transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:24] They don't make people that big.

Speaker 2:
[00:31] The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything move like that in my life. I know what a bear looks like, and there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears.

Speaker 3:
[01:15] What are you reporting? Jesus Christ, you better... Hello? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about 6'9, I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[01:26] Do you see him now, sir?

Speaker 2:
[01:27] Yes, I'm looking right at him.

Speaker 1:
[01:36] My name is Atlas, and you're listening to the best podcast ever, Sasquatch Chronicles.

Speaker 4:
[02:09] Welcome to the show. Tonight, we will be speaking with John, who comes to us from Nova Scotia. Back in 1994, when John was just 14, he was riding his 70cc motorcycle through the woods when he encountered this mysterious creature. And a lot of John's details I've heard in a handful of encounters. But it was around this time, John experienced another strange incident. And I can't help but wonder if the two might be connected. If you've had an encounter, and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is wes at sasquatchchronicles.com. And if you get a chance to check out sasquatchchronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome John to the show. John, thanks for coming on.

Speaker 3:
[03:04] Thank you very much, Wes.

Speaker 4:
[03:05] Yeah, I appreciate it, John. And I know you're out there in Nova Scotia. Gosh, I've always wanted to see that place. I know it's kind of known for its storms and just being cold, but I still would love to visit. What are the summers like out there?

Speaker 3:
[03:20] Summers are actually really nice. Yeah, I find if you can show up in Nova Scotia from May till about November, it's really pleasant. After that, yeah, it's going to be a hardy winter for you. Yeah, that's for sure. And where I live in Nova Scotia, it's Cape Breton. So if you're a Cape Breton or you consider yourself separate from Nova Scotia, even though politically we're the same place, but if you ask somebody from Cape Breton where they're from, they'll quickly tell you, oh, I'm from Cape Breton. So anyways, yeah, just a little joke for amongst us locals here. But yes, sir.

Speaker 4:
[03:59] Yeah, I'll have to get out there someday. Nova Scotia always looks kind of wild and harsh, and but in the same breath, very beautiful. I'll definitely have to make it out there someday. Tell me back in 1994, you were out there in Nova Scotia. You were about 14. Take me back. What were you doing and what happened?

Speaker 3:
[04:22] Yeah, sure. I was on summer break, just a regular student, and I was just more or less bored. And there was a path down the street from my house, just about, I don't know, maybe half a mile down. And I'd never explored it before, and it was directly off the main road. It was a dirt road, and it was mainly used, well, here we call it the pole line. So it was with the telecommunications and the power company used to access their pole lines. So it might have been July or August of 94. I remember the day specifically, the sun was split in the trees, just beautifully warm, you know, which is a rarity for Nova Scotia. But that was one of those days. Gorgeous day, around mid noon, so the sun was out that time of day. And anyways, yeah, I drove my little scooter down this little path, or I should explain it a little better. It's more, it's a really rough dirt road. You'd need like an ATV or a side-by-side or something like that. I know the Poll Commission has like a, almost looks like a track vehicle to go. So why that's kind of holds some relevance too is that the motorcycle that I was on was a Honda C70. It was a little street bike, baloney skin tires, really thin. Wasn't made for off-roading, but you know, as a 14-year-old kid, I've made it go places that Honda never designed it to go. So that was one of those days. So I drove the motorcycle into the woods, down this path, rather 500 feet or so. And it was just really rough for that little bike. Dips, dives, moguls. The little bike was just outnumbered and so was I. So I got to a point where I couldn't go any further. There was like a kind of a large hill and some other obstacles. And I said, you know, I'm going to completely tear this bike apart if I keep going. So I just stopped for a second and I was sitting there and I said, I'll take my helmet off for a second and just enjoy the moment to just take a break. And I took my helmet off, shut the little bike off, and I was looking around. I was sitting there for maybe, I don't know, let's say 20 seconds or so. And all of a sudden, something changed with, I guess, the atmosphere is, I don't know, like I'd stated in my email, like somebody put ear protection over me or everything went quiet. The highway sounds kind of disappeared. No sounds of any birds and or insects, nothing. Just a deafening quiet, if that makes sense. And after a little bit of that, that really just kind of didn't freak me out, but I was like I'd never experienced anything like that before. And I just happened to turn around and look down the path of where I had come from. And to the right of the path, what I saw staring back at me, it looked like an African lion only, like with a significant size name around its head, and not as big as one, maybe 70 percent of the size of a full grown lion, I would assume. And its face was different. It had most, the biggest thing I remember is the eyes were solid, black, and big. Like a little bit bigger than what you would actually see a real lion. I mean, I've seen one at the zoo one time and on TV, and this was disproportionately big, these eyes, like really big black eyes. And its face didn't have like a muzzle. It was a very flat face. And once again, I remember seeing the mane just kind of blown in the wind a little bit, and I couldn't see the whole rear of the body because he was behind some shrubs or whatnot. But I'll tell you, it wasn't natural, whatever I had seen. At that time, I was a paper boy for years. I had everything combat me during that paper roof. Dobleman Pinschers, German Shepherds, all the big German dogs, everything from poodles to the Collies, dogs that look like lassies. I think I was almost a dog expert at that age. When you're a paper boy, you've seen dogs. My eyesight's still really good back then, 2020, 2010 with both eyes. And what I was looking at was not a dog. Absolutely. I was terrified. Just gave me a feeling in my stomach, like you are in real, primal, severe danger here. It was no joke. I've come face to face with, once again, German shepherds, Doblemans, coming around the corner of a house and confronting one, and have that fear. This was something totally different. It shook me to my core. I don't just stand in there. My brain was trying to tell me, what are you looking at? The distance, too, I'm terrible with giving feet or meters or however you like. If I had to give you a guess, I'd say, if you had six school buses, six and a half school buses long, if you were to line those up and look down, it would be about that distance there. And I don't remember it making a growl or anything like that, but it just had an intense predator stare at me, like I was the most insignificant thing in this world. And I knew I was in trouble. And the problem that I faced too was that there was no where for me to go. My bike, like I said, didn't have capabilities of getting me out of there, away from this thing. I was trapped. So the first I could think of doing was start up my little 70cc motorcycle with a big quiet exhaust on it and rev the hell out of the little motor, hoping that I would scare this thing off. And it just kept its glazed like or glare at me rather, like I was dinner. I just, my heart was pounding. I was sweating. I just don't know what this thing is. Other than to say, you know, years later, I saw something on TV and somebody explained that there was different types of dog men. And one of them in particular had like, has like a mane and I kind of got a little chest pain. I went, wow, that's not exact, but that's close to what I had seen. So bringing you back to that situation again. So there I am. So this whole standoff might have lasted. I'll give it about 20 seconds of some real significant intensity anyways on my end. And then this thing without even skipping a beat, just kept its glaze, kept its stare at me rather, and just slowly backed into the woods, like in a real kind of just an eerie way. I've never seen a dog behave like that before, right? And then as I'm sitting there, a new fear come over. I knew I had to get the hell out of there because I thought to myself, if this thing circles around in the woods, I'm a sitting duck, and I'm so far from the road, I'm dead. And once again, I've confronted, you know, big German dogs and powerful animals, never had a fear like this, not even close. So the only option I had, and I made at that point, get on my bike, make my way as fast as that little 70cc Honda could take me. I picked my guts up, I'm hitting the bumps and all that so hard. And anyways, and when I passed the point, I did glance over, I didn't see a thing, and I come up onto the road, and you know, the laws here in Nova Scotia too, you're not allowed to operate an off-highway vehicle. You know, well, that's what it was because it wasn't licensed, and I was 14, I didn't have a driver's license. I didn't give two hoots. I get onto that highway, center line of that road, and went as fast as I could with that little motorcycle, just praying to God that that thing wouldn't chase me back to the house. Yeah, so that's the Reader's Digest version of what happened last that day.

