Ah, a trip down memory lane.
Came across this story some months back in the archives of the Baker County Press. Thought I’d submit the story for our newer readers. The original story was run in March or April of 2002.
Killer Kangaroo Seen In Baker County
[edit: Though the actual story carried full names, the resubmission below uses only first names, with exceptions of sources of reference.]
Skunk Ape, Swamp Monkey, Bandersnatch, Bugger, Killer Kangaroo
All are names ascribed to strange and exotic animals people claim to have seen in various parts of the South and South America. The last one was given to a creature that at least three people say they saw in recent months north and south of Glen St. Mary.
The Killer Kangaroo
Either the sightings of an enlarged and more frightening version of the Australian marsupial as described by those who claim to have seen it is a hoax perpetrated by people who hang around the EZ Stop Food Store north of Glen, or there’s something to it. “I know people think I’m nuts, and that’s why I never said anything to anyone at first,” says Mark, who swears he saw the creature cross in front of his car on CR 125 just north of I-10 near the power lines.
“It was a Saturday morning in late January about 1:30. I went to the Exxon [now Citgo] at I-10 because I ran out of cigarettes. I was on the curve and there was a ground fog. I saw this animal moving from east to west across the road, and at first I thought it was a person, and then I said to myself, “It’s a kangaroo!”
Mark said the animal was 5-5 ½ feet tall and standing on thick, muscular hind legs. Startled by the headlights, it dropped onto short front legs and ran into woods off the west shoulder. “It was more like it lunged,” recalls Mark. “I wasn’t believing what I saw so I doubled back over to Taber Blvd. and turned south back to the power lines. I sat there thinking it would cross Taber heading west. I never saw it again, and I got spooked just sitting there. Something told me to go on home.”
And this is where the E-Z Stop comes in. Mark said he kept the sighting to himself for fear of being ridiculed until one morning at the store he frequents for morning coffee. Judy, also of Glen, was behind the counter that morning about a month ago. Mark spilled the beans about the creature and she didn’t say much. He sensed she was affected by his tale, which he didn’t expect her to believe anyway. “She was acting weird and then she just kinda blurted it out: ‘I saw that thing too!’”
Convinced they saw the same animal, and they weren’t crazy, the two enlisted the help of afternoon clerk Darcy, an amateur artist. Based on what turned out to be remarkably similar recollections of the animal’s appearance, Darcy sketched out a likeness on a white paper bag.
Judy’s description was a bit more graphic, based on a sighting she claims occurred north on CR 125 near Junior Burnsed Rd. on a rainy evening, the last Friday in February. “I was coming from Cuyler Field and it raced in front of the truck,” she recalls. “It was standing on its back legs, and it went to all fours when it got on the side of the road. I said to myself, ‘Okay, Judy, you really didn’t see that.’ It had a long snout, big eyes, big muscular legs and long teeth. I saw claw-like nails at the end of its hands and standing up it looked like it was six feet tall. It made my heart race.”
She insists she told no one about the incident until a month later when Mark started talking about his experience at the store.
There’s more.
Judy says a customer at the store several days later appeared startled when he spotted the drawing on the paper bag laying on the counter. “He asked what it was and I told him about Mark and me seeing it, and I swear the hair stood up on his arms. He told us he’d seen something that looked a lot like it just before he exited I-10 near CR 125 several months ago. He said it wasn’t a bear, a dog or a big cat.”
Both Mark and Judy say the man, whose name they do not know, has been in the store several times the past week. Last time, they told him about talking to The Press about the sightings and he indicated he would be willing to talk about it. He has never contacted the newspaper.
Herbert, who lives north of Glen near Judy’s sighting spot, discounted the possibility that some of his goats may have fallen victim to a powerful, carnivorous animal the past year as suggested by Mark. “I think that’s a bunch of hooey. I’ve had goats killed by I’m nearly positive it was coyotes.”
Mark first thought what he saw may have been a kangaroo on the loose from the property of BCHS teacher Ed Zoll, who is known to keep exotic animals in the Hills of Glen where he resides. Mr. Zoll also discounts the reports, but remembers he did have a kangaroo run off the property about ten years ago. “He got out and came back two days later wanting to get back in again; they know where they’re better off,” he remarked with a laugh.
Patrick Knowles, an officer with the Fish and Wildlife Commission who patrols Baker County, says he is unaware of any sightings like this. The most common of the creature-mania sightings in Florida occur in the southern part of the state and often involve cat-like animals.
Mark believes the Killer Kangaroo might be a mutation loose from a government sponsored cloning farm, but backs off further speculation for fear it lessens the credibility of his January encounter in south Glen. “I know what I saw and I’d never seen anything close to what I saw that morning—not in a zoo, not on the Internet, not anywhere.”
These are apparently the only reports of creature sightings in this part of the state in recent memory, with the exception of one last week.
The Florida Times-Union recently reported several persons in the Cedar Hills Estates neighborhood of west Jacksonville alarmed over a large, Bigfoot-type creature roaming through back yards. One said he gave off “a staggering odor” and was “really gross”. Nearby, the man-ape was seen walking in another yard, six feet tall and naked. He set the dogs off barking wildly.
The article concluded with a report of a missing husband in that same neighborhood, last seen by an estranged wife lounging in his easy chair drinking beer and watching “one of those Planet of the Apes movies.” He was naked. The wife was quoted as warning the husband before she left that she would live him over his slothfulness and drinking.
