Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Bigfoot Hoaxsters Can't Be Found -- Just Like the "Real" Bigfoot

As predicted on The Sope-Bocks and other blogs, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer of bigfoottracker.com and Bigfoot Global LLC are officially in hot water for his part in the Georgia Bigfoot hoax. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports,

The two Atlanta men who stood up at a news conference in California last week and tried to convince the world they had found Bigfoot now apparently can’t be located — just like the real Bigfoot.

Searching for Bigfoot Inc., the California outfit that paid an undisclosed sum to Whitton and Dyer for rights to their story and their find, says the pair checked out of the hotel where they had been put up over the weekend.

According to a news release on Searching for Bigfoot’s Web site, the whole scam unraveled when a block of ice containing the “body” melted over the weekend. Whitton and Dyer later confessed that it was just a costume, according to the release.

Why the two Georgians contrived the cross-country con isn’t clear. What is certain is that Whitton, 28, on medical leave after being shot in the wrist by a robbery suspect earlier this year, won’t be going back to work at the Clayton County Police Department.

As soon as he heard Whitton’s Bigfoot was a big fake, “I terminated him,” said Police Chief Jeffrey Turner said Tuesday. “He’s disgraced himself, he’s an embarrassment to the Clayton County Police Department, his credibility and integrity as an officer is gone, and I have no use for him,” Turner said. “His behavior is unbecoming of that of a police officer.

This turn of events from hero to someone who defrauds a nation is just baffling. I don’t know how he got from one point to the other,” Turner said. The chief said he wants to send Whitton his termination paperwork and get his uniforms back. However, he said, “We haven’t been able to get in touch with him.

Chief Turner did the right thing in firing Matthew Whitton. Now, I wonder about the consequences that will be levied on Big Foot Towing and Auto Wholesale Ga. (Rick Dyer's car & parts sales business). Only time will tell. Keep an eye out for orange jumpsuits in this pair's future.

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