'Bigfoot' Filmed by Tampa Canoeist: Weird Florida 2015

Editor’s note: This story originally ran on Patch in February 2015. It is just one of the pieces featured in our roundup of some of the strangest headlines covered on Patch from all over Florida this year.

An ordinary day of canoeing through the swamps at Lettuce Lake Park turned extraordinary for a Tampa man when he captured something that looks like the legendary “Bigfoot” on film.

Matthew McKamey, 28, was out on the water in late January when he came across what he thought was a bear and began rolling video, he told the Huffington Post.

Once off the water, McKamey reportedly told a park ranger about the sighting, but was informed that bears don’t typically wander into the swamps and are rather rare in the Bay area to begin with, BigfootEvidence quoted him as saying on its YouTube page.

“I never put much faith in the old skunk ape legends but when I looked closer I noticed that it had long, swinging arms and moved through very thick swamp with ease,” the website quoted him as saying. “Certainly can’t explain it myself.”

Just like Tampa fisherman John Rodriguez did at the start of January, McKamey also reached out to Huffington Post writer Lee Speigel to share news of his sighting. And, just like Speigel did with Rodriguez’s claims, he shared them with a few people known to reveal hoaxes.

See Also:

• Bigfoot Sighted by Tampa Fisherman?
• Florida Bigfoot Hunters Aided by $100,000 Research Grant
• A 2-Headed Alligator in Tampa?
• Naked Paint Parties, Ugly Dog, Gator Eats Burglar: Weird Florida 2015

Former Oregon police officer Phil Poling, who runs the YouTube channel ParaBreakdown, took the video and added a few enhancements, Speigel reported. It’s Poling’s mission to help people recognize “signs of hoaxing.”

In this case, however, it seems Poling was hard-pressed to find those signs.

“I came away from this with a distinct impression that I have no idea what it is,” Poling was quoted by the Post as saying. “It could be a guy in a costume or it could be the real thing.”

Analyst Ben Hansen isn’t so sure, especially in light of all the attention the Tampa Bay area has received recently courtesy of Bigfoot sightings. Even so, he said based on the video’s content, “there’s not much we can point to which would dismiss it outright as a hoax.”

For his part, McKamey doesn’t seem to be entirely sure what it is he captured on film that day.

“Matt agrees with us that if it’s a person, ‘they are either a moron or completely insane,’” BigfootEvidence wrote on its YouTube page. “They are walking, swimming and diving in an area where there are hundreds of 12 foot gators and water moccasins everywhere.”

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