Tennessee’s Fake Tigers
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 20th, 2011
Howell Man Gets National Spotlight Over Phony Tiger Sighting
January 20, 2011A man known to Howell residents as the proprietor of Tony’s Dogs has grabbed up a bit of the national spotlight after an unusual sighting in east Tennessee. Police in McMinn County were flooded with 9-1-1 calls from motorists who reported seeing a tiger and cub on I-75. Police checked out the scene and spotted two stuffed animals watching cars go by. Drivers say they were startled by the phony tigers. Among those who spotted the Tigers was Tony Poma and his wife Beverly, who were on their way to Florida. They are the owners of Tony’s Dogs hot dog cart. Both were interviewed by a Tennessee television station (see here), and that report was then picked up by CNN, which broadcast it all day Wednesday [January 19, 2011].
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.
