Bigfoot Encounters Bigfoot deal gets hairy, legally EXPERT SUES LOCALS OVER PAY, COLLECTION |
By Dan Reed for the San Jose Mercury News July 19, 2006 Bigfoot -- that bashful, large lug of a hairy monster -- is causing trouble among his believers. Not that he -- or she, or whichever -- ever did anything to anyone except pose for really fuzzy pictures, leave mammoth footprints in remote areas and never get caught. But late last week, C. Thomas Biscardi, a Redwood City man who bills himself as a "World Renowned Bigfoot Researcher,'' sued the Great American Bigfoot Research Organization, its president and vice president. The group was established last year ``to track, study and learn about the Bigfoot creatures that are believed to inhabit North America.'' Biscardi, who's been in the Bigfoot business for 33 years, says he was supposed to be paid $250,000 to ``lend his experience, knowledge and reputation,'' to conduct ``Bigfoot expeditions,'' and to provide the group with use of his library -- which consists of things such as plaster footprint casts, films, photos and sound recordings. The group, the lawsuit claims, paid him only $65,000 and won't give back his stuff. Dennis Kazubowski, the San Jose lawyer representing Biscardi, said he'd been negotiating with the attorney for the defendants, North Bay residents Carole Rubin and Robert Shorey, for the return of Biscardi's library, but then ``the attorney quit because he wasn't getting paid.'' Neither defendant could be reached for comment. ``They return Tom's property and the lawsuit is dismissed in a minute,'' Kazubowski said. For the uninitiated, Bigfoot -- sometimes also known by the American Indian name Sasquatch -- supposedly roams the wilds, can be as large as 8 feet tall, 800 pounds . . . and is believed by most of the adult world to be a myth. Nonetheless, there is a core of true believers, including Mike Rugg, who runs a Bigfoot museum in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The big bipeds are a wily bunch. No human has ever been able to catch one. But somehow, the opposite sexes of the species seem to be able to find each other, fall in love and produce little Bigfeet. Last year, Biscardi led an expedition to find Bigfoot at Happy Camp, in the Klamath River Valley, in far Northern California. He had a pay-per-view Webcast. The seemingly sure-fire plan was to nail the big fellow with a stun gun, keep him in a zoo for 90 days so a medical team could study him, then release him back into the wild. No luck. The Mercury News reached Biscardi by cell phone Monday. He was Bigfoot hunting just outside Paris, Texas. He didn't much want to talk about his lawsuit, which he considers his ``private business.'' But he was in a high state of excitement. The crew had a Bigfoot sighting Sunday night. Biscardi said they had found a spot that looks like ``Jurassic Park,'' and saw -- guess who? -- yep, Bigfoot. Biscardi said he's had five ``close encounters'' with a Bigfoot in his career, but nothing like this. ``I gotta tell you something,'' he said, ``this is the largest thing I've ever seen in my life.'' Biscardi said television captured its image and he figures the find will hit the national news today or Thursday. Stay tuned. Portions of this website are reprinted and sometimes edited to fit the standards of this website |