Speaker 4:
[12:32] Yeah, that would scare me. You're probably thinking that bike wasn't fast enough. When you got home, did you tell your parents or anything about what you'd seen?

Speaker 3:
[12:42] I did. I absolutely did. I came in the house, and I told a couple people that, actually some friends and family and whatnot. But I think the story was so out there that you can't get much credibility, and especially being 14, that, you know, like a couple people told me, oh, you've seen a dog and you've seen this. Well, no, I was absolutely certain it was no dog and not not at all. That would be like, you know, seeing an elephant and saying, well, you've seen a lamb. Like it was just totally this animal was totally different. And and as I maybe had mentioned in my email, only for two years later, maybe about seven years later. So I had made a friend that was in the area of that sighting. And just in passing, we were driving along one night and I pointed the area when we passed by. And I said, you know, I said years ago, when I was a young fellow on my trail bike, I said, I seen and I described the event that I've just explained to you. Well, he looked at me kind of white, white as a ghost. And he said, you have to tell my father that. You have to tell him that. So I was like, okay, that I kind of felt good. I was like, okay, like, you know, what's somebody's paying attention to this story. And it might have been two days later, I actually met his father in the garage and my friend, my friend Scott come up to me and said, tell dad, tell him your story, tell him. So I once again, repeated the story. And my friend's father is sitting there and he's smoking a cigarette and he just stands up. And he said, John, I seen the same thing. And in their backyard, they had a fleet of old cars for parts. There was a lot of antique cars and whatnot. And he had explained to me, he said, I went up there one evening. He said, go on looking for a part off an old DeSoto, whatever type car that is, but I remember him saying that name. And he said, standing in the wood line or not standing. He didn't say standing, it was on all fours. He said, was something that matched what you said. He said, and I thought it was, excuse my French, the goddamn devil. He said, I just turned back and got the hell out of there. And he said, feel my heart pounding and whatnot. But, and I'd never heard any other stories from anybody local that's in that area, like willingly anyways, that described the same thing. But yeah, it was really creepy and about 32 years ago from today. And it's burned into my mind. I can absolutely, just like I'm there, I can remember that.

Speaker 4:
[15:07] Yeah. Over the years of interviewing many people, John, I've heard people describe a canine cryptid, you know, like Dogman, and they'll say it had an African lion's mane. And then I've had other witnesses where they're describing that mane, but I'm kind of convinced they ran into some weird feline that wasn't natural. It doesn't come up all the time, but it does come up. You know, your buddy's dad's saying, I thought I just ran into the devil. You kind of made the same comment in your email. You said it was like pure evil. What was it about it that made you think that?

Speaker 3:
[15:45] I guess it was more more of a feeling. Once again, like you say, I've come around the corner of homes at that age and come face to face with quite literally one point, like two Dobleman pinchers. And that's not evil. You're just in real immediate danger. Your heart's pound and, uh-oh, I'm in trouble. This feeling here when I had seen this thing, it was just so eerie. And to come to, you know, with it was the dead silence of everything around me. And it was the look. It was the intense stare, that just, that gaze that would just not break from me. And it was just extremely intimidating. That was the thing about it. I think that kind of makes me describe it as something, something that would be evil. Like, like I've had, once again, I got to compare it again, some vicious dogs that I've met. And they'll break their glare. They'll look away. They'll smell the ground. They'll do something like, you know, but this was just an intense glare of, I own you right now, you know, is what it felt like. So, it was more of a feeling. And the fact that the face was just so, you know, I wouldn't call it, you know, hideous or anything like that, but it was just so at a place that my mind was going through a Rolodex of certain animals that this may be, and none of that was jumping to the forefront. It was just so bizarre, right? But mainly, like I say, it was that feeling of, you're in a different type of trouble here.

Speaker 4:
[17:16] Yeah. Did this thing remain on all fours the whole time?

Speaker 3:
[17:21] Yeah, it did stay on all fours. And when I first seen it, like you say, I turned around, and there it was, right? So it wasn't like I was looking at it come out. It had the jump on me. It knew I was there before I seen it. And absolutely bigger than a normal dog. The biggest ones that I've seen, or like King Shepherds or so. And probably twice the size of that. That was the other thing, the intimidation factor of that this thing could do some damage because of its size. But I wouldn't put it as big as an African lion. My only experience with seeing one of those was my trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and maybe I think it was the circus years ago that I'd seen. So yeah, it was a little smaller. Somewhere between the biggest dog you've ever seen and an African lion, more or less, yeah. And as I say, to describe the face more, I really remember the eyes. They were big and solid black. Not cartoonishly big, but not small and beady. They were just, if you looked at an owl, almost, how the eyes would be in an owl in proportion to the rest of its face. So almost about that size there. And it just had kind of like a big, flat mouth. No muzzle. And those are the most distinguishing features that I can remember. And it was, the mane was like a burnt orange, and the face kind of somewhat of an off color to that.

Speaker 4:
[18:55] Yeah. And so this creature not having a muzzle, did it remind you more of like a primate? Did it remind you more of a feline or neither?

Speaker 3:
[19:06] It's jumping, so if I could almost say something in between, it was just, I think, I don't know if these animals exist or not, but in my own independent research of what I've seen, I think there is in nature, some lions can develop Down syndrome. And if you've ever seen a picture of that, that's about the closest that I've seen. So more or less, if I had to describe it, I would say about that way there. So more, it's hard to really say, Wes, whether it was more canine or feline, it was just so bizarre, just like a flat face, not entirely flat, like a little bit of, you know, like around the mouth and stuff, kind of protruded a little bit, but nothing like a lion or cat. And that's another thing too, if somebody said, well, maybe the fella seen a bobcat, because you could almost say, you know, in one way, maybe that would be, you know, something similar, not at all. Where I live now, I'm out in the country, and I raise chickens, and bobcats come to visit regularly, and absolutely not a bobcat. Totally, totally far off and different, yeah.

