BFRO #22945: Man recalls observing possible tracks and being screamed at on his paper route in Eldridge

📍 Location

📝 Description

My first of two encounters with a Bigfoot occurred in Eldridge Iowa during the first two weeks of February 1981. I was a paperboy for the Des Moines Register. I would usually start my rout at about 5:00 am in the morning. About week prior to this incidence I started having this feeling that I was being watched and even followed though I never saw or heard anything up to this point. On this particular morning about half way through my rout I came around the corner of 5th St and Donahue Ave. riding my bike loaded with newspapers when I looked down and saw this trail of very large footprints in the snow. I got off of my bike and knelt down and took a closer look thinking that this was some kind of prank. I even counted the number of toes, 5 on each foot and it look just like a human footprint only much larger! The prints were about 6 to 8 inches wide and about 18 to 24 inches long. I remember I slowly stood up and looked around and noticed the tracks came in from the northeast side of Eldridge and cut through people�s back yards and exited the southwest side of town. I remember feeling very alone and scared out of my mind! The worst was yet to come later in the week when I had to deliver the Sunday paper. After school that day I went back and followed the track northeast to southwest all the way though Eldridge and across a small park called Elmer Green park. It was here that the reality of what I had just discovered really started to sink in. when the tracks came to a four-foot high fence on the other side of the park you could see that the creature just stepped over it like it wasn�t ever there! I followed the tracks all the way back to the City of Eldridge sewer treatment ponds were I usually hunted rabbits. The tracks followed Hickory creek around behind the sewer treatment ponds and it was here that I stopped following the tracks out of fear because I was alone.That night I went out collecting money for my paper rout and I made it a point to go to the location were I had originally found the tracks that morning. I remembered it all like it happened yesterday; I looked I my watch and noted that it was 10:30 pm then I went home to bed. The next morning I arrived back at the same location at about 5:30 am and to my shocking surprise there was a new set of tracks in the snow following the original set in reverse! Now I was really scared, my first thought was I have to get the heck out of here; my second thought was this thing is following!!! You see the path that this Bigfoot took paralleled my newspaper rout and I lived across the street from the park were it stepped over the fence. To say the least I was scared out of my 8th grader mind! I remember that this had happened on a Wednesday and the return tracks had to have happened between 10:30 Wednesday night and 5:30 am Thursday morning. Needless to say this creature remained nearby in the area. I remember the rest of the week was uneventful with no more new track sightings but I did feel like I was being watched and followed.Then that Sunday my father helped me deliver the Sunday papers because they were so much bigger that I couldn�t carry them all on my bike so Dad drove the care while I ran them up to the door. Everything went just fine that morning and I was feeling pretty secure because I had my dad with me, until we got to the last house on my paper rout on the south side of Eldridge behind North Scott Jr. High School. I remember running the paper up to the front door and tossing it just a little to hard, it hit the front door with a bang, as soon as it hit the door the noise must have startled the Bigfoot because it let out a horrifying scream! It was just around the corner of the house, between the house I just delivered to and the house next door and behind it just were I couldn�t see it. I knew it was that close because of the Horrifying Scream it let out!!!! I have never been so scared in all of my life!!! I ran as hard as I could back to the car slipping and sliding on the snow and ice and I hit the car so hard I shook it! Me running into and hitting the car scared my dad but when I screamed did you hear it screaming dad? He said he didn�t because he had the heater blower going full blast and the radio turned up, so he didn�t hear it at all, I couldn�t believe it? I did decided right then and there that morning I would get out of the news paper delivery business. I turned the rout over to another kid a couple of months later in April of 1981. I�ll never forget the look of those tracks or of that scream from hell that it makes! It all seems like it just happened yesterday. I never saw it during this encounter and for the next week or two I felt like I was still being watched and followed. The weather conditions during the week were bitter cold. I remember it was between 0 and �15 degrees the entire week. There was little to no wind that week and we had about 8 to 12 inches of snow on the ground. There was no moon that week as well but we did have

🔍 Circumstances

A friend was shown the first set of tracks.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

found 1st set of tracks at 5:30amfound 2nd set of tracks at 5:30am the next morning.four days later sunday morning at 6:00am I heard the "scream"!

ℹ️ Additional Details

found 1st set of tracks at 5:30amfound 2nd set of tracks at 5:30am the next morning.four days later sunday morning at 6:00am I heard the "scream"!

🔗 Sources (1)

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