CASAR, N.C. -- Tim Peeler thought he was calling coyotes, but he got something that frightened even this self-proclaimed mountain man.
"Instead of them, (there was) him. The thing was 10 feet tall with beautiful hair, yellowish hair and a yellow beard," said Peeler.
Sgt. Mark Self of the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office remembers the sightings of a "Bigfoot Beast" when he was a child.
"It scared me," he recalled.
Self said people believed they saw a Sasquatch in the same parts of Cleveland County. The reports were frightening to the then 10-year-old boy.
"It was killing animals and breaking into barns and killing chickens," he said of the reported stories.
Peeler says it's the same creature that he saw for himself just last week near his home atop a mountain in Casar. He says the beast was approaching his dogs and got wrapped around their chains.
"I rough talked him and said, 'You get away from here,'" he said.
Peeler says the beast eventually left, but then came back again.
"And I said, 'Get, get,' and he went back down the path again," he said.
Peeler said he called deputies and then filed a suspicious person report. He is troubled that he didn't give a better description and was drawing a rendering of what he remembers.
"He looked like he had six fingers on each hand," Peeler said.
Reports of a Sasquatch aren't new to Cleveland County. They date back to the 1970s, although deputies we talked to say they haven't heard the stories in years.
"This is totally blowing my mind," said Self. "But it doesn't bother me. We're working up here so if we see something we'll try to capture it and take it into custody."
As for the man making the latest sighting, Peeler says he realizes people may not believe his account. He simply asks that you keep an open mind and not laugh at him. After all, he says, we all know that foxes exist, but how often do you spot one of those?
