WHOSE PHOTO IS IT?

"Went grouse hunting up seagulson and something tripped my dog out. She got so scared she hid in the truck. I think there must've been a bear right there in the picture I took"

This was posted by Carl Smith on the Darrington Reader Board on November 13, 2019.

It has many comments, some serious, some not so nice. And has over 100 shares. 

But there is a problem.

This photo was posted back on January 22, 2017 by Bigfoot Evidence via Cryptozoologynews.com. 

It came with a story told by David Pack  speaking for the witness, his 70 year old neighbor, Lee, who is said to live on a farm near the Smokey Mountains National Park in Tennessee. 

"It was around 10 p.m. and he thought it was the wind, so he looked out from the kitchen window of his brick rancher house out into the back yard and saw that the [sic] was no wind."  - Pack

Lee felt "someone or something" was watching him so he looked out the door to his porch and saw it.

" At first he thought it was a man, only to see the side and back of the creature as it turned and walked away down the porch and the sidewalk with its back to him. It never turned around, so he only go to see its back and side." - Pack

It had long black hair on its arms and body, with some brown mixed in.

Pack concluded with Lee was now in the process of getting a camera installed so he can get some photos and videos of it if it returns.

So, the photo is not Lee's either. And not of the creature in his back yard. The photo was not on Cryptozoology News post. So the photo appears to have been added by Bigfoot Evidence. They gave no credit information on this post on the photo.

Let's travel further back.

This particular photo is also associated with a post on bigfootevidence.blogspot.com back on April 28, 2013 for a post titled : New footage : Hiker films Tennessee Bigfoot?

This explanation was provided above the link to the video.


This footage was submitted to YouTube user, Legends Beware by a hiker who claims to have shot a video while bird watching near Tennessee/Georgia border on April 21, 2013. According to the witness the creature in the video is 9 ft tall. Is it Bigfoot or a really tall guy in a ghillie suit?"

The only appearance the photo makes is as the opening frame for the video. It does not appear to be a frame capture from the video. 

https://youtu.be/JyULmVVV_lE

So probably not the bird watcher's photo either. 

Legends Beware makes no copyright or other claim to the photo. 

I don't argue whether or not any of these witnesses had an encounter. Perhaps they did. What is wrong is the appropriation of this photo suggested as evidence of their encounter -- with the most recent [ab]user of the photo actually claiming it as his. 

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."