This creature was described in different ways: some took him for panther, others for a feral dog, and still others for a bear. But whoever it is, in November 1945 all the inhabitants of the city Potstown, located on the Skulkill River in the eastern US state Pennsylvania, 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia, kisses week were in a state of alarming tension.
Photo from open sources
In the mornings, eyewitnesses told how suddenly in the middle of the night, as if out of nowhere, there was a huge black shadow, with a howl grabbing sleeping chicken, goose or turkey and, making a giant – sometimes up to six meters – a jump, dissolved in the dark. This beast was nicknamed “creature from Sheep Hill”, by the name of the hill, to which adjoined the eastern outskirts of the city. It is in that direction, by according to the majority of victims, the creature rushed with its night prey. All attempts to keep track of or track her down to no avail.
The robber raids lasted several days in a row, then the creature disappeared from the vicinity of the city as suddenly as appeared.
The return of the impudent creature
Almost 28 years have passed, and in March 1973 in the vicinity Potstown again settled a similar mysterious creature, and on this time – for a long time.
At night, emitting piercing screams, it penetrated the houses, arranged real pogroms in them, and then quickly disappeared. Those who could catch a glimpse of the night robber claimed that he has sparkling red eyes and that comes from him disgusting smell of rotten eggs.
They raided the beast; dozens of residents with guns formed frequent chain, regularly combing the forest, near poultry houses and livestock yards set wolf traps baited with fresh venison. But all it was in vain, the creature could not be outwitted.
And by autumn, the surrounding residents began to disappear dogs. once November night, Lonnie Davis, owner of a large German Shepherd Dog, first he heard a desperate barking, and then a mournful screech of his darling. Grabbing a flashlight, he rushed into the courtyard and saw how towards a large beast rushing huge forest with his dog in the forest teeth.
Waving her flashlight on and screaming loudly, Lonnie rushed in pursuit. Apparently frightened by the screams, the beast released sacrifice. Veterinary clinic doctor where Lonnie took immediately a crippled dog, found on his neck and chest scars from fangs a depth of almost three centimeters.
The next day, Lonnie and several of his neighbors, armed carbines, went to comb the neighboring forest. Soon they found traces of the creature – large, the size of a human palm. They could be mistaken for traces of a very large cougar or other feline predator, if not for one “but”: all cats with the claws were pulled in while the claw marks were on these tracks clearly visible. Casts were made from the tracks, shown to experts, but they could not say anything intelligible. By winter attacks critters have stopped.
Similar atrocities in a new place
In the spring of 1977, from Allen Federal District, located in Ohio, in the north of the United States, reports began to arrive that a huge beast of a dark color, resembling a puma outwardly, kills sheep of local farmers.
The robbery lasted from March to May, mainly in surroundings of the town of Richland. I came there to study the situation famous cryptozoologistLoren Coleman, who joined local dog trainer and chairman of the Humanitarian Society William Reader County. They found that in three months stolen, torn or mutilated more than a hundred sheep, dozens turkeys, geese, chickens and ducks, as well as several peacocks.
In this case, often the creature with its claws and teeth cracked constipation and opened the gates of the houses and the shepherds. Numerous footprints abandoned by the creature (or creatures?) were the same as those discovered in the vicinity of Potstown Lonnie Davis with his neighbors, – imprints of huge “cat” paws, but with protruding outwards claws.
The raid fails
On the night of May 27, 1977, the “capture group” of Reader, two police officers and an assistant to the sheriff finally managed to overlay on freshly plowed field animal, which, most likely, was the villain who killed and tormented the livestock of farmers. It was in advance it was decided not to kill the predator, but to take it alive, previously immobilizing.
Subsequently, Reader described the event as follows: “… About two hours at night we surrounded a motionless standing beast and began with four sides slowly approach him. Each of us directed to it is the light of a powerful lantern, and we all saw it well. He was about 60 centimeters tall, covered in black wool, with spiky cat ears. When we approached the “cat” by 25 meters and I already raised a gun loaded with an ampoule with a tranquilizer, she suddenly leisurely went straight to meet me, as if decided to give up. we slightly taken aback. Having walked like this six or seven meters, the “cat” is rapidly jumped in the direction of the bush growing on the edge of the field, behind which the forest began, and instantly disappeared from sight. We only have to consider her footprints. They were exactly the same as in all previous cases. ”
In this episode, the beast’s quick wits are striking. Surrounded armed people, he makes the only right move, giving him the opportunity to avoid being caught.
North American tiger?
July 27, 1986 to Leonard Schwartz, police chief of the small the town of Nicholson in northeast Pennsylvania addressed former sailor Karl Eastwood, who stated that on this day at 6:00 in the morning he saw a tiger. According to Eastwood, the tiger jumped out of the roadside bushes. right in front of him, but then turned abruptly and jumped back into bushes.
“It happened no further than 15 meters from me,” said Eastwood
After hearing the message, Schwartz not without hesitation reported what had happened. to the state police department. However, there he was not laughed at as he was afraid, but they sent a helicopter with a detachment of armed soldiers, who began to comb the neighborhood of the place where the beast jumped out onto the road. The next day he was spotted from a helicopter lying in a forest glade, but he quickly jumped to his feet and disappeared into more often.
“As far as I could see the animal, it was a tiger,” said Eastwood to Dan Myers, The Philadelphia Correspondent Inquirer, who published an interview with an eyewitness on the front page in July 29, 1986 – In my opinion, he was very large, probably weighed no less than 350 pounds. His coat was brown with white spots.
And school teacher Gary Styer, a resident of a nearby from Ni-kolson of Newton, walked with his wife and son through the forest a path near your home when among the trees close to them a large animal appeared, looking like a huge a cat.
“It was really big,” Styer told the same. Dan Myers – and his walk was very similar to the tiger’s walk, which was recently shown on TV. Only his skin was light brown and without stripes.
In all the cases mentioned, descriptions of the mysterious predator in coincide in many ways, the discrepancies relate only to its color. Not less, these discrepancies, as well as traces found in all cases with clear claw prints, experts were perplexed. He was well expressed by George Lauri, director of the Pennsylvania Zoo Scranton city:
– I don’t know about the existence of cats weighing 350 pounds, having brown with white spots wool and not retractable claws.
What kind of predator was it that periodically raged in Pennsylvania state, scaring farmers and scaring random eyewitnesses still remains a mystery.
Vadim Ilyin
Cats Dogs USA
