Werecat? Chupacabra? Sick Fox?Something Sleek This Way Runs

Mystery Beast Prowls N.Carolina Woods

from Sploid

A bizarre creature is haunting the workers at North Carolina's Tyco Electronics campus, and they've got the amazing pictures and video to prove it.

Skeptics immediately dismissed the animal as a "fox with mange" or a Mexican hairless dog known as the Xoloitzquintle, but Tyco employees are having none of it.

Witnesses describe the mystery beast as much bigger than a fox or even the Mexican Hairless, a rare breed that reaches a maximum height of just 23 inches and is usually much smaller. And instead of a sickly, mangy fox, they say their beast is "beautiful."

The high-tech Tyco campus is a huge woodsy property in Fuquay-Varina, 10 miles from downtown Raleigh. The Tyco Animal has been spotted many times over the past two months as it strides through the fields or creeps stealthily through the brush.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has investigated the evidence and ruled that the Tyco Animal is simply a "Sampson Fox."

But the Sampson Fox seems to be as mysterious as the Tyco Animal. There are no photographs of this animal, also called the "Bastard Fox" by old-timers. The Sampson Fox was little more than a legend way back when Henry Thoreau was living on Walden Pond. Real or imagined, all reports say the Sampson Fox has hair.

While the long-necked rat-tailed mystery beast may be sleek and beautiful, it bears some resemblance to the dead "chupacabras" found in Texas in recent years.

And some say the Tyco Animal is North Carolina's mythological Wampus Cat. According to Indian legend and eyewitness reports, the Wampus Cat is a tall feline creature that can walk upright like a human and preys on livestock. In some stories, the Wampus Cat is a lycanthrope that returns to its human form by day. Area witches have long been accused of being Wampus Cats.