Report # 43853 (Class B)
Submitted by witness on Friday, January 17, 2014.
Footprints found in a backyard lead to a possible nighttime sighting near Slatington
YEAR: 2014
SEASON: Winter
MONTH: January
DATE: 13
STATE: Pennsylvania
COUNTY: Lehigh County
LOCATION DETAILS: pond with koi fish….geese bed at night in pond….deer in area use for water hole
NEAREST TOWN: Slatington
NEAREST ROAD: 873
OBSERVED: This happened Jan. 13 2014 …..first sighting at 1930 and seen in pond reeds 1950.
Because of footprints found in yard I bought a million candle power spot light….at 1930 I went on back porch and about 300 yards down an incline I shined it in a field and got red eye shine. As soon as I hit it with the light it stopped like…uh oh I just got made! The eyes looked up towards light for 3 seconds …lost eye shine….looked back up and was thinking what to do….then it moved fast towards my light and I got scared and went back in house. told my father n law …we went out and used two spot lights in the direction. I could not see anything. We both got in my suv and drove to the field where I saw eye shine and pulled off a side dirt road…got out and hit light into reeds by pond and I picked its eye shine up high in reeds. then my father n law got him with his spot light. it was looking and then it went low to ground and was going from left to right in a small creek embankment and would look and then move and then would stop and look long enough where we could see its eyes blink.
Could not see any body because of distance…only eye shine.
have video of encounter but only a got 1 minute because I-phone stopped recording due to no more memory for recording. I was more worried about not losing sight of its location.
Next day we went to the spot and the reeds where 10 foot tall and the eye shine was about 7.5-8 foot range.
Ground was frozen in some spots and spongy grass in others….meaning step down and grass comes back up….one track found and have picture.
I bought the spot light and was purposely looking for the thing that left its prints in my yard 5 nights before this.
I now have night vision with capability to record and I am keeping my video camera charged to get this on video…..believe this is hanging around for food at pond.
ALSO NOTICED: foot prints 16.5 inches long with a 6.5 foot stride in my yard 5 days prior
OTHER WITNESSES: 2…..in house
OTHER STORIES: I have been told this area is a hot spot
TIME AND CONDITIONS: night
ENVIRONMENT: rural/residential….farm fields….pond….rolling hills
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Istvan Steve Ujvari:
I met with the witness at his residence and he and his father-in-law recreated the events of the evening in question. Five days prior to this incident the witness reported finding a trackway with large footprint like tracks that had a long stride length in his backyard. Because of this he kept vigilant around his house at night.
One evening while out on his back deck he spotlighted a creature in a distant field. After going inside to retrieve his father-in-law, they both tried to find the creature in the field again but now with two spotlights. Not seeing anything the two men drove down to the field that’s located approximately 300 yards from the witness’ house and pulled into a small dirt road that leads to a pond with a large, thick and high patch of reeds.
The two found the creature again. It appeared to be hiding in the patch of reeds. They both had their spotlights on it now and observed the creature’s eyes moving back and forth through the reeds. Initially it was standing up but soon after being spotlighted again it dropped to a much lower level.
After observing it for a length of time they returned home. During subsequent daylight investigations (both by themselves and with me present) it appeared that the creature was utilizing a slight depression to move around in the reeds. The top of those reeds were approximately 10′ tall. The witness estimated the eyes to be approximately 7.5-8′ tall.
I saw a video of the tracks, it was low quality and does not show enough detail to share.
The area of the sighting is a combination of suburbs, small woodlots, and mostly open agricultural fields. Approximately two miles to the north lies one of the ridges of the Appalachian Chain which is very heavily forested for miles and miles.
