Nation/World

‘Please be advised that the eyes appear to glow’: Bigfoot-like sculpture alarms N.C. drivers

Hidden in the woods in rural North Carolina stands an 8-foot-tall creature with what appears to be luscious black fur, flared nostrils and abdominal muscles that would put the Terminator to shame.

It looks hostile, holding a giant branch.

And when its eyes are caught in the headlight beams from approaching - and unsuspecting - drivers, those peepers glow blood red.

Perhaps that's why people have been calling the Davie County Animal Shelter in Mocksville, North Carolina, to report what they think it is: Bigfoot.

It is, in fact, a statue. But when animal control began receiving numerous calls about a bigfoot sighting, it decided to set things straight.

"This handsome fellow stands on Pine Ridge Rd. in Mocksville," Davie County Animal Shelter said in a Facebook Post late last week. "If you are traveling this road at night, please be advised that the eyes appear to glow. If you see this phenomenon, you do not need to call animal control to report seeing Bigfoot, Sasquatch or any other large creature. Thank you."

Lisa Nielson, with the Davie County Animal Shelter, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that officers received several calls one evening last week about a sasquatch on private property near a country road in Mocksville, some 60 miles southwest of Charlotte. Each time, she said, officers had to explain that it was simply a chain-saw carving that was likely made to resemble the hairy, apelike creature famous from folklore.

ADVERTISEMENT

Nielson said that the callers also commented about the red, glowing eyes - which turned out to be red marbles or red glass that happened to capture drivers' headlights just about right.

Nielson said she posted the message on Facebook on Friday morning so that people would not keep calling with non-emergency matters. The post drew dozens of comments, with people making light of the unusual situation.

One person commented on the post:

"Dispatcher: 911 What's your emergency?

"Caller: OH MY GOODNESS I JUST SAW BIG FOOT!!! SEND HELP!!!

"Dispatcher: are you on pine ridge road??

"Caller: ... uhh ... yes how'd you know?!

"Dispatcher: ....... 9th time today with this....

Others continued on about the statue.

"I'm kind of diggin' those 6-pack abs on Sasquatch," one person wrote.

"If I wasn't already married ... " another said.

Some wanted to know where the carving came from and others asked whether they could borrow it. Then someone from the Davie County Animal Shelter joined in on the jokes: "Are we taking bids?"

"We're just blown away by the response," Nielson, with the Davie County Animal Shelter, told The Post. "We try to have a lot of fun with our Facebook page, but we never expected this."

Giggles aside, we at The Post are not the experts on Bigfoot, Sasquatch or even the Abominable Snowman, or yeti. However, the Bigfoot Field Researchers' Organization, which collects data on reported bigfoot sightings, has recorded more than 5,000 such sightings in the United States, 96 of them in North Carolina.

And one of them in Davie County.

That report stated that one summer night in 1977, three teenage boys spotted the creature near Lake Myers in Davie County.

ADVERTISEMENT