Ok, this story has been floating around for a few weeks now, and until now, I’ve refused to blog about it, but it just won’t go away. And I’m not sure why. A Virginia man by the name of Billy Willard says he’s on the verge of discovering Bigfoot. But I’ll let The Christian Science Monitor tell the story before I comment:
Billy Willard says he’s on the verge of a major discovery that could change the way humans think about the natural world, not to mention their need for a creature-proof home security system.
Here in Spotsylvania County, in the forests around Lake Anna, Willard claims there have been 14 sightings in the past decade of that most fabled of cryptozoic beasts: Bigfoot.
Or Sasquatch, as the elusive, apelike brute is referred to in more high-minded circles — and on the side of Willard’s blue pickup. The decal on the truck reads “Sasquatch Watch of Virginia,” of which Willard is chief pooh-bah (when he’s not earning a living installing and removing underground home oil tanks).
Go ahead, call him a loon, a flake, a huckster. He’s heard it all. But Willard knows what he knows, which is that three people from this area — a woman, her husband and their granddaughter — told him they saw a shaggy, super-size figure on two legs gallivanting across their wooded property. Last month, Willard led a weeklong expedition to the site, where he installed five motion-sensor cameras that will snap photos if the big galoot wanders by again.
Willard, 41, says he’d like to lead a tour of the property and introduce the witnesses, really he would. But the woman who says she saw what she believes could have been Bigfoot fears an avalanche of ridicule, which is why Willard is left to begin delivering his version of what happened a few miles away, in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen.
“We believe we may be close to some kind of major discovery,” he says. “All the things they would need are here, fresh water, shelter in the woods. The high concentration of sightings tells me they’re here.”
He interrupts his monologue to answer his cellphone, the ring tone to which is the country tune “People Are Crazy.”
Willard still spends countless hours in the woods listening for footsteps, always with a camera, ready to snap a picture.
He brings a set of knives and a hatchet. If he finds a dead Bigfoot, he intends to walk away with the ultimate trophy, DNA evidence, to send a message to those who ridicule the believers: “To give them the final ‘Aha! I told you so.’ “
Ok, where to even begin with this one? I guess first should be me not being surprised if one Billy Willard suddenly starts investing in home security systems.
I guess my biggest gripe with this story is that Mr. Willard is making a very sensationalistic claim without any intriguing evidence to back it up. Fourteen sightings over the past 10 years? That’s not exactly an astounding number. Maybe 14 in a year, but not in a decade. Also, he has all these great witnesses, none of whom are willing to come forward. So he’s left to recount the story himself. In the parking lot of a Dairy Queen. Oh how I love legitimate science.
Things like this plague cryptozoology, ufology, and all the other paranormal investigative fields. Some “researcher” will come forward with “astounding evidence!” But the witnesses want to remain anonymous and all we have is hearsay. If we can’t even validate that the human witnesses exists, why should we believe what they saw exists?
