Something has been getting into my garbage can for many months. It is one of those large plastic ones supplied by the City, and with a tight fitting lid. Trash pickup is on Wednesdays out at the street, and I keep it in the driveway in front of my trucks
the rest of the time. To get to it, you have to come down my driveway, and walk between my two trucks. It's a tight fit between my two trucks, but my wife and I can always make it by without messing with the side mirrors on the trucks. I can always tell when someone has been over to the garbage can, as the big mirror on my one ton is pushed way back. The other night, my 'trash man' came by again, and this time left one of the largest hand prints I have ever seen on the mirror part, and with detailed dermal prints. I have covered the mirror, and was curious about how to lift the prints, and have them examined. I have tried to take a picture of it, but the mirror is too bright/reflective, and you can't see any detail. Does anybody know how to lift a print? I live near Austin Texas.......thanks!

Hey BigTex, you can use scotch tape works good

What about that Chilcott(sp.) guy here in Texas.....wonder if I could send it to him, anybody know how to get a hold of him?

1. You are going to get a print of some guy looking for cans or scrap metal
2. It was there before, and the lighting didn't let you see it
3. It was an unclassified north american primate, and he is skilled in the bo-staff, breast stroke etc...

Cute Drew, real cute. Food scraps are what's missing from the garbage, I keep the recycle bin inside the garage, and the hand print is simply enormous.....maybe it's Goliath.

OK OK, Now that you say it's Enormous and Goliath, as opposed to simply the largest one you have ever seen, then I suppose you should have it checked out. Seriously, when you said the largest handprint you had ever seen, I just thought big human, but now that it is E and G, then I start thinking BF.

Take the whole mirror off!
It's common to use Super Glue heated up in a tin inside of a case with the item(s) to be fingerprinted. Super Glue's main ingredient is something called cyanoacrylate, an acrylic resin that when heated the vapors will adhere to the oils from fingerprints.

Saw it on CSI Miami so it must be true. . .

Set up a game cam in your driveway. I know it sounds crazy, but at least you won't have to stay up at night trying to catch the culprit.

I am curious do you live in "bigfoot country" or in the city? Maybe you should employ a game cam and some extra food scraps. I would make an effort to contact Jimmy Chilcutt (sp?) if you feel you have something,maybe call the P.D. and ask where you can get some fingerprint dust you need something to contrast it against paper or what ever you use after you lift it. I bet if you Google Dr. Jeff Meldrum you may be able to get some info on Chilcutt as the did some work together and I think Dr. Meldrum posts on here maybe a PM will get you pointed in the right direction. Please keep us posted.

I don' know how good this is, but there seem to be sevral sites that have instructions on dusting and lifting prints. You may want to contact the authorities and ask them, but htis site has some home instructions:
http://www.cyberbee.com/whodunnit/dusting.html
I'd check out if this is accurate though, you don't want to spoil some good prints.

where in Texas are you?

Maybe one of the local BF groups could help out and come investigate

Good morning all.....I do live in a rural area, and have seen posible Bigfoot signs over the years. I was in town last night hanging with several old friends, and showed them my truck mirror. All said the hand print was quite enormous, very strange, and that I should take the mirror off to send it to somebody. Would like to find Jimmy Chillcot, and see if I can send it to him. The mirror on my one ton is not small by any means, and hard to move around (20 year old truck). What ever did this only used the 3 middle fingers (minus the thumb and little pinky) to move this, and it appears that the rest of the hand was to large to even fit within the mirror.....it's that big. We all agreed last night that what ever moved the mirror against the side of the truck used one hand to swipe the mirror over. You can see three prints where it made the initial contact on the mirror, and as the mirror moved over, the three fingers slide across the mirror, leaving a dirty finger trail, then three more prints down at the bottom. It had been raining that night, and the mirror was wet. What ever did this obviously had dirty hands, which caused the dirty finger trail across the mirror. The prints themselves are very strange, twice as wide as mine, or anyone elses last night. They are boxy, not round like a human would leave....if you follow me, and the dermal patterns seem unusual. The one fact that we all concluded last night, was that something came to my garbage can that night between 2:30AM (wife gets home from work) and 6:45AM (kids leave for school), took 3 old half pizzas out of the can, and left this print. This much we do know. I would like to think (and pray) it was a Bigfoot, because if it not......then we have a HUGE problem, a king sized bum!

BigTex, I would remove the mirror and put it in a box somewhere safe and dry. Hang on to it and the opportunity for someone with the interest and experience to examine it will arrise in time.

A game camera or security video camera discreetly located may yield the answer of who or what is coming to your trash can.

Keep leaving food scraps out and start checking other areas around your property, if it is a sasquatch it is acting in an opportunistic way at acquiring food. You may have the chance to establish a repeatable pattern of visits to your property. Probably a plan you will want to keep secret from your wife and kids.

BigTex, have there been enough visits to you garbage can that you can establish a pattern? Such as once a week or only on rainy nights ect.

Do you have any outside lights on at night or is it completely dark on your property?

Do you have a dog or any other animals (horses, chickens or such)?

What are the other possible signs of sasquatch activity that you mentioned?

Good questions Crim.....no lights on at the house or street when this happens. I leave a porch light on, but my wife turns it off when she gets home between 2 and 3AM. It does offer indirect light over in the driveway when on. No real pattern that I've noticed as far as the throw away food left in the garbage can missing, but I haven't really been paying attention to that. Now the mirror thing happens 2 or 3 times a week, and going back several months, and this has been driving me crazy! It takes a little time to get the mirrors set the way I like, and has really been aggravating, but now with the prints....it is exciting! Oh I have a homemade camera trap that's going out there in the near future, the store bought kind don't seem to work at all, and are totally non stealthy, plus they fire too slow.

