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| Canadian bus driver and 6 passengers claim they saw Bigfoot. |
"The hoax would be more important than a real Sasquatch sighting...it would teach us a lesson to smarten up." -- Rene Dahinden on the possibility the Canadian sighting was a hoax
The hoaxers eventually did fess up, but as Rene has said this is an important hoax to dissect. So that's what we are going to do. But first let's start with the sighting.
As the story goes a Canadian bus driver named Pat Lindquist, who also happened to be a reserve Vancouver city police officer, was westbound a mile east of Lake Erroch on the Harrison Hot Springs-to-Vancouver run when he saw a 7 foot tall creature with black fur and a light colored face. It was estimated to be 300 pounds, but weight estimates usually just indicate it was heavier than the average human--very hard to guess visually.
This was an interesting encounter, because not only was the creature witnessed by the bus driver, but all six passengers saw it too, some waking up to see the creature! It gets better, the driver stops the bus and gives chase. He actually gets out of the bus and catches up with the creature. In the Oklahoma City Times he describes the confrontation:
"The first thing I noticed was the smell...a horrible smell like very rotten meat. The bush was thick and I was pushing the branches apart when I saw it about 20 or 25 feet away. I just couldn't believe it."
"At first I was mad. But then I went to awe and then to fright and I began to shake. I couldn't stop shaking and then I got out of there." The smell has been a common element in the reports from numerous people who claim to have been close to the Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot.
Lindquist, who is 6-foot-2, said the thing before him was no more than seven feet tall, only "much heavier than I am." "It had flat, flared nostrils like a monkey and large, wide eyes. It didn't make any sound except heavy breathing. It had a
broad chest and it was heavy up and down."
"It could have taken two steps and grabbed me, but it didn't do anything. It didn't growl. It didn't show its teeth. It just looked at me." Lindquist said the hair on its face was a light brown and "it appeared to have the mange; the skin underneath looked kind of white."
Ten days later the perpetrators admitted on radio that it was a hoax. Now, for those of you that think that we shouldn't dissect this hoax and give hoaxers any tips. I don't think there should be a concern. Either there is evidence or there isn't, otherwise it is just a story.
This hoax was composed of a team of four individuals and took weeks to prepare for, in fact they started by selecting a bus line and planted a passenger that would alert everybody else on the bus.
The gorilla suit was bought for $200 dollars and was worn by a guy who was 5-foot-11 and 165-pounds. A far cry from the 7-foot 300-pound creature described.
This story even had footprints made from a resin cast they created based on one seen in the book
Sasquatch/Bigfoot: The Search for North America's Incredible Creature by Don Hunter and Rene Dahinden.
You can read the original article, before it was revealed as a hoax, below:
MISSION, British Columbia (AP) - A furry creature about seven feet tall lumbered across Highway 7 near this Fraser Valley community Sunday and made some believers in the legendary Sasquatch.
The sighting, 35 miles east of Vancouver, occurred as a Pacific Stage Lines bus driven by Pat Lindquist was westbound a mile east of Lake Erroch on the Harrison Hot Springs-to-Vancouver run.
The passengers and Lindquist saw ahead of the bus a glimpse of something they all described as a seven-foot tall, 300-pound beast with dark brown to black fur or hair and a light-colored face.
"At first we thought it was a prankster in a fur suit," said Lindquist, 28, a reserve Vancouver city police officer. "But people were shouting 'what is it, what is it', so I slammed on the brakes to have a look.
"To tell the truth, I thought it was someone trying to con us so I took off after it. I guess I thought I was going to pull off his hat and bawl him out. I don't know why I did it. I'm not sure I really intended to catch up with it."
Lindquist, who police here describe as "very nervous and pale" when they arrived on the scene, later described what happened when he gave pursuit.
"The first thing I noticed was the smell...a horrible smell like very rotten meat. The bush was thick and I was pushing the branches apart when I saw it about 20 or 25 feet away. I just couldn't believe it."
"At first I was mad. But then I went to awe and then to fright and I began to shake. I couldn't stop shaking and then I got out of there." The smell has been a common element in the reports from numerous people who claim to have been close to the Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot.
Lindquist, who is 6-foot-2, said the thing before him was no more than seven feet tall, only "much heavier than I am." "It had flat, flared nostrils like a monkey and large, wide eyes. It didn't make any sound except heavy breathing. It had a
broad chest and it was heavy up and down."
"It could have taken two steps and grabbed me, but it didn't do anything. It didn't growl. It didn't show its teeth. It just looked at me." Lindquist said the hair on its face was a light brown and "it appeared to have the mange; the skin underneath looked kind of white."
© Oklahoma City Times; Monday, May 16, 1977
