YEAR: 1976 or 77

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: December

DATE: 18th

STATE: New Jersey

COUNTY: Sussex County

LOCATION DETAILS: It was at a old milk company off the side of the road across the street from a very old graveyard in an over grown field of weeds next to some old barn.

NEAREST TOWN: Sussex NJ

OBSERVED: Back east when I was about 14 around 1976 a buddy of mine and my self went out shooting our bb guns and we came across this old board up Carnation creamery. We being kids we broke in to this place it was at lest 150 years old.So we and started to look at this old milk wagon the old horse and buggy kind. After some time we came across this ladder that went to attic my friend being smaller then myself gave me his gun and said I want to take a look up there. As I watched him climb up the ladder and look inside, he yells down to me dude something up here smalls really bad. As I watch him turning around on the ladder.I see him stop turning and he jumps from the top step he comes right down next to me.I say what the heck did you do that for.and as he says he can see these hairy legs behind this box something big runs across the attic floor and breaks down this wall to the other side of the garage and runs across the roof and out in to a cornfeld. I can remember looking across the room out the window and seeing its reflection on the window next door to the place we were in. And it was big! it ran the distance of the building in 5 or 6 foot hops then through the wall. FUNNY thing about this the doors we tried to break in flew open and this little whirl wind comes in and stays right in the path of the cornfeld and we can see his path.

ALSO NOTICED: Oh yeah! The most intersting thing was the two doors that we tried to get in to blew in and that little tornado came in and stayed right in front of us for at least 1 minute. And see that path going up through the field.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me and my friend we did not tell to many people because we did not want to get in trouble. We did break in.

OTHER STORIES: Some of my school friends said that someone was swimming or making a bunch of noise in the lake that night and the cops put a spot light on something big climbing out of the lake and ran in to the woods.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It occurred at 130ish in the afternoon clear day good lighting

ENVIRONMENT: It was by some very big over grown fields of corn like nobody owns anymore and there was a pit where some body was digging dirt for who knows?

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Eric Spinner:

Chris recounted the incident for me, providing additional details as a result of my questions. He now believes the event took place in October rather than in December as he original reported. On the day of the incident, it was partly cloudy, calm with temperatures in the 40’s. Chris described the building as an old, dilapidated creamery that he and a friend, George came upon one day while out shooting their BB guns. It was a two story building, wood construction, with windows only on the second story, most or all of which had been boarded up. Adjacent to this building was another, smaller in size but in similar condition. Between the two buildings was a road or driveway which continued on into a field towards a sand or gravel pit. On the backside of the creamery, were two large wooden doors which provided access from a loading dock type area. A small roof overhung this area. Chris indicated these doors could not be opened by them as they had two planks secured to them in an “X” fashion. Ultimately Chris stated that the two were able to gain entry through a small chute like opening which was also in the rear of the building.

Once inside, Chris said they began looking around and were able to see sufficiently as a result of sunlight entering through numerous small openings in the structure. At some point they found a narrow, permanently mounted wooden ladder on the back wall which provided access to the second floor through an opening in the ceiling. Chris recalled the ceiling height was between 12 and 14 feet. George ascended the ladder, stopping once he was able to observe the second floor area. Chris indicated that almost immediately George exclaimed, “Oh my God, something stinks up here,” and within the same breath George practically jumped to the floor next to Chris. At that point Chris detected the odor which he described as, “bad, dirty diapers, swampy, urine like”.

As George came to his feet he started to say he saw “hairy legs” protruding from “behind a box” when they both heard a series of “booms” from above as if something heavy was running across the upper floor. Chris indicated they could see the ceiling boards move and dust fall at each location this “thing” stepped. They followed the movement with their eyes and after five or so steps, they heard a “crash”. At that point, through a window/opening in the wall, they saw, in a reflection from one of the windows in the adjacent building, a large human-like figure moving across the overhang above the loading dock. According to Chris, it looked left and right and then jumped from the roof and as it did, the two loading dock doors “blew open” and they were then able see the “creature” directly. Chris could offer no explanation as to how these doors opened.

The witnesses viewed the back of the creature and did not see its face. Chris described it as greenish brown in color with long hair. He indicated that even standing in the loading area “pit”, which he recalled being about four feet high, the creature was as tall as them. Chris estimated it’s height to be between seven and eight feet and its elbows were almost to its waist. At that point the creature “ran directly away from the highway” (road) which was located in front of the building back into a recently cut cornfield. Chris indicated it was definitely not a human or a bear as it was “too big and bulky and moving away too quick.” They observed it for 7-10 seconds until it “went through or over a fence” and disappeared from sight. I questioned Chris as to his opinion on how this large creature was able to get into the building when he and his friend had a tough time squeezing through the small chute. He said he didn’t know but commented that a portion of the roof had fallen in and there were trees immediately alongside the building basically implying that it may have climbed in through the roof.

Due to the age of this incident, my attempt to verify Chris’ account was limited. A review of a topographical map of the area helped me identify what I believe to be the location of the incident. The map showed a rail line (long ago abandoned) running near a graveyard in the general vicinity of where Chris described the incident occurring. Creameries were often located along such lines. I spoke with a local historian who did recall there being two buildings in the general location I described to him, one of which could have very well been a creamery.

I subsequently visited the location and did indeed find two relatively small buildings sitting next to each other with a small dirt road running between them. The road led to a gravel pit, as Chris described, which was still operational. The two buildings had obviously been rebuilt as they were now of concrete block construction and only one story in height. My estimate was that the renovations were done between 15 and 20 years ago. A closer examination of the building which would have been the creamery, indicated an original foundation of stone and mortar which I estimated to be at least 100 years old. Within that foundation, at the rear of the building, were the remnants of what could have been a loading dock type area. Beyond the buildings, looking toward the gravel pit were overgrown farm fields, still undeveloped.

I indicated that I initially found Chris to be credible.I found some of the events/actions/ observations he described to be rather unique and not what I would consider fabricated (i.e. - the small tornado/whirlwind which formed when the doors allegedly blew open).

About BFRO Investigator Eric Spinner:

Eric Spinner is the owner of a health food store in Medford, NJ - a town that borders the Pine Barrens. He is a Certified Nutritional Consultant, and a Shiatsu Practitioner. Eric has attended the 2008 NW Pennsylvania Expedition, the 2009 Sunshine Coast BC Canada Expedition, the 2016 & 2020 So NY Expeditions, and 2021 & 2022 PA Expeditions. He also organized the 2023 PA East Expedition. Eric has been an investigator for the BFRO since 2009 and has been organizing New Jersey Expeditions since 2014. He makes numerous solo excursions into the NJ Pine Barrens, and Pennsylvania, and has done investigations in Missouri and Florida. He was most recently involved in the production of the South Jersey Sasquatch episode of Finding Bigfoot and was one of the witnesses featured during the Town Hall meeting.
Eric is cofounder of NASBRO, and host of Squatch Talks Podcast.