YEAR: 1980-1981

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: February

STATE: Florida

COUNTY: Lake County

LOCATION DETAILS: The area was on Hartsock Sawmill RD off of 441/27

NEAREST TOWN: Lady Lake

NEAREST ROAD: 441/27

OBSERVED: After reading your reports from Florida's Lake County I must put down something that happend to me as a child. We had been staying near Lady Lake close to the Griffin Chain of Lakes. We were staying with my grandparents in early 80 or 81. It was late in the evening and everyone was in bed. I had a room on the front of the house by myself. I hear a noise outside my window and we too scared to look. I was about 10 or 11. There were many different sounds, from growling and snorting to footsteps. Again I didn't look and stayed in bed awake for a couple of hours. The noises only last about 5-10 minutes. I went outside as soon as I woke up in the morning and found an intersting item. My brother and I had piled up sand in the dirt driveway the day before. This morning there were 2 large footprints in the sand pile. I showed the tracks to my family and they all played it off as a fluke or a neighborhood kid goofing off. I can't think of too many kids with feet that big. I measured them with a tape and they were about 17" long and 8-10" acrossed.

I do believe stronger today that this was a bigfoot. We were very close to an old saw mill and very close to forest and lake areas that had some secluded areas.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me on the sound, by my immediate family saw the prints.

OTHER STORIES: I had after and before my situation.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Close to midnight. Weather was warm and it was not raining that night.

ENVIRONMENT: Residential boardered by small lakes an old mill and woods.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:

Talked to Eric at length by phone. He works as a firefighter/paramedic in his home state of Indiana.

Every year his family came to vacation in Florida at his grandparents. The growling and snorting he heard that night was loud enough for him to hear with windows closed in a concrete block home. His impression was that it was right outside the room.

The sand pile was about 2 feet across and 1 foot high. The footprints were close together as if something had jumped onto the sand pile with both feet. They resembled human bare footprints and were about 2 1/2 inches deep.

His family made fun of him as he compared them to his grandfather's shoes. He remembers his grandfather talking about skunk-ape sightings in the newspaper. There are numerous reports from this area of Florida, close to the Ocala National Forest.

About BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:

• Worked as an Assistant to a Circuit Court Judge in Florida for thirteen years
• An avid outdoorswoman, growing up in the UP of Michigan on a family-owned fishing and hunting resort
• Certified Visual Tracker, Level 1
• Attended and assisted with numerous public and private BFRO expeditions
• She and the Florida BFRO organized South Florida Expedition 2008, North Florida Expedition 2008 and Central Florida Expedition in 2009.
  
• She and the Michigan BFRO organized the Lower-Michigan Expedition in 2011, Michigan UP Expeditions in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and Wisconsin 2018
• BFRO Secretary for almost 20 years

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