Zoinks!
A group of terrified teenagers called police in a panic after they claimed they ran into a growling, Bigfoot-like creature with “glowing eyes,” officials said.
The recent high school graduates from Houma in southern Louisiana were camping in Kisatchie National Forest — about 100 miles northwest of Baton Rouge — when they reported the chilling encounter last week, according to the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Office.
They recalled seeing a large animal that resembled “Bigfoot” shortly after they set up camp about a mile and a half off Back Bone Trail in southern Natchitoches Parish, according to police.
Around 9:20 p.m. on June 28, one member of the group — who were all 17 and 18 years old — called 911 after they reportedly “heard a growl and saw what appeared to be an animal that had glowing eyes and stood about 5-foot tall,” the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies responded to the scene and walked to the campsite, vigilant for any mythological creatures.
They followed the sound of their whistles to the campsite and found the teens frightened but unharmed. They were safely escorted out of the forest by the deputies.
Despite a thorough investigation, deputies were “unable to locate any suspicious activity involving a growl with glowing eyes and standing 5-feet tall,” the sheriff’s office said.
They congratulated the teens on their graduation and wished them good luck in their futures.
This is not the first Bigfoot sighting in Kisatchie National Forest.
Two self-proclaimed Bigfoot researchers, who only provided their names as “Tex-La” and Claude to avoid ridicule, claimed in 2019 they had visual and audio evidence of the cryptid’s existence in the dense, 600,000-acre woods.
The pair left camouflaged cameras and audio devices in trees to record hours of footage and recordings — including loud howls — they later studied and analyzed, local paper Town Talk reported.
They also claimed to have seen footprints and signs of Bigfoot “markings,” such as twisted tree limbs.
“It is what it is. If you choose to believe that’s great. If you choose not to believe, that’s great, too,” said Tex-La.
“It’s something you have to approach with an open mind,” he added.
In October, a man and his wife on a romantic getaway snapped a video of a creature purported to be Bigfoot walking around in broad daylight in Colorado.
Shannon and Stetson Parker were enjoying a sightseeing tour on the narrow gauge rail line between Durango and Silverton in the state’s far southwest when they filmed the creature.
The large, ape-like creature, also known as Sasquatch, has roots in Native American folklore and has been reported by European settlers since the 1800s.
“Those who claim to have seen Bigfoot have described everything from a large, upright ape to an actual hairy human, sometimes standing over eight feet tall and described as powerfully built,” the Washington National Guard wrote in a post about the legend.
“The debate and research continue,” it added.
