Yarwen: Captured in Maine
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 3rd, 2006
I get all kinds of emails. Some are threatening. Some are intriguing. Some are confusing. Because an “offer” in a new email has been withdrawn due to the fact I wanted more details, plus, humm, a photograph, as well as to know the real identity of the person writing me, I will share the following correspondence.
This melodrama may be someone’s fiction or next week’s media event, so read it in that context. The person who wrote got upset with my caution, my checking for credibility, and my probing questions. The individual then said he was going to put “it” up on eBay. He also told me I was out of any money I was going to “make” off this captured creature. So be it. I feel fully released to share this all with you, the readers of Cryptomundo. If this is the proof we all have hoped for of a Bigfoot, I guess I missed my chance to drive to New Jersey to take a peek.
Here’s the email (with lack of capitalizations and spelling intact), dated Saturday, September 2, 2006:
This is Not A Hoax
i was camping deep in the north woods of maine this week. at dawn on friday i went down to the river to wash up. what i saw across the river on the other bank astonished me. to my shock and amazement i saw a yarwen with it’s cub eating from some type of berry tree. it couldn’t see me and as luck would have it my camp was downwind from their position. i went back to my tent to retrieve my rifle and when i returned amazingly the creatures were still there.
to make a long story short i slew the adult and managed to capture the cub alive. i labored all day to bury the carcass of the adult so that no one could claim it. it was about 8.5 feet tall, with orange-brownish hair, and extremely heavy. the cub is 3.5 tall and weighs exactly 121.5 lbs. it is extremely docile. i cannot tell what sex it is.
i have this cub at an undisclosed location. it seems to only eat plant matter because i left carrots, blueberries, apples and steak(cooked and raw) in its cage and in the morning only the steak remained, untouched. i am aware of the million dollar reward for the capture of one of these creatures but that is not enough money for me. i want to retain you as my representative as i wish to remain anonymous.
i want $100,000 for photos which you can come and take. i contacted you first since i visit your site frequently but if i do not hear from you soon i will find someone else to handle this. together we can make history and get rich. i want you to list the creature on ebay with an opening bid of $10,000,000. i will give you 10% of whatever we eventually get, and you will have the honor of breaking the story.
please do not write about this on your website until you come to nj and see this thing for yourself. if i see any mention of it prematurely the deal is OFF. please note “dominick perez” is not my real name.
Of course, I am not in the habit of jumping in my old station wagon and driving to New Jersey, based upon an email like this. I needed more proof, more facts, more reality about who is emailing me. Hey, on some level, I’m more interested in proving these things exist when there is no greed attached, scientifically. Of course, I don’t blindly go off on wild goose chases to take pictures. Despite this emailer’s claim, it could be a hoax, of course.
When I hear about all the money someone thinks they deserve for their evidence, red flags go up for me. (There are several red flags, needless to say, about this tale.) Me as an agent? This person doesn’t know me well at all.
Furthermore, I sure don’t have any money to purchase photos, either, and won’t even if I had the funds. Nevertheless, I help people all the time, make contacts, but only after I’ve been given assurances that what is coming my way is a serious inquiry and not trickery. In this case, I tried to ask for more details about this alleged “Yarwen” capture. All I was told was…
to answer your last question, i drove the thing all the way home in the back of my truck handcuffed to the roll bar.
Later, after a flurry of Sunday emails in which I tried to calmly talk to this person, I received this:
i’ll tell you what… look on ebay in about a week and you will see a live video. i will give the exclusive story to one of your competitors. i would think you would be excited to be given the honor of publishing the first real photos of a yarwen ever and breaking the story. i will show nothing until i am paid for it. if you want to see the body go look for it. watch for the ebay listing.
And finally:
like i mentioned earlier, check ebay periodically and you will have all the photo evidence you need. this ends my communications with you.
Of course, if this person has a live young Bigfoot in New Jersey taken from Maine, probably the wildlife officials in Maine want to know more about this animal as a ward of their state, for starters.
I’m not sure what a “Yarwen” is, but then, via googling I see it is a name used in Dungeons and Dragons. Maybe there is a clue in that fact. Or maybe this guy is trying to write Yeren?
Who knows? Does this mean we all have to watch eBay for the next incredible hominology discovery that will shake the ranks of anthropology to its foundations? We’ll see.
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Information Update
The “General Hunting Season” for Bear in the State of Maine is from August 28, 2006 through November 25, 2006. You are allowed “one bear” per season, with a license.
Sunday Hunting is illegal in Maine. Bear permit required (resident $28; nonresident, $68; plus agent fee) in addition to hunting license between Aug. 28 through Oct. 27. See law booklet for other recent changes. Maine has more bears than any other state in the lower 48.
