Oh goodie! We haven't had a bigfoot sighting in a while!

This is from Charlotte, NC

Posted: 3:57 pm EDT June 17, 2010
Updated: 5:27 pm EDT June 17, 2010

BURKE COUNTY, N.C. -- A large, muddy and mysterious footprint has captured imaginations in the area.

The print is much larger than a human's foot, and some say it couldn’t be an animal. Its size and unexplained origin are fueling wild theories about a creature of lore making a real-life emergence in rural parts of Cleveland and Burke counties.

A farmer said he recently stumbled across a larger-than-life footprint near the intersection of Highway 18 and George Hildebran School Road in the southern part of Burke County.

Pork Lowman said he was walking in the woods when he came across the print, which measures 15 by 8 inches.

“It's out here in no-man's land, and that's what really got me,” Lowman said.

Lowman said its size and shape doesn’t resemble that of a bear or large cat, which raised a question: Could Bigfoot have trekked through Burke County?

Area resident Rex Lail and others videotaped the print and also made a casting of it. They said they then contacted the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

Lail said the wildlife officer doesn't think the print was made by an animal, either.

Lowman and Lail said they hope the print turns out to be a hoax, but aren’t sure that it will.

“We're trying to prove that it is a hoax, but the details of it are amazing,” Lail said. “If it is a hoax, they are doing a terrific job.”

A sighting of a large, unidentifiable creature was recently reported about 15 miles south of the location of the footprint.

“I had a fellow call me yesterday, told me I was crazy; that they had a sighting in Cleveland County and they must be a-running everywhere,” Lowman said.

In the Cleveland County report, though, there was no print or any other evidence of someone -- or something -- passing through.

Eyewitness News reporter Dave Faherty tried to contact the wildlife biologist that Lail contacted, but he was unavailable.

Lowman said, while he hopes the print is a hoax, he still plans to be more cautious in wooded areas.