These events took place in 1998-1999 on 200-acre farm my wife and I were renting outside of West Chester, Pennsylvania. As most of these occurrences happened throughout the year, it really ramped up in the winter months. Here’s what happened.
The secluded house we were renting with our four boys (young at the time) was a quarter of a mile from the road. Throughout the months, we began to notice odd noises in the night and had the feeling of being watched. Our bedroom window faced deep woods that bordered a corn field. We would hear odd grunting sounds, sudden foul whiffs of what can be described as a hot day at a zoo, and the ongoing sound of trees snapping by some unseen heavy object breaking branches.
One day in the fall, after clearing out brush in the northern part of the farm, I saw a huge shadow behind a tree not 30 feet from where I was unloading the leaves. It was a good size, whatever it was, and seemed interested in what I was doing. I got a whiff of that same foul odor. When I called out to see who was there, I got no response. I hightailed it back to the house. I didn’t tell my wife as I didn’t want to scare her or the kids.
It started to get worse. In January, we had a heavy winter storm blow through. The snow fell so heavily that several feet accumulated overnight. I went out to warm the car to get ready for work and noticed large footprints coming out of the woods. The scary thing was that they stopped near our bedroom window. They were the only prints visible. They were very large and spaced so far apart that I had to run and jump from print to print. I went to work mystified and a little shaken.
She said that the heavy snow and ice broke a tree branch and it had fallen on our power lines. When she went out investigate what happened, the ice was so thick on the snow that she fell and slid down about 30 feet from the house. As she started crawling back toward the house, she saw a tall, dark shape come toward her.
She described it as smelling awful, black hair all over it, and about seven feet tall. She couldn’t see its face. There are no bears in our area as we are rural to a city. It was so big and heavy it was breaking through the ice.
In a panic she scrambled as this creature came toward her. She made it back to the house, fell to the floor, and kicked the door shut behind her. She could hear the creature banging on the walls. She quickly got my rifle and took the boys to the back bedroom.
Eventually, the banging stopped and she could hear crunching snow leaving the front porch area. We don’t know if the creature was trying to help her or hurt her. Needless to say, we moved out as soon as the lease ended.