Speaker 4:
[20:23] Yeah, there's nothing about your description that I think, oh, that was a bobcat. Plus, I don't see a bobcat really striking fear in you at 14. I mean, you don't want to go toe-to-toe with one, but in a battle, you'll probably come out okay.

Speaker 3:
[20:37] Exactly. I wasn't going to win this battle. No way. It was terrifying just to see it. My heart was pounding. It was just, like I say, a primal fear in me that I'm really in trouble. And once again, my mind going through the Rolodex of animals, and it didn't fit any of that.

Speaker 4:
[20:56] Yeah, it makes me wonder what you saw that day. You know, Sasquatch will be described with a mane. I've heard that about a dozen times. And again, it doesn't come up often, but it does come up where people will say, it's like it had a lion's mane. And you've probably heard this story, John. I interviewed a cop one time, and he was in the Southwest, and he's coming around this corner, and he describes to me what sounds like a lion. It was on all fours, and as he's coming around the corner, it stands up on two legs and looks at him. And I remember asking him, do you think it was a Sasquatch? He's like, no. I don't know what this thing was, but it was more feline. It had a lion's mane, and it was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. So I don't know. Let me ask you, I know that you don't know and I don't know, but why do you think it didn't attack you, especially with the way it was eyeing you down?

Speaker 3:
[21:53] Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question, because I kind of thought of that too, because I was a sitting duck, right? This thing, I had nowhere to go, there was no exit for me. And I think it was almost like, this thing just wanted to scare the living hell out of me, and it succeeded in that, absolutely. And I think maybe, who knows, maybe they have a set of rules, as silly as that sounds, that they just were like, you know, why put the energy into this fellow this day? Or it could have been my proximity to the highway, and there was homes around quite a distance, not really, you know, if you screamed loud enough, maybe, and someone was out in the back step, they'd hear you. But possibly that there just wasn't worth its time. It seemed like the intent was just to let me know that it was there and to scare the living hell out of me, and it succeeded in those, absolutely.

Speaker 4:
[22:44] Yeah. Did you ever go back to that spot, John?

Speaker 3:
[22:48] You know what? I never did. And every time we drove by, like I would drive by later on, when I got my driver's license and that, I can't help but glance over all the time. Even today, like 32 years later, I was out with my wife and my two sons, and I told them the story. And every time I drive by, I get a little, just a little shudder. I go right thinking about that thing. And it was just so bizarre, because usually you hear stories of cryptids or something, and nothing really matches that. And I remember years ago, I'm 45, so I sound like an old man here. But before the internet was as popular as it is, I had nothing to reference, absolutely nothing. I was just like, I can't even tell this story. It's so bizarre. Who in the name of God is going to believe me about this thing with a big name that had like demon eyes looking at me and all that stuff? So I just more or less, I kept it in the back of my mind. And it wasn't until later that I'd be sitting down and watching TV and watching some shows. And people would say, yeah, like your story you described before, but the policeman. And I would just, I would say, oh my God, this is getting really, this puzzle is coming together now.

Speaker 4:
[24:05] Yeah. And I know you're an experienced guy. You've been out in the woods, John. And I mean, you live in Nova Scotia. That silence that you experienced, did that seem normal to you? And had you ever experienced that before?

Speaker 3:
[24:20] Not at all. Never. I've never experienced it before. That's the, like you say, that was the first thing that got me. I shut the bike off, took the helmet off, and I'd been there like 10 seconds or so. And it just got eerily quiet. Just like somebody put, I don't know, a glass enclosure over me, a cone of silence or something. That alone was creepy. Not terrifying, but I'm like, what is this? It was just mystical almost. And I'm proud to say, never a substance abuser. Not to this day, I don't drink and or smoke, and certainly didn't engage in anything back then. But yeah, no, it was just, if came, everything was quiet. I couldn't even hear the highway anymore, birds, even wind noises, Wes, I couldn't even hear that. It was just dead quiet. And it was like something just in my, something in my mind said, turn around, turn like that. Basically, it was like that. I didn't hear the voice, but something was beckoning me to turn around. And when I did, bam, just locked eyes with this thing. And it was just like a living horror movie to see us. It was, oh, just creepy as hell. I'm glad the encounter was only like about 20 seconds long because I need more than that. And I don't know. I think I got a strong heart, but I'm not sure if I could have endured anymore.

Speaker 4:
[25:44] Yeah, that silence that you talk about, John, that has bothered me for a very long time. And I think it's because I can't think of a rational explanation for it. And you're right, it's more than just like insects and crickets shutting off. I mean, people often report, I didn't hear the wind, I didn't hear the river, I didn't everything. It's like it just went quiet. Do you think what you saw that day was more paranormal? I mean, it wasn't like a ghost. That's not what I mean. I mean, things that are paranormal can be very physical. And obviously, this thing was physical, enough to terrify you. Do you think what you saw that day was like more paranormal?

Speaker 3:
[26:25] I would say, yes. I would more put it towards that because it just lacked any logic that I knew at that time, and or any knowledge of any other animals, and just the behavior of us. And I mean, I had a few experiences myself with like paranormal stuff, enough to convince me that there's something going on with that world. So in that specific instance, with seeing that weird lion type creature, afterwards, when I reflected on it, well, like first when I was there, I wasn't thinking this is a ghost or a demon. I was just thinking, I'm in big trouble here. I'm in real big trouble. And it wasn't until I left. And then I said, I kind of felt it be in that way. I'm like, I think that was, you know, I mean, as hard as that is to admit, I, you know, because of the taboo factor of it. But I thought, I think that was something paranormal. Because I, it lacked any other explanation at all. It was just, and the way, once again, the feelings that I've had were unlike anything other, you know, that I've ever experienced.

Speaker 4:
[27:35] Yeah, and I want to get into some of these paranormal accounts, especially the one when you were young. And I know that you were a cop, and I almost became a cop. I would do the 12-hour ride-alongs at night. And I remember one of the cops was asking me, you know, why do you want to be a cop? And I think he had been there for like 18 years. And I said, oh, you know, I want to help my community. I want to help people who can't help themselves, and you know, just kind of make the world a better place. And he spent the whole shift like trying to shock me out of it. He was like, if you want a soul-sucking job where your workplace is full of drama and workplace politics, this is a job for you. This is a career for you. We're thinking, wow, it's kind of dark. Not a lot of fun to talk to. Tell me about when you were a cop and some other different events that kind of stay with you.

