YEAR: 2006

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 26

STATE: Georgia

COUNTY: Lanier County

LOCATION DETAILS: Approx 1.5 miles north on highway 135 out of lakeland ga

NEAREST TOWN: lakeland

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 135

OBSERVED: It was 2:35 in the morning on July 26, 2006. I recieved a call from my dad which alone is very unusual to say the least. He started by saying "you are not going to believe what i just saw". He said he steped out onto his porch(which wraps around his house) to sit in his chair and have a smoke. He got about half way through with it when he said he heard the most terrifying sound ever. He stepped in the door and grabbed a MAG light to take a look and when he did he saw a sillouette of a bipedal creature approx 8 foot tall and 75 yards away stand up near the pond and quickly run towards the neibors house which is to the right and behind him. At this point my dad is completely freaked out. He hears the loud moan again 3 more times each time getting softer in the distance. He then wakes my mother (who thinks he just lost his marbles) and she comes outside with him. She also hears the moan and a gun shot approx the same distance away but at this point it is an estimatted 1 mile away. This is when he calls me and describes what happened. I get in my truck and go overe to their house to take a look around with him. Whatever it was is long gone by the time i get there and we just look around to put both my mom and dad somewhat at ease. The reason i am writing this instead of my dad is 1) he dont t know how to use a computer and 2) i felt a report needed to be made and i doubt he would ever do it. I can tell you that i have never seen or heard my dad so scared in my life.

ALSO NOTICED: After i arrived my dad and i went to the pond where he seen it and noticed some weeds were pushed over in this one section. we didnt disturb it in hopes of looking at it in the daylight. We also saw what we think could have been a heel impression but again we were waiting for daylight to get a closer look. When i was on the phone with him i talked him in to going over to the pond which wasn't easy since he was very scared at the time. he didn't have any shoes on but he told me that the ground was warm where he had seen him. he could literally feel the difference in temperature in his feet. We looked for tracks but the ground is very hard and had no luck in the dark. He kept trying to vocalize what he had heard and when he did i kept trying to remember where i had heard that before. After he kept saying that he had never heard anything like it before in his life i told him that i wanted him to listen to something on the computer. I played him several bigfoot audio sounds from the west coast and he kept saying it was to high pitched. I then played the ohio clip fron 1994 and immediately he said that that is what he heard except louder. As soon as he said that he made me stop the clip because it was freaking him out again.

OTHER WITNESSES: My mother heard the last of the howls and a gunshot which sounded like it was from the same general direction.

OTHER STORIES: None

TIME AND CONDITIONS: completely dark with no moonlight. rained the day before but clear skies at the time.

ENVIRONMENT: Edge of my parents 2.5 acre pond. A couple of small trees, mostly grass. Dense woods across the highway and dense woods about 250 yards behind their house.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Morris Collins:

I spoke with the witness's son (report submitted by the son) at length by phone on October 31, 2006. The son related the encounter that happened to his father as submitted.

As he shined the light, the animal howled and scared his father. His father related that whatever it was ran in an odd manner, perhaps like someone running on their heels.The animal howled four more times as it moved away. As the animal moved away, the father relayed that he heard a gun shot and dogs barking in the direction that the animal had moved. The police were called but they went in the wrong direction and never found anything. Both the father and the son went to the area by the pond and found the grass depressed but no tracks. This area is very undeveloped from the sighting to almost 20 miles North until you get to Willacoochie, GA.

The son related that his father had grown up in the Pacific Northwest, had hunted all his life and had never believed in Bigfoot until now. The son found the BFRO website and had his father listen to the recorded vocalizations. His father identified the Ohio howl as very, very similiar to what he heard and is adament it was not a bear.

I asked for permission to come down and scout the area but he said his father just wanted to forget the whole thing. He said this really scared his father and he still does not want to really talk about it. Should he change his mind, he will contact me and I will make a trip to south Georgia.

About BFRO Investigator Morris Collins:

Morris holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Auburn University and additional coursework toward an MBA in International Business. He is an avid backpacker and SCUBA diver. Morris attended Georgia 2006, 2008, 2009 & 2011; North Carolina 2006 and SC 2007 expeditions. He is a member of the SE BFRO Tracking Team and has completed a first course in visual tracking.