A listener writes “My story happened so many years ago and I’m not sure how much information you are wanting, but I’ll give you a brief run down.
I live in Northwest Arkansas. At the time of my sighting I lived in the mountains up here.
It was Mother’s Day weekend (@ 12 years ago) and I had both of my baby boys outside. We were coming back inside from checking the mail. I had one boy on my hip and the other was fussing, trying desperately to keep his shoes on and making a lot of noise. All of the sudden, we heard a crashing through the woods. I see this GINORMOUS black thing running, on all fours, parallel to us to get behind a timber pile. I’m 5’8″ – and from foot to shoulder that thing was only a couple of inches shorter than me. When we saw it, I smelled it. It stank like wet dog and pee and other things I most likely couldn’t describe. I didn’t see it’s face. I truly think the only thing I can focus on was it’s shoulder – I could literally see the muscles moving under the black. It was level from from shoulder to rump. The two most memorable things from that short couple of seconds was that I was close enough to see the muscles in it’s shoulders and arms and that when it got behind the timber pile, the woods were completely silent.
I grabbed up both of my kiddos and rushed inside. My three year old was looking over my shoulder saying that he thought he might need to stay outside and play. Nothing but a bear ever crossed my mind. I thought it had to be the biggest bear in Northwest Arkansas. I never saw it leave the brush pile. I even called the Fish and Wildlife to report the animal. They told me that they wouldn’t come out if it wasn’t aggressive.
The second time something happened was in January of the next year. I should preface this part by saying that I was also reading a Linda Godfrey book that I got for Christmas (I never finished it, btw). Anyway, I was was reading this book, got to a spooky part and decided to put it down and close up the house for the night. I took the trash out. The trash can was just out of the glow of the deck light. All of the sudden, I smelled that same smell I smelled in May.
I was hustling to get done thinking there was a bear out. Then, my brain started thinking that it was the middle of winter and frozen outside. So very cold that winter. Bears should, and most likely would, be hibernating. THEN, I start thinking about my book. I beat feet back into my house. I locked doors and turned off lights. I checked on my boys. All was well. I made my way back to my end of the house into my bathroom to get ready for bed. All of the sudden my house, where I was, started getting pelted by rocks. Something was able to scoop rocks off of the frozen ground and spray the side of my house with rocks. It lasted for about 5 minutes. And, it happened three nights in a row.
Thank you for taking the time read it.”