Man Reports Seeing Creature in Woods, Admits Upon Questioning It Was 'Getting Dark' and He Was 'A Little Scared Already'

A reported cryptid sighting in the Green Mountain National Forest has been complicated by the witness's subsequent admissions that it was dusk, he was alone, he was 'already a little scared from a podcast he'd been listening to,' and he was not wearing his corrective lenses. 'I saw something,' insisted witness Brian Peripheral, 37, a software developer from Burlington who was hiking alone at approximately 6:45 PM. 'It was standing about a hundred yards away, in the tree line. Tall. Dark. Bipedal. Broad shoulders. It was either looking at me or facing away from me -- I couldn't tell because it was getting dark and also I don't have great depth perception.' Investigators conducted a follow-up interview in which Peripheral's account grew progressively less certain. 'How tall was the creature?' investigators asked. 'Eight feet. Maybe six. Somewhere between six and eight. It was far away and there was nothing to compare it to. A tree, I guess. But I don't know how tall the tree was.' 'What color was it?' 'Dark. Brown, maybe? Or black. It was dusk, so everything was kind of gray. Could have been dark green, honestly.' 'Was it moving?' 'Yes. Well, swaying. Which could be moving or could be the wind. There was a breeze.' Peripheral also disclosed that he had been listening to an episode of the cryptid podcast Dark Forest Files immediately prior to the sighting, an episode titled 'Vermont's Hidden Primate: The Evidence They Don't Want You to Hear.' 'I'm not saying the podcast influenced what I saw,' Peripheral said. 'I'm just saying I was in a particular headspace.' Field investigators visited the site the following morning and identified a large, dark, bipedal-shaped tree stump approximately 100 yards from the trail. 'That's not what I saw,' Peripheral said, viewing a photograph of the stump. 'But I concede it's in the right spot and is the right shape.'