Mt. Pleasant/Alma, Michigan
The Morning Sun
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
http://www.themorningsun.com/stories/07120...igfoot001.shtml
Not Bigfoot, just a guy in a shaggy outfit
By MARK RANZENBERGER
Sun Staff Writer
It wasn't Bigfoot.
That big, hairy creature spotted by Clare County sheriff's deputies oon Harding Road north of M-115 wasn't the mythical, frightening stalker of the North Woods.
But the deputies weren't quite sure what they had for a while.
It was, according to Lt. Richard T. Miller, a man dressed in a serious camouflage outfit called a ghillie suit.
Those suits add to the camouflage effect by adding strings of jute or burlap, breaking up the outline of the wearer. They are useful in hunting and surveillance, according to manufacturers.
"Apparently, the man was playing with his two nephews and decided to put on this stringy outfit," Miller said. "He got next to the road to play jokes on passing cars."
One car passed. Then the plan started to come apart.
The next two cars down Harding Road were sheriff's department patrol cars. Deputies ordered Bigfoot to put his paws in the air.
Two other people were spotted running into the woods toward a log cabin, Miller said. The deputies called for backup.
"State Police, along with another sheriff's car, arrived shortly afterward," Miller said. The deputies and trooper wanted to make sure the people running into the woods weren't breaking into residences, a problem in rural Clare County.
"It was confirmed that the people running in the woods and the man dressed in the stringy outfit belonged there," Miller said. He said deputies explained that seeing a large, hairy creature standing by the road might prove distracting for passing drivers, and that wasn't a good idea.
Bigfoot "left with his tail between his legs," Miller said and "stated there will not be a sighting of him again."
The names of the people involved were not released.