Sorry....forgot to mention NO DOGS.

Well....that was easy enough....I was able to get Jimmy Chillcot on the phone, and I am sending the mirror to him. I will post his findings as soon as I get the results.

Does anyone have the proper spelling for Jimmy's last name?

Be careful driving Tex. (no mirror ya know)

I was going to tell you to put something on the truck or mirror that is really sticky and try and get a hair sample too. Other wise, I like the camera option, or sleep in the truck a couple nights and see if it walks by.

Other possible explanation- two hands pulling, instead of one hand pushing?

Please excuse my crappy freehand paint.net drawing

"Jimmy Chilcutt"

Big Tex - please do not attempt to recover the fingerprints by yourself. If they are something, an expert needs to collect the evidence. I am sending you a pm of several people there in Texas to contact. They can evaluate the evidence and call in Jimmy Chilcutt if necessary.

Thanks Hairy, I already called Jimmy and spoke with him directly. Now getting the mirror off......I've been at it for over two hours now, with no end in sight, and have seriuos doubts whether I can get the damn thing off.

Fantastic!

Since it's for the cause, just send Jimmy the entire truck, he won't mind! Not sure what size box you'll need...but...

That's exactly what I would do. I was thinking of doing that myself, cause someone's been snooping around my place. I can hear them outside my office window (home office) which is the only secluded area of the yard. A few months ago, someone tried to kick in my neighbors door while they were home! Now we live in a townhouse with 5 apt's on each building, so the point is someone is taking a pretty big chance that they will be heard/spotted.

Thanks Hairy....I might have to! Found some change inside the door, pushed out a dent that's been there for years, greased the stubborn window tracks, but no closer to getting that thing off. Guess I'll just try to get a picture......rats!

I wish it was a B/F too BigTex, but let's not get carried away. That would be close to the last possibility. It's definately an interesting situation and one Im sure you'd like an explanation for (me too!).

Try a couple of precision tools...

Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

BigTex, just two words for ya.... road trip

good luck!

Oh Rocky.....you don't know how close I came to some drastic measures with that mirror! You just can't believe the amazingly goofy way that is attached to the door. If I take the window and mechanism out, I might have a chance.....but not sure I can get it back together.

Hi,

I did a quick experiment and saran wrap takes fingerprints up very nicely off glass surfaces.

You get a very clean, large, unfingerprinted section of saran wrap and place it very carefully over the print, so that it lays completely flat and doesn't smudge. Take a felt pen and circle the prints while the saran wrap is still on the mirror and write something so you know which side of the wrap the fingerprint is on. Then take a sheet of clean white paper and place it directly over the saran, and rub the surface of the paper firmly, making sure nothing slips. Take the paper away, carefully peel back the saran wrap off the mirror. Now very carefully take your piece of saran wrap with the fingerprints on them and wrap it, fingerprinted surface down, over a piece of glass or mirror that can be moved. Leave it wrapped like that, label the date, location, your name etc. in the corner of the wrap or the back of the mirror or something, and mail it all well padded to the person you want to have analyse it. Good luck.

Just think - some engineer got paid big $$$ to design that mystical mechanical mess you are working with.
I think they go to secret meetings and brag to their colleagues - "Man, you should see what I designed today - some poor guy is going to be pulling his hair out trying to figure out how to get that mirror off one day- BWAH HA HA HAHAHA!"

Well....after pretty much destroying my door panel, the Bigfoot 'curse' strikes again, i.e. no evidence! A storm blew through the other night, blew off my plastic bag that I had over the mirror, and erased the hand print. Unfortunately, I could not get the mirror off without doing further damage, so I will post the pictures that I took; (1) the hand smudge in question, and obviously not much detail of anything. You can barely see the three fingers as they slid from the top right, across and down to the bottom left. There were three clear prints at the top right where it must have first touched, and three more at the lower left where the hand action stopped. (2) Shows my two trucks as we park them, with 'Whitey' (my '86 GMC) backed in to give us more room to clear the mirrors when walking through, and was the position of the trucks when this happened. (3) The door all torn up. (4) The garbage can, and where I keep it when not out at the street. (5) Woods and trail on the other side of the street. (6) Recyle bins out at street and ready for pickup, with a little baby deer in between them, just to show the wildness of the area.

Since the hand print was left, nothing appears to have come back, no mirrors moved, and nothing has been missing from the garbage can.....rats!

Opps....guess I don't know how to post pictures......the one above is picure #6. I'll try again. Here's #1;

Here's #2;

#3

#4

#5

No set-screws on the back of the mirror? Thought those kind of mirrors had em.

OFFICIAL RED-CIRCLE REQUEST:
Please provide red-circle

Hey Drew, no idea on how to do a red circle......I'm not a computer guy. Devour, it had two set screws inside the door, and one was hiding behind the window mechanism. I just wasn't ready to take that apart....we've been having a ton of rain. The set screws also had the wierdest looking nuts I've ever seen, and when I got the first one loose, it just started spinning, as there was no way to secure the other end, since it was inside the mirror. Almost looks like I would have to replace the hole damn door if I ever broke the mirror!

So anything happen with this? I thought you were sending this out to be examined. Any reply yet?

Nope.....one more dead end, tore up my door though, which prompted an interior restoration.......that made my wife and daughter happy. So I guess there was a happy ending after all! Those darn prints were huge though, that the people who saw them will soon not forget.....it was impressive!

have you thought about sprinkling baby powder or flour on the driveway between the vehicles to try and get a footprint? Just a thought!