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See, for further discussion, “What is a Yarwen?” .
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Why shoot the parent, Redneck?
I’m still bothered by the idea that he kept the beast cuffed to the roll bar of his truck. At the very least, toll booths would be tricky.
“That’ll be a dollar, twenty five. And sir, your hairy girlfriend just flung feces at me.”
I have to agree, the hairy girlfriend would have to have gotten someones attention!
Also he claims he has it in a cage. I can not imagine you can just go buy a cage large enough to handle a creature the size of a 7 to 10 year old child.
I mean not something you just walk into Petsmart and pull off the shelf.
I am watching this one! I want to see if anything more comes out!
Odd, sad story, obviously. I will reserve comment on my opinion of it’s authenticity, save this – it’s one redeeming factor seems to be that he was willing to invite Loren there, to see it in person, ahead of any money agreements. (Although this saga has carried on for some weeks now, and the chances of anyone keeping one alive that long without going public are even slimmer than the chances of this being legit)
On the miniscule chance that it is legit, I might say that the speculative accusations of all the trouble this guy could hypothetically be in line for are unfounded, and may do nothing other than scare the captor in to ridding himself of any evidence.
I have got this totally solved.
I am about to get 10 million dollars wired into my bank account from a long lost, relative, who died in Nigeria last month. So I will front the money, as I am sure it is as legit as my Nigerian wire transfer.
bt
You think someone could think up a more convincing story than this?
Too bad that some of the nut cases out there can’t just grow up and realize that these hoaxes and frauds are not funny and serve no purpose!
The guys probably sitting back getting all kinds of laughs from the attention he’s getting here.
p.s I have never heard of a Yarwen (as Loren stated he’s probably miss spelling Yeren) and yes ilexoak, there are Trolls in D&D.
“I find it funny that he could see them but that they could not see him. Knowing how skittish and immensly aware that a deer or even a squirrel is, this has got to be boloney.”
I grew up in a heavily forested area and we were able to sneak up on wild animals without them noticing us often. Granted this was from a distance. If you get close they notice. But you don’t have to be very close at all to shoot something with a high powered rifle. That said, I doubt the veracity of this story. Although his comment about “Together we can make history and become rich…” almost sounds like he is trying to get Loren to join the Dark Side!
Ah, yes, the Dark Side. For those that seem to doubt that I understood what he said, yes, I realized he wanted me to be the front person. But I need to know something about someone before I’m going to walk into their Paterson, New Jersey home, right!??
And he does, at one point say, ” i will show nothing until i am paid for it.”
I don’t trust this person. Would you?
You see, I am careful about getting involved with the interstate transportation of dead or captive hominoids, and the promotion of the killing of Bigfoot or people or out-of-season wildlife. If he had a bear permit, he was suppose to only take one. 🙂
If this “dummy”, (not the word I was thinking, but this is a family friendly site) actually killed an adult, undiscovered lifeform of this type, and captured it’s offspring, and has it in “Joissee”, then rest assured, he will never be heard from again. Not even from his closest family and friends. As a matter of fact, I would bet he is already warehoused in a safe, comfortable, padded, and totally anonomous location, with lots of sedation. A chart on his door that reads “Mr. Jones”, and if you listen closely, you can hear the black helicopters as they power up the rotors to take off from the front lawn of the compound.
The flip side of it is, if this was a hoax, he is just a sad, pathetic excuse for a human being, looking for some sick fifteen seconds of infamous attention.
For his sake, if it were the real deal, he should have gone public immediately and left a very visible public trail. At this point, he is probably alot safer and better off just being a sad and pathetic hoaxer.
When I go camping I take a rifle to scare off bears if they get to nosy, so I can believe that part.
First thing in the morning, if walking towards a river, I make lots of noise, singing, swatting the limbs with a stick so I don’t surprise something dangerous. I make my presence known.
I’m a pretty good shot. I’m fearless too. I’ve killed plenty of paper targets and clay pigeons. They don’t scare me.
If I had a 8.5 foot creature in my sights, I would be a tad shaky. Just a tad. I’m pretty certain that would throw my aim off. Now if I fired for the head and the creature dropped without a sound. Would I go over there at once? No. I would wait to see if it’s playing dead and shoot again to be sure. Then wait, move forward, shoot again, wait, poke it with a stick, hit it with a stick, make a close observation of what I just killed and run like hell to my truck and report it.
