A listener writes “Hey Wes, I’ve been a longtime listener, and I’ve been following you for a couple of years before this potential encounter happened. I haven’t shared this story with many people. Until recently, I had only told my current wife and my best friend. I think, honestly, I was afraid of sounding crazy.
This took place in northwest Alabama on property owned by my ex-wife’s family. We had moved into her parents’ house three days before the birth of my special needs son. During the time we were there, I never really noticed anything unusual except for a span of a few days sometime in what I believe was late summer. I don’t remember the exact time of year, but it was still warm outside.
The area was extremely rural. The house sat on a rise, with cliff faces on mostly three sides.
One night, I decided to cook steaks down by the lower shop/garage, which was about 75 yards from the house. I had my dog with me, and we were getting the grill ready when I started hearing footsteps in the woods.
They sounded bipedal, which immediately caught my attention because that would have been very out of place there. My dog noticed them too. The footsteps sounded as though they were coming from in front of us, moving from right to left.
I had a strong flashlight, so I started scanning the woods, but I couldn’t see anything. That didn’t make sense to me because the footsteps sounded like they were very close almost directly in front of me.
I continued listening as whatever was making the sounds moved toward a cliff with a significant drop-off. Eventually, I heard it go over the side, and then the footsteps disappeared.
My dog is fearless. He had never backed down from a fight with a coyote, a trespassing dog, or any other predator he’d encountered. But that night, he was extremely upset by whatever he was hearing or sensing.
At the same time, I experienced a feeling that I can only describe as overwhelming dread or hopelessness. It came over me suddenly, and I had no idea why.
I was armed with my pistol, and I’m a competitive shooter. I only mention that to explain that I was comfortable handling a firearm and confident in my ability to defend myself if necessary. Yet, despite that, I felt completely outmatched. I had this strange sense that whatever was out there was beyond my ability to deal with.
At the time, I couldn’t explain it.
I went back to the house, got a rifle, and told my wife what had happened. She locked the doors behind me and told her parents to do the same. I eventually went back down to get my steaks, and nothing else happened that night.
Two days later, while her parents were out of town, I noticed that a large concrete statue in the back area of the house had been knocked over. If you were standing at the back door looking outward, the statue had been thrown to the right.
On the opposite side was a very large concrete planter filled with soil and a plant. That had been thrown to the left and was lying on its side.
My first thought was that it had been caused by wind, but the fact that one had gone to the right and the other to the left didn’t make much sense.
There was also another large, empty concrete planter that I didn’t initially notice was missing. A day or two later, I found it thrown down the hill, where it had broken apart.
I believe it was that same day, sometime in the middle of the afternoon, that I heard what I can only describe as a “whoop.”
I never saw anything. If that had been the only strange thing that happened, I probably would have dismissed it. But taken together the footsteps, my dog’s reaction, the overwhelming sense of dread, the concrete objects being thrown in opposite directions, the missing planter, and then the whoop it became something I couldn’t easily explain away.
I never had another experience at that house.
There was, however, a family friend who was house sitting there on another occasion, and he believed he saw something looking into the window at him.
I can’t say for certain what any of this was. I’m not claiming that it was a Bigfoot or anything else in particular. I just know what I experienced, and I’ve heard enough stories similar to mine that I thought I’d finally share it.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.”