Speaker 3:
[28:28] Yeah, no, sure. Yeah, I was a policeman for about 10 years. I started pretty much right at the university and went to that. You see a lot of, you know, weird oddities there, and some of it are, of course, in the flesh. You know, you don't need to set up a Ouija board or anything like that to see weird oddities, you know, from your 12-hour shifts. One thing that I can say, well, actually, that stands out in my mind. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning, and I was the only officer working. I worked for a small town at one point. And we had, I was in the room with the dispatcher, and the dispatcher, above their head, there was a monitor, and you could really good cameras. You could see outside of the police station as well as the cells. But the one that's outside, you could see down the alleyway, and then there was another block of camera where it would pick up the difference, and you would see the back parking lot. And I remember being there one time, like I say, it was handy, 3 o'clock in the morning, I was by myself just being in the dispatcher. And I seen somebody, kind of a taller fella, with a hoodie on, like a hooded sweater. And usually nobody walks there because, one, you're coming to the back of the police station where the cars are, it's not the public entrance. So immediately in the time of morning and the way he was dressed, and kind of like with his head down and lurking, I said, chances are this gentleman might not be up to any good. And so I seen him on the camera, and then I quickly went to the back door, not running, because I didn't want anybody to hear me slamming my feet on the concrete floor. But I opened the back door up, I didn't tell the dispatcher what I was doing, but I opened the back door up, and he should have been right there when I opened that door up. And not a soul, just complete, just a tumbleweed, not a thing at all. But that one there kind of stands out. Now, whether he could have took off or ran away, maybe. But he should have been right there when I opened up that door, right? So you would see oddities like that. Not every day, but ones that kind of stick out. But one I'd share with you, Wes, if you have time, is when I was 14 years old. This is the biggest one that stands out for me. I mean, it's not a Bigfoot story, but if somebody is interested in some of the paranormal things that can happen outside of Bigfoot.

Speaker 4:
[30:51] Yeah, please do, John, please share it. I got all the time in the world.

Speaker 3:
[30:56] Sure, sure. Funny enough, it was almost around that same time when I was approximately 14 years old. I had built, I was more ambitious than I am now. I had built a cabin in my backyard. It was made of chipboard, tarp, and logs. It had an upstairs and a downstairs, and I'd made it myself. And I made a little fireplace inside. It was an old oil drum, and I stuck some venting out the side, and the fire marshal would never approve of it. I can guarantee that. Long story short, one of those nights in the summer, I called up a couple of friends of mine, and I said, you know, want to come over and we'll sleep in the cabin tonight, and whatnot, and they were all in agreeance, and we piled in. One of them brought this Ouija board over in his backpack. And it wasn't an ordinary Ouija board from, I'm not sure who makes them, Parker Brothers or who knows. This was a homemade one. It was made out of plywood, and they engraved everything on it. I remember feeling it was really inappropriate. It had 666, it had some upside-down crosses, you name it, the whole works it had on it. It was just disturbing seeing it. It was like, not that I'm a devoted Catholic myself, but it gave me the heebie-jeebies looking at this thing. So, as night came, we lit a candle, all of us sat around, very jovial atmosphere. We're just kind of joking around. Some of us are pushing it. Hell, even I did. I took the, I think they call it process or whatever, the, you know, we'll call it the cursor. And I, even I gave it a couple of push, you know, just to have a laugh and whatnot. And then all of a sudden that jovial mood really snapped away from us quickly. At one point, we heard a thud outside the cabin, and we could hear these, very prominently, these footsteps. And just like, like dragging their feet, like a slow shuffle. And every one of us just looked at each other. Nobody was laughing because this was the real deal. There was something out there. And I'll tell you, one guy was brave enough to pipe up, and he said, okay, okay, guys, yeah, that's enough. That's enough. And we all kind of just were, kept our big, tough guy attitude and shut the board down, put it to the side, and we just did anything but that, you know. Fast forward the next day, I went back down to the cabin. Oh, as a result, sorry, nothing else came that night. That was all we'd heard. But fast forward the next day, I was upstairs in the cabin, and I was there just to clean up, because we were gonna stay in at the night, the next night again. So I just wanted to tidy up a little bit. And the Ouija board was upstairs, and I don't know what, pardon the pun, possessed me, but I took the board, and I had the, I think it's called the plant Chester, and I took it, and I started slowly moved it around. You're forking, you're curious, you have that brain. And I'd asked the question, I said, I just mumbled it, and I said, is this board evil or good? And it was almost like something took over my arm. I didn't have control of it anymore, and my arm started to move across the board. I got such a fright that I just pulled my body away through the ponchettes or whatever it is and got away from the board. Then at the, almost instantaneously after that, something pounded on the front door, like I mean, two big bangs. And I built that thing every screw, every nail, every piece of log. I knew if somebody was on the front step of it and or doing any kind of damage or anything like that. And I had a window right above where I could look and see down. So when it happened originally, the big bang, I went, oh, thank God, it's my brother-in-law, because I was so scared that this had happened, that I felt relief that somebody was there, that I could say, hey, get up here. You know, like, this thing's working. And nobody was there. I looked out the window, nobody was around. I could see a full radius around the cabin and nothing. Fast forward after that, approximately a week later, it was in the nice, and I said, geez, I'll take my little motorcycle for a drive. So at this time, I didn't have any mentality of, oh, I'm going to see a ghost or something spooky is going to happen to me. It was as casual as if I asked you, Wes, can you go up to the car to get the groceries out of the trunk? You know, I came into my house, walked around the corner, and just around the corner of the house was my barn. And what I saw still shocks me to this day. It was almost as if now, I'll do my best to describe it. It's almost as if you took a person, I guess like a man of average height, cut him in half, and only his lower portion was there. So no top half. And it was just like your typical ghost where it was like semi-transparent and like white. And it was animated. It was moving around, right in front of the door where I stored my motorcycle in the barn. It was moving, like walking around like kind of quickly and erratically. And I freaked out, took my helmet, and this to that the thing, because what else do you do when you see that? Half of my brain was saying somebody's trying to break into the barn and take your motorcycle. The other half of my brain is saying, you're seeing a spook. What the heck is this? And then the thing kind of runs towards me. I mean, just, this is just so bizarre, like just out of this world. And then it takes a quick turn and runs straight back down to the cabin where we had that Ouija board session. The next thing that occurred then was, and this happened over a series of nights, and I will absolutely never forget it. My basement, my, sorry, my bedroom rather, was in the basement of our house, and the basement was done over. It had, it wasn't, you know, it had, I'm not sure where you live, but we have a concrete floor and all that. Well, this wasn't, it had carpets and, you know, normal living quarters, let's say. And I'd be laying in bed, and the, at the end of my bedroom, like if you left my bedroom, sorry, at the end, there'd be a hallway, and then at the end of that, a door that leads outside. I'd be laying in bed, and it'd be maybe 11 at night, 12 o'clock. I was never really a good sleeper, but something would wake me up, I'd be awake, and I would hear the shuffling coming towards my room. Absolutely true. I would hear like a slow shuffle, like this, it's been playing in my mind. And it would come towards all the way into my bedroom, because most times I'd have my door open, and it would just stop right by where my head was. And another instance, my bedroom door closed and opened by itself. I had books one time on my nightstand, and I could hear the books slide for about two seconds and then flop on the floor. Other nights, I would wake up, and my blankets would be completely off me. And that's fine, because most nights, maybe you were warm, and you'd kick them off during your sleep. The problem was the blankets were about six feet away. So I'm not sure, you know what I mean, how they could end up like that. So anyways, the grand finale, I suppose, of that event, I was there once again, I'm laying in bed, and this thing was, something was torturing me. I would hear it again coming down the hall, the shuffle, the feet coming, never seen anything. And I never had the courage to look before, because it was so gosh darn terrifying, I just didn't have the courage to do it. But where I was being like almost harassed by this thing, I said, built up enough courage, and I whipped my head over to the left to see, and what was standing there, what I saw, as crazy as this is, it almost looked like a three-foot tall gargoyle. Great big grin on it with great big teeth and big eyes and just ugly, big, wide, fat head grinning. And I swung at the thing, and as soon as I swung at it, just gone, vanished. And I hadn't heard a thing after that, that was it. It was like I showed it, I wasn't afraid or something, but the footsteps and everything that I heard weren't like just suggestive, like I heard a weird sound and I know these were definitive footprints, like footsteps, like shuffling through the carpet, where you could hear it come right up to you. And I believe it was the Ouija board, because that's almost the exact same sound that we'd heard the night that we were out there using that. And I did tell you that that's the end of that story, but there is kind of a part two. I'd never heard anything after that. Like it was pretty quiet. But years later, when I became a policeman, I got my first apartment in another county, maybe three hours away. And I remember I had a small apartment and it had carpet in it and not lots. And jeez, didn't I hear one day I'm sitting on the couch and I hear those, that god darn shuffling footsteps coming towards me again. And I thought, I'm either losing my mind here or something's going wrong. And then a friend of mine stayed with me, another fellow that was a policeman. He was trying to get a start and I made sure he had a place to stay while he was starting out. And he called me about two in the morning one time, and we were pretty close friends, and we went through the police academy together. And he said to me, and I never told him these stories, absolutely did not. And he said to me, John, he said, I'm sitting here and I heard these footsteps, and it came right up to my head. And when he said that, because I was hoping that I was just maybe having some kind of a delusion from all my night shifts, but I was just tired. When he told me that, it shook me and I said, oh my God, now because it confirmed it. But after that, nothing else. I had never heard anything further. And to this day, it's, yeah, nothing else. So I guess he gave up on me.

