Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “Late October 1999 in Sebring, Florida: I was 14. We were new to Florida from Canada. We had just arrived in late September and were renting a home in an isolated, gated community that was quite swampy.

My mother worked nights at the local hospital and my brother and I were alone most nights. We were on a tight budget so we were not allowed to run the central air. It was a warm night so I opened my bedroom window and stuck a small fan in the sill to keep my room as cool as possible.

I woke up late in the night to the sound of my cat meowing outside. He sounded in distress. I peeked out my window and saw him running from the back of our yard. I quickly ran outside and scooped him up and ran back in the house.

Once we were settled back inside, I returned to my room and it smelled so bad. Like BO and rotten eggs mixed together. I was curious about the source of the smell and peeked out my window.

On our lawn, crouched down and resting on its large arms and hands was what looked like a large black gorilla only without the big hump on the top of the head. It sat perfectly still for a few seconds, and then with its legs still planted on the ground, it began swaying its arms and moving its shoulders around in a very strange manner.

My mouth went dry and I felt so scared. I tore myself from the window and wondered what to do. Should I call my mom?

Not believing what I was seeing I looked again and it was still there in the same spot, sitting still. Then it began swaying around in that strange manner again.

Wanting a better view, I ran from my room to the back patio doors and it was gone. I checked all the other windows and it was gone. The smell quickly disappeared after the creature left. I never saw it again. But always had a creepy feeling I was being watched when walking in the neighbourhood. I also smelled the smell again hiking on community trails in the area.

I believe I saw the Florida Skunk Ape. It wasn’t until about 15 years after that happened that I watched a documentary on tv on skunk apes that was reminiscent of my encounter and made it make sense to me.”