A prank that left Wong Gai alone in the woods has led to a police search after the investigator reported seeing a large, hairy figure move between the trees.

The men who arranged the snipe hunt had already left, according to Gai’s account. They were involved in the prank; the later sighting is his report.

Gai returned convinced he had seen a Sasquatch. Chief Hootie initially dismissed the claim. Gai then asked which department would be responsible if such a subject were inside Fort Vale limits.

The department’s search statement leaves both identity and jurisdiction unsettled. It asks residents to describe what they saw without supplying an assumed species.

In his separate account, Gai distinguishes the joke from what happened after it. His companions’ intentions, he argues, cannot identify a figure they did not stay to see.

No confirmed identification appears in either public account. The Tribune’s follow-up separates the people who arranged the hunt from the witness to the sighting.