Indiana Mystery Creature Baffles

People Claim Seeing Hairy, 2-Legged Being

MONROE COUNTY, Ind. -- Rick Deckard looks at the footprints on the ground near his property and is certain of two things.

Whatever left the prints walked on two legs. And it wasn't human.

Deckard is one of several people in and around the Hoosier National Forest, in the hills of Monroe County south of Bloomington, who have reported signs or sightings of a mysterious, upright-walking creature in the past few years.

"It's no bear or cat," Deckard (pictured, right) said Friday, dismissing suggestions of skeptics. "A cat walks on four legs, and a bear walks on four legs. They don't walk on two legs. This thing here walks on two legs with a round paw."

The Department of Natural Resources' Russ Grunden also is certain of something.

"(Either) it's an exotic pet that somebody released or that escaped ... or it's a neighbor kid dressed up, playing games," Grunden (pictured, below) said. "You never know which it could be."

That opinion doesn't stop the reports from coming in. Those who claim to have seen the creature say it is about 5 or 6 feet tall, hairy, and weighs more than 200 pounds.

Area resident Dale Moore Sr. said his son and a friend saw the creature Wednesday in the back of Deckard's property, near the Hoosier National Forest's Hardin Ridge Recreation Area. Moore said he was told that when the creature saw them, it made a hasty retreat into the woods below Deckard's home, leaving behind only footprints.

"It's something. It's not a hoax," Moore said.

Deckard, looking at the prints on the ground Friday, said the creature easily weighs more than 200 pounds.

"I weigh 200, and a friend of mine, he weighs 270. We walked down there yesterday in that dirt, and we never even sunk," Deckard said. "This thing, it took the grass as it went."

As witnesses and wildlife experts argue about what the creature could be, one other thing is certain: No clear photographs of the creature are available.

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