YEAR: 2009

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 14

STATE: Massachusetts

COUNTY: Bristol County

LOCATION DETAILS: Between exits 7 (Braley Rd New Bedford) and 8 (Chase Rd.)

NEAREST TOWN: New Bedford/Freetown Line

NEAREST ROAD: Route 140

OBSERVED: I and my girlfriend were riding in my Jeep on Route 140 from New Bedford to Freetown tonight (July 14, 2009) and at about 11:00 my girlfriend seen this large brown hair covered "man" standing up from a crouched position on the side of the two lane highway. She lets out a scream prompting me to look at the creature standing there. He made fluid movements like a man and had an almost ape-like quality. We couldn't see his face but upon returning to the area we saw the "man" there was nothing. After calling 911 and telling them that someone was running in the median of the highway they told us that they had similar reports of what we saw on the stretch of highway between exit 7 (Braley rd.) and exit 8 (Chase Rd.) They then told me that they were sending state troopers to investigate.

ALSO NOTICED: Nothing out of the ordinary other than the "man" on the side of the road. I couldn't hear anything because my radio was on and because of the road noise

OTHER WITNESSES: As far as I know 2, Myself (looking straight ahead driving) and my Girlfriend (also looking straight ahead but scanning the sides of the highway looking for any animals)
There were other cars on the road that night however. Just behind me was a small pickup truck with a lone male occupant who passed me in a hastily manner after my sighting.

OTHER STORIES: No I have not

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Aprox 11 pm. Clear night sky, stars and moon visible. Only other light was from my headlights and the headlights of other motorists

ENVIRONMENT: Typical Southern New England forest on the left and right of the highway. Median was just grass but it did dip down in the middle to allow for drainage. Sighting was near a gas line/ power line access road.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator D.A. Brake (PhD):

The witness (driver) was phone interviewed approximately 3 weeks after submitting the report. The girlfriend did not want to talk about the incident since the memory of it still upset her. A 30 minute inquiry and site visit to the specific area of the sighting provided some additional details summarized below.

The witness was driving northbound and traveling approximately 70 mph in the left/passing lane closest to the divided highway median. The depressed grass median between Exits 7 and 8 of the north and southbound lanes is approximately 40 yards wide. The witness stated that the animal had a wide midsection covered in brown body hair, darker brown, long arms and was approximately 7 to 8 feet tall based on the height of a highway mile marker that was just adjacent to where the animal was standing. The witness also stated that the animal had a long chiseled jaw. The total duration of the sighting was approximately 3 seconds from the time the witness turned his head and first saw the animal until his car passed the creature. As his car passed the animal which was standing only 3-4 feet to the left of the hood of his Jeep, the witness reported having a scared sensation and noted that the animal had one arm down and the other arm up in a bent position as if getting ready to cross the northbound lane. The witness exited the highway approximately 2 miles north of the sighting and traveled back southbound to the point of the sighting but did not see anything unusual.

Although the placement of the 911 call by the witness was not confirmed, the witness reported that he subsequently had an informal discussion of the sighting with a friend who is a Massachusetts State Trooper whom was on call that night. The police officer told him that the local dispatcher did receive several related calls around the same time that evening, and he and several other troopers responded to the call and arrested several teenagers who were in the general area. However, upon receiving this information, the witness remained steadfast in his belief that what he saw was not a teenager playing a prank.

The location of this sighting is immediately west of the Bolton Cedar Swamp, recognized as an important conservation land tract comprised of wetlands, ponds, bogs and acidic swamps vegetated with Atlantic White Cedar, pitch pine and scrub oak. The sighting occurred approximately 14 miles north of Report #25364 and approximately 3 miles southeast of the eastern border of the Freetown-Fall River State Forest. This state forest marks the western point of the ‘Bridgewater Triangle’, an area of approximately 200 square miles that has had numerous reports of paranormal activity dating as far back 350 years when Native American Tribes and colonists co-inhabited the area.

About BFRO Investigator D.A. Brake (PhD):

D. Brake holds a PhD in Immunology and attended the Maine 2008 expedition.