In Texas we have a ground covering called soil. In Maine I don’t know what they have covering the forest floor but it appears to be soft. I normally don’t take a powered backhoe on camping trips, just a 3 foot trenching shovel, even with a pickaxe and sturdy shovel it would take 24 hours to bury something that big deep enough so that scavengers could’t smell the rotting flesh and disturb it. 24 hours is optimistic too as I would constantly stop and listen to hear if it’s 12 foot tall hubby was sneaking up on me.
This guy is more interestng than bigfoot, nerves of steel and a deadshot like Clint Eastwood and the strength and stamina to dig a large hole like Arnold the Govenator.
Recent news break. The body of James Yarwen, local basketball legend, was found in the woods west of I 95 late yesterday. His son James Yarwen Jr. is missing. The family has offered a $1,000,000 reward for capture of the nitwit who committed the heinous crime.
Also why did he have handcuffs along on his ‘camping trip’ ?
EXACTLY! That’s the biggest “tell” in the whole tale.
BTW, it’s not illegal to carry a rifle in the woods out of hunting season. It’s just illegal to HUNT out of season.
I NEVER camp without a firearm.
“…..As far as I know there is no open season for guns right now anywhere, in the continental U.S…..”
Gun season for deer traditionally opens on August 15th in some of South Carolina’s game zones.
I had a feeling he’d be from North Jersey. Make all the Jersey jokes you want, ’cause you’re talking about North Jersey. South Jersey’s a completely different state, the rest of the country just doesn’t know it…(o:
Obviously, another johor bigfoot hoax.
True or not, and I do not believe it is a truth, I cannot believe someone would shoot one of the most sought after creatures ever! Jeez! Especially for the greed and monetary gain! What a greedy you know what.
Should this story come to truthful fruition, I hope the murderer burns in you know where as I do believe a human connection is there. AND IF a true story, bless the orphan who saw his mom killed. No wonder they are so hard to find? Look at the humans they have to deal with!
So…it’s gonna show up on ebay, huh? I wonder what the reserve will be. Maybe the auction can end early for a “buy it now?”
This guy is a moron. Kind of a creative moron, but he probably is a 40 year old nerd living in his parent’s basement.
Savage30L,
My second post acknowledged that mistake. Are those ‘early’ seasons in the Carolinas still just 3 day events ? I hunted North Carolina 20 years ago in that season. A deer still in velvet makes a beautiful mount !!
Also I agree with the posters that say they do not go into the woods without a gun. I also do not even go fishing without a gun, gators ya know, however I do not take the 30-06 or the .303 British when I camp. I take a handgun, like the 9mm, .38, or even better the .380 !! I love that .380 it is nice and small, and tucks away nicely !!
The laws in Florida are friendly to gun owners, as we can actually keep a loaded weapon in our glove boxes, so long as they are in a case, or holster.
I live in Montana so I know all about the unwritten rules of camping and hunting….this guy’s a moron.
Some posts in this thread have made me laugh, others guffaw and some just plain left me non-plussed. But the original email sent to Loren is bunk (IMO).
I’ll not elaborate on points which others have already made note of … except the “handcuffed to my rollbar” bit. What with the “Amber Alert” system, there’s little chance *any creature* could be brought across state lines handcuffed to a rollbar and not be questioned. Let alone multiple state lines.
For the record, here in Minnesota, *the only* hunting okayed in the state prior to September 1 is Crows. It’s okay to shoot a crow come July 15. After that, the earlist other okay is Mourning Doves on September 1.
Isn’t “Yarwen” the elf babe from “The Lord of the Rings”?
For one, if there is ANY bit of truth to this, what this guy needs to realize is that what is in his possession is a living, breathing creature, not a commodity to be sold on eBay to the highest bidder. And money is that important to him that he would kill a creature that was causing him no harm, just to steal it’s baby?? People like this make me sick. Myself, I don’t really believe him…. but that doesn’t change the feelings of that last statement. It’s really to bad that stuff like this happens, because it is people like this that cause cryptozoology to not be taken seriously. I think you did the right thing, Loren, by asking so many questions – if he was an honest person, and telling the truth, questions wouldn’t scare him off, would they?
No, Capt Jack:
Liv Tyler played “Arwen.”
Interestingly, Liv Tyler attended Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, as a teen.
Ah, that’s right, “Arwen”. Well, too bad this guy couldn’t have captured Liv Tyler and drove through the backwoods with HER strapped to his rollbar. THAT would have been newsworthy.
I still think this story is getting way too much publicity – it sure sounds to me like he’s bastardized “Yowie” or “Yeren” or didn’t bother to check the spelling. Unless he’s a displaced Asian he would have called it a Bigfoot, methinks.
