Nov 15

“What the hell was that!”

A listener writes “Hi Wes, First, I wanted to thank you for your podcast. It’s been very interesting to listen to all the different encounters and unwanted situations people have found themselves in and how they’ve been able to deal with it.

It’s been good for me personally. My wife and I had our crazy event take place in late November 1978 and it’s still something that I’m processing through. I’m now a retired pastor and I lost my Wife to cancer 12 years ago.

Our four children are now grown and raising their own families. I recently moved back into the house I grew up in to help take care of an aging parent. I’m now back living in the area we had our encounter. My wife and I shared the event one time with another couple and because it didn’t go very well, we decided to just keep quiet about it from then on. We’d always considered it some sort of supernatural encounter that made no sense. Now, listening to others talk about their events on your podcast, I’m not so sure if that’s the case anymore. I’m still on the fence about it, really.

My wife and I had always referred to our encounter as “the event”, when we discussed it in private. Our Children don’t have a clue what had taken place in our lives when we were so young and first dating.

Our “event” took place during the late Fall of 1978 in the Maryland countryside. The county had just built a new park that had a few baseball fields, a playground and tennis courts surrounded by woods, a nice creek and a whole lot of Maryland farm land around it. On Friday and Saturday nights, the new park became a very popular spot for high school kids to go and “park” or just hang out and party in the small pavilion there when the weather was mild. It quickly became a favorite spot for my then girlfriend, and soon to be wife, and I to go hang out and “park”.

The evening of our encounter was a cold one and we had the car running, heat on and Frampton Comes Alive playing on my eight track. I had just backed in my recently purchased 1969 Nova SS in the closest parking spot near the woods so no one could see us from the main road. We were the only car in the lot that night. I think because it was pretty cold out. We hadn’t been there very long, maybe 15-20 minutes. We were talking and laughing when a number of deer came running at a fast pace behind our car. It sounded like they were making huffing sounds. I’m not sure if it was the deer or what we were about to see.

They were really moving and I’d never seen deer run like that before. We’d always see them in the fields, just grazing and maybe looking up when a car pulled into the lot. But, they would usually go back to what they were doing before. About a minute, maybe 45 seconds later, there was a small thud on the trunk of the car. I said to my girlfriend, “it’s probably just one of the deer running by and had glancing bump on the back of the car”. Almost immediately after I said that, there was a big thud. It actually moved the car up and down one time.

Now, the weekend before this one, we had gone to a friend’s party and had pulled up on the curve where the party was being held. A few of my football buddies ran up and started pushing down on the trunk to make the car wobble up and down. I jumped out and chased them. It was all in good fun and we were all laughing. Just a stupid high school thing. So, immediately I thought my buddies had spotted us from the road somehow as they drove by, snuck up on us and was messing with us again. I again jumped out to chase them. This time I grabbed my long, police flash light to run them into the woods. I jumped out and literally stopped immediately.

I was looking into the face of something that doesn’t exist. At that exact moment, my girlfriend spotted the same thing I was looking at out the back window of the car and began screaming. It was just enormous, ugly and it was obviously not happy. I’m pretty sure it was already growling when I opened my car door and jumped out. It was a low growl, but it was a growl I’ve never forgotten. It was quiet, but it rumbled my chest, like a bass guitar would at a 70’s rock concert. It was very strange that it was such a low volume, but I could still feel it intensely in my body. It was dark out, but the car’s interior light popped on when I opened the door. I hadn’t turned the flashlight on yet, which I’m very thankful for now. What I saw was more than enough with the available light.

It was only about 5-6 feet away from me and it had saliva dripping from its mouth. It’s eyes look reddish, maybe a dark orange and they appeared to be glowing. I’ve never been sure if it was a reflection or they were self-illuminating. At the time, I was 6’3″ and weighed 225. It had to be at least 9-10′ tall, if not taller and had to weigh well over 400lbs. I felt very small all of the sudden. The thing was incredibly bulky, massive and intimidating in a way I’d never known before or since. It’s also amazing how fast your mind moves at a moment like that. Taking in all you saw in just a few seconds.

The entire encounter outside the car was only a few seconds long. As it was standing behind the trunk of the car, it all of the sudden kind of glided or slid about a foot closer towards me. How it moved was not natural at all. It was like it was standing on conveyor belt in the grass as it moved towards me. That’s the only way I can describe it. Like it slid over the grass without moving. That’s one of the reasons I thought it was surely supernatural.

As it made that move, I saw it quickly glanced down at the long flashlight I was still holding and then right back up at me. I moved like I’d never moved before in my life. To this very day, I’m not sure how, but I found myself back in the driver’s seat, my door closing as I took that Nova SS out of that parking lot, across a grass barrier and onto the main road.

My soon to be wife was still screaming and I was now yelling at her, “What the hell was that! What the hell was that!” at the top of my lungs over and over again. Another thing is just as I put the car in gear and was moving forward, there was a loud thump on the back of the car. I never knew if it was the creature trying to grab or hit it or something it possibly threw as I flew out of there. It left a dent on the right side of the rear panel that wasn’t there before that night. The one thing I haven’t shared yet is as it moved towards me, glanced down at my flashlight and back up at me, I saw another set of eyes a few feet behind it. I think that’s when I moved into action.