Speaker 4:
[41:09] I appreciate you sharing that story, John. It's a good warning. The spirit realm was very real. And people get these Ouija boards, and it sure is fun to open the door, but then they can't figure out how to close it. And it seems like whatever comes through is gonna be there for a while. Your friends that were with you that night, did they ever experience anything like that?

Speaker 3:
[41:32] No, not that they reported to me. And I'll tell you, back then, I'm a fat old man now. I don't really care what people think about me. I'll tell the truth. But back then, being 14, the stigma that would have followed with, if you had said, look, I'm hearing these footsteps and all that. So maybe that would have kept them from telling anything too. But I just want to re-insure in you that it absolutely was real. It wasn't anything suggestive or my heart rate or something. No, very definitive. And it brought something around. I'm not sure what the science of it is behind them or what happens, but it's certainly nothing to play with. And I think the way I've heard stories, some people say, oh, that's foolish. I've used it for three, four nights and nothing happened and all that, until it does. And then you really change your perspective on it, and there's just too much weird that happens out there to ignore, I think, a Bigfoot and Clutus. Oh, funny enough, too, Wes. Years later, it stuck with me, but I was really curious. And I remember the local priest, I had an opportunity where I found him somewhere, and we were talking, and I said, you know what, you only get so many opportunities in life to bring something, you know, or do something or act on something. And I pulled him aside, and I told him the story that I just told you, the Louisiana Port story. And, oh, he took it very serious, and his interpretation of it, he said that, and once again, I'm not a devoted Catholic or whatnot, but I try to make it to church on Christmas and whatnot. But what he had told me was, he said that I had opened up a door, and God let a demon in to basically warn me to not continue. He said, God recognized I was a youth or juvenile, and that was him doing that to warn me to scare me, to never do that again, was more or less his interpretation of it. So I kind of found that interesting. So it's one perspective, I suppose.

Speaker 4:
[43:34] Yeah, it's an interesting perspective. I think people are playing with fire, and I think you got off relatively easy. I've heard some horrific stories. I mean, I could get on board with what he told you. This incident with the Ouija board, was it before or after you saw that creature in the forest?

Speaker 3:
[43:56] Relatively, it was, I can't remember specifically, but I can tell you it was around the same time point. And funny enough, Wes, he just triggered my memory. I remember when I was telling you about what happened to me in the basement, with sometimes the door would shut and the footsteps. I remember another morning, 5.05, 5.30 in the morning, I woke up and my right arm had, like, not horrible, but significant scratches on my arm. And you could tell it was fresh because I woke up because of the pain, and I looked, and then all of a sudden, obviously cat scratches. You know how the cat will scratch you, you'll feel the pain, and then a couple seconds later, you start to see it bleeding. Identical to that. We had a cat, but it was de-clawed, and he was beautiful. He'd never do that to you. And my door was shut, and the cat wasn't in there. And the other thing is, as you'd say, well, maybe you rubbed it on the bed stand or something. No, there was only a wall with wallpaper and some blankets, nothing that would have ripped it like that, right? So, you know, and another quick occurrence, I forgot to tell you about the same thing in that same basement. Broad daylight, I was walking all around the same time frame. Broad daylight, I was walking down the hall, I went to get something in my bedroom when I was getting ready to head for upstairs. And it felt like somebody almost like threw a marble at the back of my neck as hard as they could, just a slam on the back of my neck, just like I say, as if somebody would throw a marble. And I turned, whipped my head around, absolutely nothing there, nobody at all. So all around the same time frame, right? So yeah, there's, I don't know what the science of it is, but I know it's, you know, if you can avoid that stuff all together, I think it fell was better off.

Speaker 4:
[45:41] Yeah, I would imagine if I was in your shoes, John, I would have felt very helpless because you can't really control when it shows up or what it's going to do. Or, you know, like I said, it's easy to open the door, but it sure seems a lot harder to close it, especially the thing you saw around the barn. I think I would have lost it seeing something like that.

