Cashing in on cryptids, The Skunk ape.

Two of a series of 3 articles about the Skunk ape are below. There is nothing new in them if you have studied the creature before but the interesting bit is the last few lines of the second article. No wonder people think most cryptids are hoaxes!

Skunk Ape sightings from coast to Glades By Eliot Kleinberg

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 09, 2009

In 1972, one was sighted in the Meadowbrook area of West Palm Beach. A month later, a Pahokee man said he and several large dogs fled from "a hairy eight-foot monster." In 1974, seven suburban West Palm Beach youngsters reported a sighting. "I may be a little kid," Laurie Holmes, 9, said, "but I know what I saw." One mom said the kids had vivid imaginations. In June 1974, a Lake Worth man said the thing lifted one of his hogs, weighing 110 pounds, and tore it into three pieces. Buddy Sterrett said several neighbors saw it too. "It has a smell that would make the hair on the back of your head stand up," Sterrett said. "And it makes a weird sound, like a monkey chattering." In September 1974, a guard at a Wellington construction site said he shot and wounded a creature.Authorities found no footprints or blood trail. He said the thing had come out of the woods and ignored his order to stop. "It smelled like it had taken a bath in rotten eggs," Cary Kanter said. "It made my eyes water. "Weeks later, a family west of Greenacres said they found strange footprints around their home. Then there was the 1976 sighting at a watermelon patch near Fort Myers. And in 1977, two workers reported seeing a 7-foot-tall, 3-foot-wide, hairy apelike creature drinking water at a lake on a golf course near Delray Beach. They called Palm Beach County Animal Regulation. "You'd think that a creature that big would have left some kind of tracks or something," department chief John Street said.

When a reporter demanded records, he snapped, "There are no records on this. That's how stupid it is. But that's my own opinion." Source:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/highschools/content/neighborhood/npall/epaper/2009/04/09/npall_posttime_0409.html?cxntlid=inform_sr

Sightings of Skunk Ape widespread By Eliot Kleinberg Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, April 16, 2009 .

Days after one was spotted in 1977 on a golf course near Delray Beach, CB radio operators (remember CB?) reported some 20 residents had shot at "a big furry animal."

A month later, two friends who rode motorcycles down dirt roads said they confronted a creature. In 1978, a Lantana man said he spotted the thing in his back yard about 5 a.m. after being awakened by his barking dog. And two Boca Raton boys said they confronted something at the canal separating Palm Beach and Broward counties ."Creature resembling the notorious skunk ape (reported) stalking in the woods," a Boca Raton police report said. UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek, speculated at the time the beasts are inhabitants of a parallel universe who slip in and out of ours.In October 1977, a worried Legislature considered a bill granting it protection. Things quieted for a while. But when you're 7 to 12 feet tall, weigh up to 700 pounds, and smell like a skunk, it's hard to stay in the shadows. In 1997, a man in tiny Ochopee, out in the Big Cypress, came up with a photo taken from a great distance that showed the head and shoulders of a burly, manlike figure running into a thicket. The chief ranger of the preserve said in nearly a decade neither he nor any of his 70 park rangers had spotted the thing. That didn't stopped southwest Florida entrepreneur David Shealy, who lives in Ochopee. He said he believes as many as seven live in the area and he had three sightings. He has a seven-minute video he says he shot. Shealy and colleagues, who sell skunk ape T-shirts, hold an annual Skunk Ape Festival. Its highlight: the crowning of Miss Skunk Ape. Source:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/highschools/content/neighborhood/npall/epaper/2009/04/16/npall_posttime_0416.html?cxntlid=inform_sr

The articles were going well until we got to the Skunk Ape festival and the tee shirts. There is always some one ready to cash in on a cryptid!