[at-l] r U sure you want to hike in MD???

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley7)]

Bigfoot running around Maryland last summer

Article Headline: Policeman, workers track roaming, 12-foot creature. It 
got away before they could tell if it was bear or
something else.

By Laura Barnhardt, Sun Staff

Anne Arundel County police looked for a mysterious 12-foot creature 
yesterday, but it's unclear whether an officer and
witnesses spotted an animal or maybe -- they joked -- the imaginary Loch 
Ness Monster from the Severn River.

A Police Department spokesman confirmed a report of a "strange sighting" in 
Hanover just after midnight yesterday near the
Arundel Mills mall construction site. But witnesses said the 12-foot-tall, 
upright, black "thing" ran past them so fast they
weren't sure what it was. Construction workers who were napping in a van 
called police, who dispatched an off-duty officer
working security at the mall site to investigate. The workers, who had fled 
to a nearby fast-food restaurant for safety, were
reluctant to return to the construction site with the officer, said Sgt. 
Joseph Jordan. But the workers finally agreed to show
the officer where they had seen the creature.

After a brief search, the officer found a footprint about 15 to 20 inches 
long, Jordan said. Officers contacted the state
Department of Natural Resources, which reported a recent sighting of two 
bears near Interstate 295, Jordan said. However,
the print seemed rather large and long for a bear print, police said.

When the workers and the officer later caught another glimpse of what 
appeared to be the animal near a pond also on the
site, the workers ran, police said. The off-duty officer stayed and 
reported seeing two animal-like eyes in the dark, though he
couldn't tell what it was, police said. In case the creature was a bear, 
the officer continued to stay in the area it was last seen,
occasionally shining his spotlight around the pond, Jordan said.

About 3 a.m., the officer saw what appeared to be an animal lying on a hill 
near the pond, though it's unclear whether it was
the same animal spotted earlier, police said. The officer blew an air horn 
several times, "but it didn't jerk or move at all,"
Jordan said. Anyone who sees a large animal should keep a safe distance and 
immediately call 911, Jordan said.

Police do not believe it was a person. "It had fur," Jordan said. But, he 
said, whatever it was disappeared before the mystery
could be solved.

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/CNTS/MD/AA/md_aa003.htm