Speaker 3:
[46:02] Oh, it was so bizarre, absolutely so bizarre. And it's not like I have, you know, hallucinations on the daily. It was only like, but that, you know, I'm joking, of course, I don't, but I have no other explanation for what I saw. It was just, yeah, it was unbelievable. And something else, if you don't mind too, Wes, since I've got to lend to your platform here, about something else I've seen over the years, you often talk about weird lights in the woods and stuff like that. I thought it wasn't that long ago, maybe three years ago. It's a short story. My, it was in the winter, so I remember being cold. My wife, she's a paramedic, she gets up early in the morning to go to work. And anyway, she got up, and as she walked by our front window, up in the bedroom, which points towards our neighbor's yard, she said to me, she said, John, she said, does Mel have a new light on his house? And Mel was our neighbor. God love him, he passed away since, but he was First Nations. And I said, you know, and I was good friends with Mel. I knew everything about his property, where there was power and where there was not, you know. And the barns in his backyard certainly did not have power. And she said, it's coming from where the backyard is like the barns. So now I said, okay, well, this is worth getting up out of bed to look. So I got up and I looked over, and about halfway up the barn, there was this bright, almost like an LED light, almost the same as like a street light, you know, for the road, about the same intensity. But there was no casting of light on the ground, none whatsoever. Like usually, if there's a big bright light, you see everything around. The way like, it's almost as if somebody put a light inside of a tube and just focused it towards you, so there's no cascade of light. And I remember, and just it appeared almost like an LED light, the same intensity. It wasn't blinding, but it was certainly a strong enough light, you know, just the same as a street light. So it really had my attention, it had my wife's attention. She was like, well, geez, Mel must have put out a big, powerful light on his barn. And I'm saying, geez, I'm pretty close with the guy, and maybe we're nosy neighbors with each other. I know what he has and what he doesn't. And so at this point, now it's really got my attention because I'm thinking, you know, the ex-cop came out at me, and I'm like, is this somebody going around with a flashlight breaking into barns, because now you got my full attention. So I'm staring at this light, and I'm looking, and I'm looking, and I'm looking. And it's staying perfectly still, but it's almost like it was a life that was in size water. If that makes any sense, where it was just kind of like orbiting around in itself. If that, I hope that makes some kind of sense, like spinning within itself slightly, right? Like, you know, and I remember just how like bizarre it was, but after about, oh my God, it was there for about maybe, I stared at it for about 25 seconds intently, because I was trying to make out if I seen people walking around or something, you know, and I'll admit, I said, oh my God, I gotta run to the washroom before, you know, I go on the floor, run to the, as soon as I went to the washroom, of course, my wife, she's like, that light's gone. She was downstairs. She's like, it's gone. And anyways, daylight came. I looked over across the street expecting to see that he had installed some type of a light on his house or the barn, rather. Absolutely nothing, nothing there. And when I got ready and went to work, as soon as I pulled out of the driveway about 9 in the morning or 830 or whatnot, he was actually coming out of his house and I pulled in and I said, like I had a good rapport with him. And I said, Mel, I said, there was something really weird at 530 in the morning. And he said, yeah. And I said, well, come on over by the barn. So I went to walk and I remember distinctly that it had snowed that night just lightly. There was no footprints, no nothing around that barn within even like 30 feet of it. Because the only footprints were my own walking towards the barn. So when I hear you and some of your stories where I hear people call up and talk with these strange lights, I'm like, holy smokes, yeah, that's very real. I can attest to the same thing. I saw this. Now, I never seen anything else with it. There wasn't anything that was crawling or walking or anything like that. But just a bizarre light in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no explanation. And I'll tell you, it burns in your mind. So now, that's a couple of years ago. Now, every morning I wake up or since that night, if I'm going up to use the washroom or heading into bed, whatever, I always look out the window and I'm like, where's that damn light that again looking? But like I say, it was so bizarre because there was no cascade of lights, none. It was just the light. So I don't know how that's possible. And it was like orbiting within itself. Like it was just kind of swirling in itself, you know? But I thought that was just my eyes at the time when I'm looking at it. I'm like, if you stare at something long enough, like a bright light, your eyes will kind of do a little bit of wonky stuff, but just no explanation for it whatsoever. And I mean, I spent my life as, you know, my bread and butter was as an investigator of one form or another. And it really baffled me and I didn't want to give up on it so easy. Like, oh, well, whatever that was, like my wife, God love her, but she she dismissed it pretty quick. She's like, oh, well, it was weird. That was it. But not me. I was like, nope, I want to know what that was. And it drove me bonkers trying to find out. And to this day, it's just I got to file it under mysteries. That's for sure.

Speaker 4:
[51:49] I appreciate sharing that, John. Remind me of the light that I saw. It did kind of have that swirling motion on the inside, almost like it was power or something. And the way you describe it is spot on. Like you would think that there would be this cascade of light all around it, but they don't really light up anything. What is it you think you saw? I mean, and what do you think the lights are in general?

Speaker 3:
[52:15] You know, I, geez, I really, I really don't. I just know that, you know, to give an overall opinion on it, Wes, I, you know, not that I sat on the hilltops thinking about this stuff too much, but there's way too much smoke for no fire. And I think a person would be very conceded if you think you got it all figured out. Any of the, you know, quote unquote cool people that are like, oh, that's crazy, that's this, that's that. Well, not really. If your fellow pays attention to some of this stuff, and not everybody can be a liar, I think even the people over the years that I, you know, when I tuned in to your show, the odd time you may, you know, have doubt, but then you say to yourself, there can't be that many liars. Even if there's two people that completely, you know, recalled the story at 100% accuracy, then it validates everything. So I really don't know other than to say that there is weird stuff that happens, and it's okay to admit that you don't have an answer for it. And the other thing about it is that might frustrate people is they say, well, you know, like one fellow I talked to said, well, I'm a ghost hunter, and I've never seen anything. But the problem there is that I have seen, it's so random that you never know. You're not gonna call or summon these things or anything. It's just so random. Like the encounter that I had, like I said, with that weird half-bodied ghost that I saw, I wasn't in the mentality of, oh, I'm gonna see something spooky. Here we go. Nope, just the same mentality if I'd asked you, Wes, can you help me take the lumber out of the truck here? And we go outside and bam, you're confronted with it right then and there. It's so random, this stuff, right? So yeah, it's weird, but my God, it's fun to talk about it and just interesting, right?

Speaker 4:
[53:59] Yeah, it's a mystery. It's definitely a mystery. A lot of people see these lights and I wish I had a great answer for what it is. And I want to ask you what you think Sasquatch is, John, but going back to when you were a police officer, is there any memory that you have that kind of still stays with you today, almost like it happened yesterday?

