In 1998, a now-retired forestry official had a strange encounter with a creature that he had no idea existed. This occurred in the Apalachicola National Forest, Florida.
This is part of the interview I obtained:
"It was 1998. I was 37 years old. I was working with the forest department for 12 years at that point. There was a fire in the Apalachicola National Forest that summer. The Bradwell Bay area was on fire when all this happened. The fire was raging pretty badly at this point. We didn't know if we would ever get it out. That morning I had reported to the command center on Helen Guard Station Road to get briefed on what I would be doing that day.
So me and another guy were given the task of driving around looking for animals along the road of the Bradwell Bay area. Animals would make it to the road and usually fall out if they were injured or had really bad smoke inhalation. Our job was to pick them up and take them to the vets at the command center. The vets would treat them and on some occasions euthanize the ones that wouldn't make it. So we were driving around the area heading south doing about 45 mph. Faster than I should have been driving. I was talking to my partner and didn't realize how fast I was going. All of a sudden we saw a black figure run out of the woods on all fours. It ran right up under my driver's side tire. I hit the animal with both the front and back tires. I was driving a 95 Dodge Ram 4X4. So I knew at that speed I had killed it. Immediately we thought it was a bear. We got out to pick the bear up and put it in the truck.
Upon further investigation, we realized what I had hit was not a bear at all. It was a creature that neither one of us had ever seen. It was about 6 feet tall. It had legs, kneecaps, and feet just like me and you. The arms hung to about the knee. One arm a matter of fact was down by its knee. The other one was up over its head. I had run the creature over under its right underarm, across the shoulder blade, and over the back of its neck. The creature was covered in hair. About 3 to 5 inches long on the arms, legs, and head. The hair on the back, ribs, and chest was much shorter. The muscle definition of the animal was phenomenal. It looked like a prizefighter or one of the guys you would see in the UFC. We flipped the animal over. The jaw was broken from where I had hit it with the truck. I could see it had a protruding snout much like that of a baboon or what you would think a werewolf looks like. It had eyes just like us. The thing looked a lot like a chimpanzee.
We quickly radioed into the command center and they sent two FWC officials out to our location. Within about 15 minutes, the FWC officials arrived and they told us they had never seen anything like it. So we all picked the animal up and loaded it into the back of their truck. The animal weighed about three to four hundred pounds which dead weight is a lot. They told us they would figure out what it was and let us know. So we had been contacted by the command center at this point and they told us to come on back and make a statement about what we saw.
So we showed up at the command center and immediately we were brought back to a room where we were to fill out an incident report. We were about 10 minutes into the incident report when we were asked to stop and wait and that some people were coming to see us. Within about 30 to 45 minutes two government officials showed up. They walked us out to the vehicle. They were asking where we ran over the... the thing. We told them where it was and so they examined the area. The truck had no damage. There was a black steel bumper on the front. The animal hit the bottom of that and the tires took care of the rest. There was really nothing on the truck except for the undercarriage. There was blood and hair. The officials collected the blood and hair samples and put them away. Next, they asked us if we would get into the vehicle they came in and take them to the location where we had run the animal over. So we complied, got into the vehicle, and left with the gentlemen.
It was a rather quiet ride back out to the spot. They didn't say much at all except for a couple of exchanges with each other. We showed up at the spot and walked them through what happened. Then all of a sudden one of the guys, I guess the guy in charge turned and looked at us and said congratulations fellas you ran over a bear. I said sir, but this is no bear that we hit. He quickly interrupted me with, you don't understand, you ran over a bear. He then said that every time I tell anybody about this I run over a bear. I was to never speak a word about what we actually hit. That I could face charges. My whole retirement could go away. They said I could lose my job and that they would slander me and make me look like a fool. So I looked at my partner and we had no other choice but to comply.
On the ride back it kind of struck me as odd that this was an actual government cover-up. They knew what this thing was that we had hit. They had seen them before and now they had a body. For some reason, they didn't want anyone to know and they were going to great lengths to keep this under wraps. The main reason I'm telling my story is, I'm hoping one of the other three people, my partner and the two FWC officials will come forward. I figure it's a lot harder to silence four people than it is just one. People need to know that these things are out there and that they are real.” G
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