Just think, somewhere in New Jersey right now might be a Hobbit who misses his mum…
I don’t believe this guy’s story anymore than any of you do, but just as a thought… the old Ford Broncos and GMC Jimmys had roll bars on the inside of the vehicle. The Bronco’s also came with privacy glass so I guess someone could be handcuffed to the roll bar without being noticed by people outside, especially if the vehicle was moving quickly.
Good point. The rollbar on my Jeep is inside with the hardtop on and with the tinted windows you can’t see inside.
What a ridiculous story.
Okay, first things first. The man was camping, right? But he happened to have brought a HIGH POWERED rifle with him? He must have had a very powerful weapon to take down a 8 foot tall being (weighing how much??) with out much trouble. And once that gun was fired (unless it was silenced maybe?) the youth wouldn’t have stuck around for a tear-jerking scene straight out of Bambi. Heck no. Self preservation is the instinct of all things living.
The youth was handcuffed to his roll bar in the back of his truck(?). How many campers bring handcuffs with them?? Unless they have some kinky plans or perhaps are a law enforcement official? Was the ‘yarwen’ covered? Or was a big fuzzy humanoid just hanging out in the back of his truck for all passer-bys to see?
Noise.
A trapped, wild, kidnapped ANYTHING (be it “yarwen or human or animal) will not exactly go quietly! I presume fighting, clawing and YELLING would have taken place. Unless he sedated the animal. And how did he do that?
And don’t you think IF he had captured such a creature… a simple call to the local newspaper or media outlet would get him all the money and attention he wanted?
Sounds like someone is trying to set Loren up for a humiliating fall. Or they’ve watched too much tv. I don’t think people offer millions of dollars for cryptid creatures. It’s not like the movies. Because once found, it becomes a matter of establishing what rights the creature has. Especially if it is humanoid.
So is this guy from Nigeria? Because I think he contacted me via e-mail about his father General Mamumbo’s Fortune last week.
eBay doesn’t auction live animals of any kind. This guy’s story is horrible.
Lee Pierce has my vote for the best comment on this one.
Still laughing.
Smith and Wesson Hand cuffs Web Site/This standard specifies that each handcuff shall be able to withstand a tensile force of 495 lbf without failure. The tested handcuff shall not open under load, shall not show any sign of permanent distortion or fracture and shall function in a normal manner following the test. The standard also specifies that each handcuff shall withstand 204 lbf/in for cheek plate separation. A majority of cheap handcuffs on the market don’t meet this standard. Is this important? Well, consider how strong the last really big guy you arrested was, or consider the superhuman strength of a PCP user. Any cop who’s worked the streets for a while knows of a local incident in which someone did, in fact, break their cuffs.
Heavy DandD playing, Star Wars, a rifle, and hadcuffs just don’t mix. I sure am glad this dude isn’t running around in the woods where I live.
If the story is true it is a very sad day. No wonder they are still in hiding. I can understand the caution if true. Man kills mother of endangered animal and handcuffs baby to his truck. Ransom costs are too high to pay and story so unbelievable as false names have been used.
Yet, if true I understand this man’s caution as someone that has seen one of these grand creatures.
I was taken out of context and made to look like a fool in a television documentation aired around the world. Just to make someone else money and continue to promote lies from those that know nothing about the subject. I hope the story is false if the smallfoot lives; because, as soon as anyone in power gets it they will either eat it or disect it.
“i will show nothing until i am paid for it.”
Ahhh, the strip-club philosophy of science!
I’m betting somebody didn’t have a date to his prom, and spends a lot of time in his mom’s basement with his “Yarwen” playing D&D!
I’ve never felt inclined to post anything here as I’ve enjoyed reading the posts more than posting.
I am wondering how many hits ebay has been sustaining for “Yarwen” searches?
I know this has been said before, but how horrible that he would kill the parent and take the child. Of course I am sure this is just a sick story he made up, but makes you wonder just how twisted his thinking is.
You know, I think it should be considered if even PART of this story is true. What kind of person who is clearly out of touch with reality would be out in the middle of the woods 5 states away from his home, alone, with a gun and a set of handcuffs, out of any kind of hunting season?
This guy could easily be some kind of serial killer. There’s plenty of history of such killers writing to media sources. Also, that could be part of the reason why he was so offended at all of Loren’s “Probing questions.”
I totally agree with any and all postings that advise a call to law enforcement. This guy could be pretty scary. Squatch or no squatch, he was probably out there dumping a body.
Please…this is for only those individuals who are NOT reading the blog carefully…
On the date of the noted alleged event, it was at the beginning of bear hunting season in Maine.
Also, this individual from Paterson, New Jersey allegedly says he is “in law enforcement.”