Report Received From: The GCBRO Online Report Submission Form.
 

DATE:    February 2003
 

TIME:     10:30 pm
 

LOCATION:   Mason County, West Virginia
 

TERRAIN:    Ravine on 3 sides of house, lots of woods.
 

OBSERVED:    I live in a old farmhouse with a steep ravine on 3 sides of me. Out my front door you have a major highway, on my left, after the ravine, a storage building, on my right, after the ravine, there is a slaughterhouse and a bar.  Behind the house is a creek.  This ravine is extremely steep and woody.  It was around 10:30pm in February and our town was still recovering from the ice storm of 2003. I put my two dogs out on their run line for their last out of the night.  I heard them barking, but it was the sound of the bark that was different.  Those who have dogs know an excited bark and a warning bark.  This was something different.  When i went out the front door, i saw the two dogs.  They had stretched their lines as far as they could go, facing the shed.  They were both growling and doing a high pitched warning
bark.  Their hair was up on their back but, and this was the strange thing, their tails were between their legs.  I looked over toward the shed and I felt something there.  It sounds strange but i felt something sizing me up.  After about 30 seconds, something, pushed away from the shed and "ran"; down the ravine.  There was several young trees around the shed, and those moved.  I grabbed the dogs and ran inside.  But that's not the end of the story.  I went in and told my husband that there was something or someone around the shed.  My husband at that time was a police officer for the town.  He got his mag light out and took all the ammo for his 1911 and walked outside.  I stayed at the front door as he walked toward the shed.  Whatever it was, apparently came back, because the trees moved again and we heard it "Run"; down the ravine.
My husband ordered me to get his coat and his radio.  He radioed the Officer on duty, to come and give him some help on what he thought were kids playing.  The other officer, a local resident and avid hunter like my husband, got on scene and brought out some more mag lights.  We explained what happen, I told them what the dogs were doing.  My husband went to the back of one side of the house, the other officer and i went to the other side.  From two sides and 3 flashlights, we shined down into the ravine.  Now remember, its after an ice storm.  The snow is crunchy.  We were hearing, something grunting and walking quickly back and forth beneath us.  We could see trees being knocked down and could only see a dark form.  My husband yelled out, "Police, Come up here now and you won't get hurt!";  No answer except the crunch crunch of footsteps.  I whispered to the other officer, questioning about if he was hearing 2 or 4 footsteps.  He held up 2 fingers.  At that time, my husband rejoined us on our side of the house.  They began discussing what it could be.
They quickly ruled out deer or coyote or panther (yes, we have some in the area) simple because they weren't hearing 4 feet.  They began thinking bear, and i pointed out that a bear can't stay on its hind legs for that long and the crunches in the snow we were hearing were too long. There was like a 2 second
interval from one footstep to the next.  It was covering the ground in the ravine from one side of the house to another in about 10 strides. All the while knocking trees down.  I was looking at my husband and the other officer when it began to dawn on them, what this might be.  We turned and started to walk toward the front of the house, when whatever it was started running up the ravine at us.  My husband and i went into the house.  The officer, ran to his patrol car and hit the spotlight. Again, all he saw was a dark form.  The dogs were inside going nuts, growling and barking, going door to door, window to window.  They didn't calm down for another hour after that.  The officer kept going by and shining the spotlight at our house but never saw anything.

Activities of Witness:   I was in the house watching television.  My dogs indicated they had to go out.  Not the indication that something was outside but the need to go out.  So, i put them out on the line and it was about 20 minutes before their barking started and changed.

My husband was in the bedroom and the other officer was patrolling our small
town.

Description of Creature:  From what i saw by the shed, it was extremely tall.  But like i said, dark form is mostly what we saw.  It moved quickly.  It was sure of its footing. No smell because we were upwind.  Ground was covered with ice and snow.  Could hear the crunch of the footsteps.  There wasn't 4 crunches, just two and several seconds apart.  It knocked over good sized trees and covered the ground
quickly and it was sure-footed.  The grunting wasn't like anything i had heard and it wasn't constant.  I think that is what was scariest, when it was silent and all you could hear was the crunching of the snow.

All the dogs in the neighborhood were barking.

Other Notes:    We had another incident prior to this one.  One night, we were coming home from his mom's house and had to come in an extremely winding road.  At one point this road goes straight and then forks to the left and right.  As we approached the fork, my husband and i noticed eyes reflecting in the headlights.

Neither of us said anything, thinking it was a deer.  It was at that height near the tree line.  But as we approached the fork, the eyes raised. Like something stood up.  In less than a second it gained 5 feet to its height.  My husband locked the car doors and speed on.  When i asked him why, he reminded me he
didn't have his duty gun with him and even if he did, he didn't think that would do it.

We live in the house that my husband grew up in.  When he was 15, his friends and him were sledding on the backside of the ravine near the house.  They all got the feeling they were being watched.  The next day they came across some tracks in the new snow. Large footprint, barefoot human like.  They started
tracking it, behind our house, across the creek and up the mountain.  They gave up after they realize whatever was making these tracks, had a good 200 lb. on them, considering how deep the tracks were in the snow and all they had were flashlights.

The police officers talk about things walking in front of them.  One officer came around a corner and thought there was a boulder in the road, except it got up and walked away.

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

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