Speaker 3:
[54:23] Yeah, unfortunately, the first thing that comes to my mind is, you know, it goes, I guess, without saying a lot of, you know, you're living people's worst day of their life a couple of times that shift. So a lot of, you know, a lot of misery, unfortunately, right? Like I did 10 years of it, and then I had an opportunity to get out. And I miss some of the people working, you know, working with them, but I don't miss the drama, you know what I mean? At 3.30 in the morning, wrestling with some guy that's, you know, built like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're tired, and you're on your seventh shift, and he wants to go with you, you know? But yeah, there's just anything that stood out. Once again, it's so hard to pinpoint. I do remember one incident that it actually is kind of paranormal, I suppose. A friend of mine and I, well, he was, I'm not more than a friend. He was my partner in policing, you know, who was on shift with that knife. We had, usually the bars get out about, you know, two o'clock in the morning up here. And I remember we were out on patrol, and we started to go up in the residential streets, just where the houses are, get a break from the main streets, you know, go hide for a little bit, right? So we could take a break. And we drove up around the residential streets, and the town that I worked at was kind of hilly, right? Sort of dippy and divey as well. And we're driving along, once again, maybe 3.30 in the morning or so. All of a sudden, we looked straight ahead, and it was in the winter, there was a little bit of snow on the ground. And we looked ahead, and there was this guy with no shirt on, out in the middle of the road, and he was air boxing. He was just giving it right to left, you know, just going. And without saying anything, my partner and I, he was driving, put the police car in park, and we just saw it, we're like, oh, here we go, right? Like, you know, this is gonna be, you know, a lot of fun with this fella, right? And we put our gloves on, and we still never, we didn't say anything to each other. He kind of huffs and puffs, puts the police car in the drive, and we started heading towards this fella. And as I say, the street that we were on was kind of hilly and divey, so we kind of went up the hill a little bit, or we went down a little bit of a hollow, and then as we come up, we expected the guy to be there. Wes, he was gone. And now you might say, well, okay, he took off and he ran in the woods, he saw the police car and he wanted to run and hide. The problem with all that is though, it had snowed about an inch. There was no footprints whatsoever, nothing on that road. And my friend, my partner, he couldn't accept it. He got out of the police car and he shined in the spotlight. He's looking around. I'm looking all around, but I'm saying, it's kind of a moot point because there's no footprints, man. Like there's nothing. Like it's just so bizarre, right? And not that I think everything is a ghost or anything like that, but I'm looking, I'm like, I need a path to see where he went, you know, to at least start there. And we're looking and there's absolutely nothing. All we could see is the footsteps, leading back to the either side of the police car where we had gotten out. It was really bizarre. And my friend just couldn't let it go. We're driving around, my partner should say, we're driving around, and he's shining the light in the woods and everything like that. And I'm like, you know, and I'm trying too, I didn't give up, but we're thinking, because I thought maybe if this guy is intoxicated, now we got to find him, like in case he went into the woods and he passes out there and passes away. So we did take it serious looking for him. And there was nothing, no clues, even when I followed up the next night shift, I checked in with day shift and said, you know, jeez, you get any calls about anybody being disruptive or anybody in the woods or anything? Nothing, nothing at all. I do recall another time, and I would categorize it, I guess, as paranormal as well. I'd worked at a different town. It was a neighboring town at that time. And it was about 11 o'clock at night or so. We're in the dispatch room, well, in the police station, with the one side of the dispatchers. These small towns, you know your dispatcher pretty well, and you're right there with them sometimes when you go in the office. And the phone rings, and I was with a female partner. The dispatcher picks it up, and I hear them going, okay, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, and they're shaking their head. And he drops the phone, and he looks at me, and he points, and he says, breaking in our major disturbance, he says, next door at the post office, above the post office. So we don't need to jump in the police car. This is, I don't know, maybe 100 feet away. So we're like on it. We slam out the side door, she's hot on my trail. We run over on foot. The cleaner's there, it was Canada Post, it was downstairs, and above was an old apartment, or an apartment, I think it was just one single apartment. And as I'm running over, he's got the door open, and he's saying, they're upstairs, they're upstairs, somebody's getting the hell beat out of them. So we run in through his door, and Canada Post at that time had another door, I guess, that led upstairs to where this apartment was. So we go in, hot and heavy, and I'm announcing, you know, at that time it was the town of Stellerton, and I'm saying, Stellerton police, and we took it dead serious. Although when I went in, I had heard nothing, but the information that I received quickly from the nighttime janitor was, they're upstairs, somebody's getting the hell beat out of them. They're thrashing and banging, and he was really upset, right? And keep in mind, that man had worked there for about eight years or so. So this wasn't an every night occurrence. This was the first time I'd ever had a call from him like that. We ran upstairs and the door was open to the apartment. It was open. And Wes, when we opened the door, cobwebs hit us in the face. That place was abandoned. There was nobody in there. And we did pretty much a tactical search as much as we could, announcing our presence, cutting the pie as we enter the rooms. And the last room before I checked it, I took my flashlight and I rolled it along the ground where you could see because the place was kind of dusty and dirty. There was like old drywall, sawdust, stuff like that. And there's no footprints at all. So once again, I'm saying, okay, as a baseline, I walk in the room, I check the closet, I look all around, I come back out, and I see definitively my footprints going all the way around, that I just made. And I go back down to the guy, he's just at the bottom of the stairs, the janitor, and my female partner, she's just bewildered too. She's like kind of laughing, saying, this guy, you know what I mean? Is this a mental health thing, right? But he's, and he was just on fire. He's like, I'm telling you, somebody was upstairs and I could hear kicking and screaming. They were fighting the walls, the ceiling was shaking, and he was just so upset. It was unbelievable. And just to do our due diligence, we went outside and we checked on the roof of the building, went around the whole perimeter, and then the guy was with us and he's like, well, if they're not in that room, they're on the goddamn roof. And I'm saying to him, look, we checked the roof and if he had jumped off that roof, that's nobody I want to tackle. You know what I mean? There's better physical shape than I am. But anyways, yeah, so after a few years in poli... I would assume, you know, minus the stigma, I'm sure every policeman after a few years would have some kind of a story that they would place in the bazaar. But those are two I can share with you from that time for sure.

Speaker 4:
[62:06] Yeah, I appreciate sharing it, John. Some of the most interesting stories I've ever heard were from cops, whether it be paranormal or not. And I really wish I could get more of them to come on. I know the RCMP is armed. I watched them shoot all those ostriches on that farm. But are local cops or provincial cops, are you guys armed?

Speaker 3:
[62:28] Oh, yeah, very much so. The only difference between the RCMP and then we caught municipal police was jurisdiction. The RCMP, what they did was they were federal police service. And one of the main reasons why we need the federal ones is because they can transfer you anywhere. So if there's a shortage in Alberta, they'll take ones from Nova Scotia, put them in Alberta, or up in our northern communities, stuff like that. So municipal police, like let's say the Toronto police or Vancouver, or no one's going to tell you, you got to pack your family up and move and stuff, right? So it's that advantage there. But as far as being armed and your powers and that are all under the Criminal Code of Canada, and they're exactly the same, they hold no more power than each of the municipal officers and that, yeah.

