Florida Skunk Ape Encounter in the Everglades

I remember him leaving on a Sunday, but they returned Monday afternoon. My mom was questioning why the trip was abbreviated, and he said he didn’t want to talk about it right now, but later that night I overheard their conversation. His story was extremely brief.

When they arrived Sunday around noon, they parked the car, loaded the swamp buggy, and drove to the hunting shack. After loading all their gear, food, etc. in the shack, they decided to do some fishing to catch dinner. Upon return, they noticed that shack door was broken off the hinges and heard noises inside. One of my dad’s friends thought it might be a be an intruder or a bear and fired his pistol several times in the air. Immediately afterwards, my dad said that two apes ran out the door with food & fruit in their hands, grunting and huffing. He said their speed was incredible and in no time they were crashing through the hammock of trees that surrounded the shack.

He then told my mom that all three of them were in shock and it took a few minutes to wrap their heads around what they just saw. Eventually, they entered the shack and the apes had ransacked the cabinets and coolers looking for and eating food. He said the worst part was the smell that permeated the cabin–a wet dog garbage smell is how he defined it.

Needless to say they left shortly after packing what was salvageable, as they were too freaked out to remain there.

To this day, all three still talk about the occurrence, and when my dad recants the story, he still gets spooked by the incident. He’s never believed in Bigfoot till that day, but his story certainly made me a believer.