A prankster tricked his town to believe that a Bigfoot was roaming the woods and kept the secret fifty years. Pic credit: Pixabay
A local prankster claimed he tricked the residents of Brantley, Alabama, into believing that a Bigfoot lived in nearby woods.
Eugene Hendrick, a resident of Brantley, a small town in Crenshaw County, Alabama, said he kept the practical joke secret for 50 years before admitting it.
Sometime in the mid-1970s, locals began reporting giant-sized humanoid tracks in the woods. Soon, excited chatter about a Sasquatch on the loose spread around town.
Multiple residents reported Bigfoot tracks, while others claimed they encountered the cryptid. The Bigfoot reports became so persistent that the local police sent out teams with search dogs to track it down.
Hendrick “got a wild hair” and decided to prank his town
Hendrick was a bored young man living in the small back town of Brantley in the mid-1970s. He told WFSA that he suddenly hit on the idea of entertaining himself with a Sasquatch prank.
He cut the shape of massive feet, attached old boots to them, and walked up and down the river bank, making monster tracks in the mud.
He even stopped by trees along the way to make fearsome claw marks.
Bigfoot frenzy in sleepy Alabama town
Jimmy McGinty was a child in the mid-1970s when Sasquatch terror gripped Brantley.
Young Jimmy was walking by the river when he saw strange tracks along the banks. A closer look revealed they were big footprints. The youngster couldn’t believe his eyes. He ran back to the town to report.
People came to see the tracks, and stories about a wild creature stomping along the river bank and woods spread quickly, causing widespread fear and anxiety.
Hendrick kept his secret for nearly five decades
Meanwhile, Hendrick secretly relished the uproar he singlehandedly caused. But he decided to stop creating more Bigfoot tracks after the police became involved. He hid the boots and cut-out feet and never shared the secret until 2017.
He eventually owned up to his prank during a conversation with Hunter Royal, a local store owner and McGinty’s son-in-law.
He was at the Old Gin Creek County Store in Brantley in 2017 when Hunter Royal announced a plan to add the Sasquatch Burger to his deli menu.
That was the moment that Hendrick decided to confess.
McGinty set up a Sasquatch statue
McGinty admitted Hendrick fooled him. He had believed the seeming evidence of footprints along the river bank.
“I knew I wasn’t crazy then. But, he got me,” McGinty confessed, according to WFSA.
But they decided to cash in on the prank. The store introduced multiple lines of Sasquatch merchandise.
McGinty drove to Indiana and purchased a concrete Sasquatch statue. He brought it to Brantley and set it up as a landmark in front of the Old Gin Creek Country Store at 9627 Main St.