My story began many years ago in the city of San Diego. This encounter occurred during the Christmas week of the year 1976. I believe it was the Wednesday or Thursday of December 22nd or December 23rd,  while my Christmas was on Saturday and my birthday was on December 26th. 

When I was attending the 12th grade, I took a course in the Regional Occupation Program, R.O.P. a class in security.  A program to teach you to get a trade instead of going to college. I wanted to join the San Diego Police Department or the California Fish & Game Department. When I had my encounter with this Creature or Bigfoot event, our high school was out on vacation, but our security class wasn’t and we were working with the San Diego Police as “ride-a-longs”, at the local malls, or working at construction sites, etc.

I was sent to help out to assist with the Security Office at one of our first malls in San Diego, known as, "Fashion Valley Mall".  This was during the week of Christmas of 1976.  I was assigned to work the whole week in the evening shift hours. On the evening of our encounter, I was stationed in front of the mall and was told by Home Security on my radio to go patrol the southern parking lot of the Mall.  The South Parking Lot had a high volume of grand theft auto and break-ins within cars. Many customers would place their gifts in their cars as they continue to shop, inviting the bad guys to do burglaries.  The home Security office asked me to partner up with one of my classmates from the R.O.P.. This kid was new to our school, his name was  "Mike W*****". He just moved to California from the state of Ohio as he started the 12th grade.  He was a pretty decent guy.  Too bad, we didn’t keep in touch after we graduated. 

I met up with Mike W******, and we partnered up at the south side of the parking lot around 5:30 to 6:30 pm or so if I recall correctly.  This is around the winter season when the sun goes down early in Wintertime.  It wasn’t quite dark but the light was fair. You knew that the sun would disappear soon. We walked throughout the parking lot to protect and secure the cars while assisting the shoppers.  At about 5:30 or so, Mike met me near the back of a famous store to chit-chat a bit. We were talking about another fellow student who was pushing his religion onto me. I felt violated and didn’t know how to handle the guy who was pushing his religion on me. Back then, I was really a super shy guy at the age of 17. Mike was giving me advice on how to handle this student. 

As our conversation continued, I noticed two very large dark persons sneaking around at the very edge of the parking lot. This could be maybe 1,500 feet away from our location.  These two figures were on the back side of the West parking, which lies the San Diego River. Nothing to brag about, it’s a small river about 20 feet across and perhaps 1-2 feet deep.  The two suspicious figures were about 1500-2000 feet away from us.  Back in 1976, the mall was at least 3/4 larger than what it is today. The population of San Diego was about 550,000 people in the county, while now it’s almost approaching 4 million.

I said to Mike, "Hey Mike, look at those two guys acting kind of weird around those cars near the edge of the parking lot, you see them"? He indicated he did, and that is when we decided to run over there.  They climb down the hill to the hidden small river of San Diego among the trees. This river once ran from the mountains all the way to the  Pacific Ocean back in 1976.  Fashion Valley is 5 miles away from the Ocean. Fashion Valley itself is from a gigantic ancient river bed from the Dinosaur days. In the 1970s, it was considered to be the center of San Diego, before our city had its major growth. It was one of our first malls in San Diego.

One of us had stepped on twigs or dead leaves, making a bit of sound, and both creatures all of a sudden jumped upwards into a standing hostile position. As they spotted us, they were completely surprised that we were just standing there looking at them. They leaped up and down, making loud noises and flapping their arms up and down. Both of them grab branches to scare us or harm us. Not really sure what their intentions were. Suddenly, one of them threw a huge branch at me, hitting the ground next to my right leg, missing it by inches.  The best recall, the branch was about 4-5 feet long. This branch was thrown so hard that it sank deeply into the soil after we had rained earlier that week and the soil was moist and damp.  I'm not sure what the other creature was doing at this time, while the one creature had either warned me to stay away or to do me harm by hitting me with a branch. This was not a stick, this was a HUGE  branch. If this branch had hit my leg, it would cause permanent long-lasting damage to my leg, perhaps never walking again. The Speed and thrust of the branch were truly amazing.

I said to Mike, "HEY, let's GO"!!! "Run MIKE, Run".  So we barreled out of the river and climbed over the 20-foot grade embankment, and back on level ground. We ran halfway on the pavement, and Mike told me, "Hey, I'm going back there, I need to know more about them".  I said don't do it, they already attacked us, but he said, “I have to know more”.  So he ran back in the direction of the creatures, as I stayed in the middle of the parking lot, waiting for him to return.  He was carrying a Walkie-talkie. About 5 minutes later, he came back and said he came back telling me he chased after them but they ran away faster. We ran to the Home Security Office to report what we had just seen.

After we told our weird story to the other security Guards,  they told us that customers had reported seeing things back there.  The captain told us to never discuss this again, as this would frighten the customers.  Being kids, we didn't follow these orders, and we were asking other guards more about what others had reported. Someone told the boss of the Security Office and days later we were warned again to shut it or we would be relocated to another mall. Again, we didn't follow directions. Mike and I wanted to find a camera and take some pictures of these creatures.  In 1976, kids didn’t have cameras.  We discuss to get a hold of Jo Embery, the ambassador of the San Diego Zoo. She was famous for being on the “TONIGHT SHOW”, with Johnny Carson many times over the years. We thought if we could get someone who knows animals well, maybe they would come with us to search for these creatures. The Captain of the mall on what we were trying to do and booted us off the mall.  I would like to be hypnotized, to recall the color of fur or the features of their heads and faces. We observed them for up to two minutes.  I can draw cartoons and I would like to draw what these creatures looked like while under hypnosis.  

I had contacted a Hypnotist about ten years ago, I told her prior as to why I was searching for a Hypnotist. It was about seeing two creatures, monsters or bigfoots.  She stated she could help me if I was able to be hypnotized.  She hypnotized me and only focused on my relationship with my wife along with my WC issues. Nothing about trying to remember the events of long ago. I paid her $200 dollars and received nothing for what I wanted. I didn’t want to not pay her, facing legal action.  My wife did ask me what changed recently with me, and I said, please don’t ask. She kept asking and once I told her I had gone to see a Hypnotist, I felt like I woke up and became what I was. Heh. Recently I reached out to another hypnotist, and she did a session on the internet, failing to put me under. It felt weird to be talking to my monitor as the session went on, and felt so uncomfortable and it caused me not to become hypothesized. I just couldn’t fall asleep. Again, I paid another $225 dollars. I am tired of wasting money and not getting to the root of why I am searching for a hypnotist to take me seriously.

That’s my story, all I want is to remember the color of their fur, their voices, and the features of their skulls.  I want a hypnotist who is willing to help me remember this fading memory of December of 1976.