Benzie County, Michigan - 2007

This sighting report is told second hand, by he brother in law of the person who actually witnessed the event. The latter is reported to be a prominent person in local government, and he does not wish to have his name revealed. The photographs above were taken shortly after the event. The shotgun shell is placed to provide scale. It is approximately 2.75 inches long, meaning the paw print is roughly 7-8 inches from heel to toe. The following is an edited version of the full report:

"The situation started last Saturday night around midnight when he was coming home from a friend's house in Benzonia and taking the back way home to Traverse City. He stated that while traveling down Cinder Road, several miles outside of the town of Bendon, he observed a pair of eyes reflecting off his headlights ahead of him. Thinking that it was probably a deer along side of the road, he began to slow down. As he got closer however, he stated that the object was much larger and much darker than a deer. He said that by this time, he had slowed to around 30 mph and was at that point several hundred feet from the creature which still hadn’t moved. As he approached further, he stated that the only way he could describe the creature was being similar to a very large dark wolf, however he observed that this thing wasn’t on four legs, but was upright his back two legs standing near a road killed deer. He estimated that the creature stood a little over six feet tall and had very dark fur.

He stated that by now, he was going slow enough to bring his truck to a stop in the road and observe the creature which had not yet moved and was still staring at him. He told me that for a brief second, he believed that the object was a giant stuffed animal put there as some kind of joke due to the fact that he had never seen anything like this in his life, and that he was able to drive up on it as close as he was, without it having moved an inch. He told me however, that before he could finish that thought, the creature then dropped to all four legs and sprinted across the road and disappeared into the woods on the other side of the roadway.

He told me that he stayed frozen in his seat for a minute wondering in the middle of the road, of what the heck had just happened. I jokingly asked him if he had been drinking that night and with a deadly serious face, stated “No… whatever that was, it was for real”. Of course, that was before I saw the photographs.

As perplexed as he was that night over what he had seen, he was deathly afraid to go wandering into the woods to investigate further. He said that in using a flashlight, he observed some of the animals tracks leading into the woods on the opposite side of the road and was fortunate enough that night to have his digital camera with him. He showed me a photograph of the pawprint which he said appeared to be about 7 or 8 inches long. He had another picture of the same pawprint where he placed a shotgun shell in the middle of it for scale. He told me that he was lucky that the side of the road was so soft, because he wasn’t willing to go any farther than two or three steps away from the door to his truck to get a picture. I inquired if the animal had made any sounds before it disappeared and he said that he did not hear it make any noise and were it not for the picture, he would have thought that he had imagined the whole thing. . I asked him if it could have been a bear and he stated “absolutely not”. He bear hunts every year in the U.P., so he obviously knows what bears look like up close.

That's his story. Believe it if you like. If I didn’t know him as well as I do, and hadn’t seen the pictures, I would have said that he was out of his mind. I’ve heard the song and know some of the stories, but always believed it was just for entertainment value. After this happened though, I’m looking at all of this under a whole new light."

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