The entire town was fooled!
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Sometimes you might play a practical joke on your friends by giving them the incorrect dress code for an occasion or by covering your university roommate’s space in foil.
Or perhaps playing simple knock-and-run games as a child was how you first started pulling pranks.
But it’s rare for a practical joke to be so elaborate that it fools the entire town and spans decades.
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Additionally, a man in Alabama, United States, spent 50 years deceiving Brantley into thinking Bigfoot resided there.
When people noticed tracks near the river in the 1970s, Eugene Hendrick, the great practical joker, concocted his scheme.
Hendrick told WFSA: “I got a wild hair one day. I wanted to do something about a Sasquatch.
“I cut some big ole feet and bolted some shoes to them and walked around by the river making tracks. I even made claw marks in the trees.”
Brantley, however, soon became the subject of rumours since everyone there was certain that something strange was happening. Things got so out of control that the police and search dogs were called.
Local resident Jimmy McGinty was a young boy when the enigmatic Bigfoot was allegedly prowling the streets of their community.
He remembered: “I was just going out by the river and saw some unusual tracks on the sand bar. I went and looked and saw these big footprints, and I’m going, am I seeing this right or not?’”
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But Hendrick decided to stop his pranks in light of the widespread dread in the neighbourhood and the police’s involvement.
He said: “I put the cut-out feet and shoes away and kept it a secret until 2017.”
And for a long while, no one knew that he’d been behind it.
Hunter Royal, the proprietor of the Old Gin Greek County Store in Brantley, then made the decision to begin offering “The Sasquatch Burger,” a “monster” burger.
And Hendrick made the timing decision. He was going to admit to his outrageous prank.
McGinty couldn’t believe it was him behind it all, and said: “I knew I wasn’t crazy then. But, he got me.”
Later, the shop sold a variety of Bigfoot-related goods and even picked up a 3,500-pound, solid concrete Sasquatch.
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Hunter was pretty surprised when his father-in-law McGinty showed up with the huge creature, saying: “I was in shock. It has made a landmark for the community.”
And in a nearly beautiful coda to his operation, Hendrick painted the enormous monument himself, utilising his trained artistic abilities to create the “landmark.”
Although, it seems that locals do still reckon some kind of creature exists in the town as Hunter said: “If you don’t believe in Sasquatch, you’re the problem.”
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Everyone enjoys a good urban legend, right? People’s inner conspiracy theorists come out when the possibility of UFOs or the Loch Ness Monster is brought up.
This rule applies to Bigfoot as well.
Only short views of the fabled creature have been given to devotees of the hairy humanoid for many years.
The 1967 film by Patterson-Gimlin serves as one such piece of proof.
The video, which Roger Patterson and Roger Gimlin shot in California, appears to depict Bigfoot ambling through a woodland.
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The video received a lot of flak for being too shaky to be considered conclusive evidence of the Sasquatch’s existence.
However, the video is now viewable in a stabilised format.
And it continues to resemble a guy dressed as a gorilla. But perhaps that’s just me.
It’s safe to assume that there are still some believers out there based on the volume of opinions posted online concerning the clip.
One Bigfoot follower wrote: “If you say it’s fake, provide proof of reason why it’s fake.”
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However, most other people were more skeptical about the validity of the footage.
One cynic remarked: “The people who think this is real are also the same people who don’t believe the moon landing was real.”
Just that one remark sparked a whole new round of debates.
A fellow non-believer commented: “Every trait it has is human except the costume. It’s not bigger than a human, it’s not faster than a human, it moves like a human. Yet, you want us to believe that somehow it’s the most elusive animal we’ve ever seen?”
When you put it that way, I guess.
Bigfoot devotees should not despair; there is yet hope.
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Even the best footage of the elusive beast to yet is credited to one individual.
Josh captured a video of a purported Bigfoot creature when he was out in the wild near Tunica, Mississippi.
Josh estimated the monster to be at least seven feet tall and said that before it stood up, he assumed he was looking at a hog.
He was praised for informing the world about his sighting.
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One admirer said: “THE BEST VIDEO TO DATE. AND IT’S 8 YEARS OLD! Congratulations Josh. You’ve held the record for some time now.”
“It looks so natural, like it’s in its element,” added another, “When you hear the crack of the wood when it rips it out it sounds like it’s got some real strength.
“Pretty convincing… one of the best BF videos I’ve seen.”
