p.m.

LOCATION:    Troy, Alabama, Pike County

TERRAIN:      An edge of town setting.

OBSERVED:    I was told this story on the weekend of May 12, 01. I was talking to several people at at a get together we were having over the weekend in Troy. I had met three of the people there on previous occasions. One of those persons and I got to talking about strange animals sightings in Pike County. We started talking on the subject for the others in the group had earlier on started talking about Bears and Panthers (Cougars) that had been seen and or heard at places close to the Troy area and how many people do not know they are there and the Game and Fish officers deny they exist in Alabama. I was intersted in talking to this person due to the location of where they live as well as where they have their business. She lives and has a business rather close to where I and two friends had a Bigfoot occurance happen. (See a previous Pike Co. AL. report I left at this site recently). As we talked she told me of something that happened to herself, her sister, husband and Bro-in-Law. They were all sitting inside their home on Elm St. one evening talking when they heard shaking and rattling of the gas cans around that  they kept out behind their home. Wanting to see what was going on the husband and Bro-in law went outside the front of the house and started around to the back of the house in one direction. Curious to see what the men would find the women went out the front door heading around the house the opposite direction of the men. (I did not ask why all had not gone out a back door, perhaps there was not one).

From what I was told both parties approached the back of the home about the same time. As told to me this woman and her sister saw a black something playing around with the gas cans. Startled by the approach of people from both sides of the house, she had said this critter took to running away from them at a very fast pace, a speed unlike anything she had seen run before. It ran past her very close. She said it was about this high (judging from the height of where she held her hand I'd estimate the height to be around 5 foot). The men took off running after this creature. Behind their house several feet away was a deep gully that was close to 50 feet across. She figured since the men took to running after it the creature would be forced to stop at the gully or run down into it. But, she said this thing did not stop running when it got to the gully but "flat footed it across and landed on the other side", 50 foot away. She said it ran into the woods on the other side of gully. Being dark out they did not prusue the animal further then the gully. I asked her if this creature was hariy, she said yes, all over. I asked could you make out its face. She said what they could make out in the dark was human like and appeared to not have any hair along the face. I told her it must have been a young Bigfoot. She said yes, after it happened thats what she figured it to be. In addition she told me that the next day her husband and Bro-in-Law went looking across the gully on horse back (I did not ask to whom the horses belonged to)in an attempt to see if they could find where the creature had landed after jumping across and any other evidence of its passing. However after looking around the opposite side of the gully and on into the nearby woods they found no signs of its impact where it landed after jumping or its passing on into the woods. She did however tell me that the creature had left some hair behind stuck on the gas cans and nearby garbage cans.

They lived in that home for several more years before moving to the outskirts of Troy but, nothing more unsual happened there to her knowledge. She went on to say that at that time that area of Elm St. going out toward Banks was not as pouplated as it is now and is now considered in town. Since I attended University in Troy I was rather fimilar with the part of town she told me she once lived in. Currently, I have a friend I visit periodically attending the same University that lives very close to that section of Troy.

ACTIVITIES OF WITNESS(ES):    Sitting around at home talking.

DESCRIPTION OF CREATURE:    Approx. 5 foot tall, hairy all over, black in color with less to no hair in the face. A extermely fast runner. Other then that no other descriptions of the creature were given., No, not known to be.

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN THIS AREA?:  Other then "screams" sometimes heard at night by locals near where she currently lives that are attributed to Cougars, not so much in relation to her encounter but rather to a previous one of mine.
  The nighttime encounter I had in Pike Co. with two other friends when we were in college occured approx. 4 miles from this womans business, The business is along Hwy. 231 N. on the outskirts of Troy as one travels toward Montgomery. I asked her if there were any unsual occurances around the business at night. Not right in the immediate area I was told. A guy that went back out into the woods behind the buildings on Thur. came along upon a honey bear. ( A small species of bear once very common to the southeast). But, she did tell me that a lady she knows that lives about a mile from where I and where my friends had our encounter states, often during different nights she hears things walking around outside her home and or messing with stuff. The woman in question is handicapped I was told and that she wants to look outside to see what is out there but can't. Wheather these are Bigfoots (Wooly Bugurs, as they are sometimes called around here), or other kinds of animals is uncertain.