It was hazy to me that night and it’s still unclear to me what made me react so quickly. I can only reason its movement forward, glance down and back up and the new set of eyeballs spurred me. It’s amazing how fast your mind works at a moment like that. Even the way I reacted seemed to me, afterwards, unnaturally quick or maybe it was just a case that I had no recollection because of the intensity of the moment.

I don’t recall seeing a body with the second set of eyes. We were scared for a long time afterwards. We didn’t even discuss it for about a month. I can tell you that it was definitely instrumental in bringing us into the church. We felt it was demonic and we placed our lives as close to God as we could get. I don’t think it was a sasquatch by the descriptions I’m hearing on your shows. I’m not even sure if it’s the dog man creature some people talk about. It looked more like an oversized, black wolf to us that felt like in your heart and soul was purely evil.

I’m not sure if these things were chasing the deer or the deer felt their presence and fled. It seems to me if they wanted the deer, they would have just continued on their way and not stopped to bother us in a sealed up car. Scripture declares that what evil means for bad, God works out for good. It surely drove us into the arms of the Lord, for sure. As the years went by, my wife no longer wanted to talk about it.

I surely needed to still process and try to work out what we saw and felt that night. It’s strange how two people can go through the same, exact event and feel differently about how to deal with it in the end. I think the cancer had her focus towards heaven and nothing else that happened or happens here matters much anymore. That’s completely understandable. I’ve thought about going over to that park a few times after I came back to the area. I even had to drive by it one day to pick something up for my mother. I glanced over, but had no intention on pulling in. After all these years, I can still feel some of the terror of that night. If not anything else brother, life can be very, very interesting.

Thanks for reading this and thanks again for giving folks a place to go and listen who’ve seen things that defy human logic.”

18 Responses to ““What the hell was that!””

  1. Joyce E

    WOW, it sounds like he needs a chance to talk to someone and wither or not he comes on your show, you are the best listener I can think of. I can’t even imagine how TERRIFYING that would be.

  2. Pat T

    Wow Wes, poor guy and his wife, definitely a come to Jesus moment. Feel bad he lost his wife also, not to mention that thing messing with a ’69 Nova SS classic. Really hope he comes on, would be very therapeutic for him. Thanks for the hard work Wes, week in , week out.

  3. SHANNON D

    Wow, that was a creepy encounter!! And it put a dent in his 69′ Nova Super Sport!! That is pure evil!

    I wonder how far that park is from Fort Dietrich, heard a few Dog Man tales around there..

  4. Trent M

    Wow, when I began reading this encounter in my mid’s eye I was picturing a nice 1969 Nova SS and remembering what I was doing in the late fall of ’78 (got hit head on while riding my ’73 Bonneville) but soon all thoughts of nice cars and bikes were replaced by trying to imagine seeing a 9′-10′ “oversized, black wolf” and how the witness and his wife must have felt. Talk about “birth control” I bet that was the end of “parking” for that poor guy!

  5. doug w

    I wonder what county as i used to live in maryland?
    Could have been the syksville monster or of of the escaped test freaks from aberdeen apg or one of the other secret places on the shore.

  6. scott p

    I’ve heard a few dogman encounters that described a large jet black werewolf.
    And both said it looked just like the one in the movie Van Helsing if that wouldn’t make you crap your pants.. unimaginable.

  7. Paul M

    One minute a 6 foot HIGHSCHOOL YOUNG MAN WITH TESTOSTERONE PUMPING THRU THE VAINS.. THE NEXT MINUTE…. WANTING YOUR MOM… WOW that’s just not right… Could that flashlight have saved him.. Maybe the creature thought it saw a gun.. maybe… good thing he made a move like lightning… IF IT WAS A DOGMAN… THEY ARE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE… SOUNDS LIKE GREAT SHOW MATERIAL WES…

  8. Rodney P

    Wow I don’t hear much about Bigfoot in Maryland and especially the dogman.there was one sighting that was called the sykesville monster in Carroll county and im close to there i would love to know the area of Maryland he had his encounter in,thanks

  9. Ben H

    Holy moly that would be a terrifying encounter. That’s the kind of fear that would splice itself into your DNA and cause your grandchildren to need therapy!! I’m surprised the poor guy was even able to move.
    I hope Wes can get him on the show. I could see this one making it to the all time favorites list.

  10. Tedd

    Would love to hear more details if witness is willing. Parts of Maryland actually has many cryptid encounters, considering areas between PA, VA, West VA along the Adirondack Mt range it’s not surprising.
    The 69 Nova SS grabbed my attention almost as much as the creature! Guess once a gearhead always a gearhead! One of the earliest and most terrifying encounters I ever heard involved a 69 Camaro SS I believe, damaged that one some too, must be a stinkin Ford fan on top of being an evil killing machine, figures.

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