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United States Postal Service truck driver Gary Rutherford Jr. was left shaken while completing his route on Oct. 5 when he claims he saw what appeared to be Bigfoot.
The 42-year-old was transporting mail in a 24-foot truck along on Highway 24 south of Glasford in rural central Illinois when he encountered Bigfoot walking on the side of the road.
Rutherford, who says he drives this same route six days a week, has since gone viral thanks to a TikTok video shared by the Bigfoot Society podcast which has now been viewed over one million times.
Rutherford was so shook by what he saw that, according to the Peoria Journal Star, that he began doing research online, found a message board, and posted about his Bigfoot encounter.
“I’m not calling it Bigfoot, the investigators have concluded that’s what it was, and I accept that,” Rutherford said. “All I know is, it scared the absolute hell out of me. I can’t get it out of my mind. I thought about it for days and felt like I needed to tell someone, report it. That’s how I ended up online.”
His report ended up being noticed by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), who then spoke to Rutherford about what he saw and filed a report.
“I spoke with witness Gary Rutherford at length. He works as a truck driver and was not shy to let his name be published with his report. He knows what he saw,” BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker wrote in his report.
“He drives this same route four times per day, six days per week. He drives for a private trucking company contracted to the US Postal Service. The trucking company transports loads of mail between postal centers in various nearby towns. He rises at 4am to begin work early.
“The exact time of the incident was closer to 5:50AM. On weekdays he says there is a lot more vehicles on this highway compared to Saturday morning at this same time. This incident occurred on a Saturday morning.
“He says the Bigfoot was very close to the edge of the road on the south side of Hwy 24. The nearby woods borders some protected marshland between the highway and the Illinois River (see maps).
“The Bigfoot was facing across the highway as if preparing to cross there. The headlights from the truck lit up only the lower half of the figure as he passed by, but he could still see the rest of figure. It had very dark fur.
“He says it must have stood roughly 8 feet tall because its head was at the same height as his own head as he sat in the cab of a big truck.
“He described what he thought was bright eye reflection — ‘yellow-ish orange eyes.’ When I said other people have described ‘amber colored eyes,’ he said that it is exactly what he was trying to describe.”
Moneymaker also noted that there have been at 25 recorded sightings of Bigfoot in that particular wooded area of Illinois.
@bigfoot.society BIGFOOT FOUND – PEORIA, ILLINOIS AREA (10/05/24) Source: bfro.net – Report 77743 Have you seen Bigfoot in this area? #bigfoot #sasquatch #illinois #illinoischeck #peoria #chicago #publishtoall ♬ original sound – BIGFOOT SOCIETY / bigfoot guy
Numerous people on TikTok also reported similar Bigfoot sightings in the area.
“I work just down the road from there. You should look up the Cole hollow road monster. Big foot was spotted in that area in the 70’s,” one viewer commented.
“I’ve seen something that resembled Bigfoot after leaving a race at Spoon River Speedway, SAME AREA!! Didn’t even think about it at the time. Thought I was seeing things!” someone else wrote.
“I remember being told of Bigfoot sightings by people who lived in between Creve Coeur and East Peoria. They would see him walking around the woody areas near their houses,” read another comment.