Speaker 4:
[63:20] Yeah, I don't know why I had it in my head that the cops in Canada weren't armed, you know, like the local cops. Well, I'll tell you my cop story, John. You know, when I was a bouncer, we were armed and I hated it. I really saw it more like a liability, and I used to beg management, please take our guns away, or at least let us conceal them. Because what's the first thing drunk idiots go for when you're in a fight? They go for your gun. And I can't count how many times I ended up fighting, you know, with one hand clamped over my weapon, protecting it, while kind of dropping bombs with the other one. And, you know, fighting one handed got old really, really fast. But I'll share my cop story that kind of ties into it. This is about eight or nine years ago, but I was living in this parmar complex next to this corner store. And one day, you know, I walk over and I'm grabbing some food, and I notice this car at the pumps. There's three people inside, but they weren't getting gas. And something just fell off. I couldn't really put my finger on it. It's kind of hard to explain. Kind of, I guess, a gut feeling or something.

Speaker 3:
[64:34] Your spidey senses started to tingle.

Speaker 4:
[64:36] Yeah, total spidey senses kicking in. And I don't know if it was drugs or what was going on there. But I was like, hey, you know, not my problem. And so I go into the store and I get my food and everything. And I'm heading out. Now there's a police car behind that same vehicle. The other two people are gone. The cop and the driver are fighting. They're actually sprawled out across the front seat, doors open, and a full on fist fight. And between you and I, it didn't look like the cop was winning. I mean, this guy had like 100 pounds on this cop. And I'm embarrassed to even kind of admit this, but my first thought was like, not my problem, not my business. I learned a long time ago, no good deed goes unpunished in life. Watch I step in, and I'm the one in cuffs, being charged with like obstruction or whatever other charges they pull off their bingo card for the day. And so I was gonna go home. I started walking home. And I don't know if you call it my soul, God stepping in, or what, but I just couldn't walk away. I really wanted to walk away. But you know, I thought if this cop gets killed, and I might have been able to stop it, I'm not so sure I could live with myself after that. So I reluctantly walk over there, and I walk up to the passenger side of the car. And that's where both of their heads were. You know, they were still fighting, very vicious fight. But what they were fighting for was the cop's gun. When I looked down at my feet, there's a cop service pistol on the ground. The guy's actually reaching for it. He's about six inches away. And the officer is trying to hold him back. And he's throwing punches. This cop could fight. And being reluctant, you know, instead of like jumping into action, I was like, officer, would you like help? And he goes, yes, yes, for love of God, yes. And so I picked up the gun and I grabbed the guy by the ear and I yanked him out of that car. I had such a grip on him. If he hadn't come out, I probably would have torn his ear off. That's a little trick I learned bouncing. Grab someone by the ear and they will follow you wherever you want to take them. No questions asked.

Speaker 3:
[66:59] That's right.

Speaker 4:
[67:00] So now the cop is cuffing him totally out of breath. And I felt bad. The cop actually had blood on his face and on his uniform. And I'm standing there above him, still holding his gun, by the way. But I started hearing all of these sirens, a lot of sirens. And I don't know if like a call went out over the radio. I'm assuming it did. But it sounded like every cop in Washington was headed our way. And that's when it kind of hit me. Here I am like a donkey, standing over this bloodied cop, holding a gun. And there's like a swarm of officers ready to roll up. They're absolutely going to shoot me. So I told the officer, I'm like, am I going to secure your firearm? And I'm going to go ahead and set it right over there. And like seconds later, I swear, like the entire state police force showed up. I've never seen that many cops in my life. But I was pretty sure if I didn't get that gun out of my hand, they were going to shoot me when they showed up.

Speaker 3:
[68:04] Yeah, yeah, because they're trying to figure it out. And they've got fractions of a second to, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, a funny story that it didn't happen to me. I wasn't there, but my sergeant told me. He said he was patrolling at about four in the morning, and he noticed this car that was driven down the railroad tracks. And once again, not that it snows all the time in Canada, but these stories just happened to be in the winter. So the guy, he was drunk, and rather than, I guess, he thought the railroad tracks were a street, and he went down the railroad tracks, and he ended up getting his car stuck. So my sergeant at that time, oh my God, it's a tape-wrapping humor. I'll tell you, we can't reveal all the secrets of some of the fun that was had on those back ships. But he went up to the window, and the guy sees that there's a policeman there. So he puts his car in drive, even though he's stuck solid, puts it right to the floor, engine screaming. So what does my sergeant do? Stands alongside of the car and starts running on spot, pretending he's going with the car. So the drunk is there, his speedometer is probably reading 180 kilometers an hour, and he's running alongside the car, pounding on the window, pull over, pull over. I heard that story, and oh my God, I'll tell you, I burst a stomach stitch laughing. I'm glad I met of it myself. I don't regret the time in it, but it's good for the memory bank, that's for sure.

Speaker 4:
[69:31] Yeah, I'm still busting up about the train tracks. You know, that guy was like, when he sobers up, he's gonna be like, yeah, I had it floored, and this cop was keeping up with me on foot. I would imagine in that job, you gotta have a little bit of fun so you don't go crazy. And I appreciate you sharing all your memories of that and your encounters, John. You know, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? I know you're a member, and I really appreciate you supporting what I do. But what do you think Bigfoot is?

Speaker 3:
[70:05] You know, I guess after I'm interested as a hobby on the side, you know, a closeted researcher from my chair watching TV and whatnot. And after all the information that I've taken in on that subject, I have to say it's more paranormal. There's just too much weird stuff that goes on. To say that it would be something physical. Like, you know, the stories you hear about... I remember Wes, you had somebody on, and perhaps, I think it was an older lady, and she said she shot us with a shotgun, and it was just a flash of light, and the thing was gone. You know, stuff like that were random footprints, where they don't start or conclude. And just too much of the woo factor there to say, you know, that definitively it is an animal. But I mean, my input is worth, you know, half a penny. But if I was, you know, to say, I would dare say it's something paranormal in, you know, in nature. That would be my opinion on that, Wes.

Speaker 4:
[71:11] Yeah, I kind of lean that way too, John. And it kills me too, because I really want it to be a non-human primate. You know, it seems, it would seem so cool to be like, oh, wow, there's a new species of gorilla or something we haven't discovered. But you know, the longer you're in the subject, the more you're like, I don't know about that. But I really appreciate you coming on the show, John, and sharing your life and your encounters. And I really enjoyed chatting with you. It was a real pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time.

Speaker 3:
[71:46] Thank you, sir. I appreciate following up with me, and I was just happy to share those stories.

Speaker 4:
[71:53] Thanks again, John. And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at sasquatchchronicles.com. And if you get a chance, check out sasquatchchronicles.com. You can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.