The Sod Farm

I consider myself a realistic, logical person. I don’t believe in ghosts, demons, hauntings, werewolves, vampires or monsters. However, I have experienced a few things that are extremely difficult to explain. This certain event happened during the summer after my freshman year of high school. My childhood was spent growing up on eastern Long Island in New York, where much of the land was not yet developed or populated.

My friends and I were a very close-knit group. There were mainly four of us; myself (Adam), Alex, Dave & Corey. I knew Alex since we were in Kindergarten together. Our families knew each other very well and I was at Alex’s house at least three times each week. His father was an antique firearms collector and had a fantastic number of guns in his basement. He did not have any bullets, though, just the guns themselves…although he did keep one modern semi-auto pistol locked away for protection. I knew Dave and Corey for only 3 years, but we all shared common interests and we all lived near each other. Dave had a girlfriend at the time and, on this night, she joined us. We had not begun experimenting with alcohol or drugs. So to keep ourselves entertained at night, we would watch movies, play videogames, manhunt or night-time frisbee at a near-by sod farm.

The sod farm was quite large. Nearly a perfect rectangle measuring one mile east to west and two miles north to south, it was completely flat land. A small curvy road, bordered by trees, cut diagonally across the farm from the northwest to the southeast corners. The farm was kept up by some day laborers who helped maintain the sod watering machines and rip up the sod when it was ready. There were a few buildings on the farm that held tools and other machinery. I actually don’t know exactly what was in those buildings, but I just assumed that’s what they were used for. Each one was small measuring 30’x30’ and about 15’ tall. Each one also had two outdoor lights which were attached to the walls at opposite corners of the building. Besides these lights, there was no other source of illumination on the sod farm besides that of the moonlight. The sod farm had been just that, a sod farm, since I was born. But at that time, a housing developer bought up some of the land and had already started building some two-story houses. At this point in the construction, the houses were only the shell. No windows and no doors.

My birthday had recently passed and my father’s friend owned a hobby store. He had created for me this great frisbee which was made out of glow-in-the-dark plastic and also had 4 bright LED lights along the rim, powered by a little lithium battery in the middle of the disc. It was very visible at night (mainly due to the LED’s) and was quite a spectacle when spinning. So, on this warm summer night our group of friends decided to head out to the sod farm to play some night frisbee. To reach the sod farm, we had to go through a neighbor’s backyard, then trek about 300’ through a wooded area.

It was about 9:00pm, and we were almost out of the neighbor’s back yard area, when we heard someone yell: “Alex! Excuse me! Wait just a moment please!” We turned around and saw the neighbor on her backyard porch. She was an elderly lady, probably in her 70’s-80’s, and one of the kindest women I’ve met. She knew Alex as he lived across the road from her. “If you see Daphne, please try to get her back home! I haven’t seen her all day”, she said. Daphne was the neighbor’s golden retriever who, much like her owner, was a sweetheart. Alex said something like: “Sure thing, we’ll keep an eye out for her!” We continued through the woods and finally made it to the sod farm.

On the sod farm, there were these very large watering machines. Each one was about 500’ long, stretching east to west, and had a set of two large wheels every 100’ feet. They were automated during the day and would crawl slowly along the ground watering large portions of the field. Here is a photo of the type of machine I’m talking about. Each 100’ section probably weighed 2-4 U.S. tons. These machines were left out over night and resumed watering in the morning. While we were playing frisbee, Corey misjudged a throw and hit the frisbee into the watering machine. Instantly, the LED’s went dark. I ran over, picked it up but couldn’t figure out what had caused the LED’s to turn off. Either way, the frisbee was too dark without the lights, but we didn’t want to go home yet. So, all of us being musicians, we started banging on the watering machine using our hands. About five minutes into our mini jam session, we heard a loud barking noise.

We were on the far eastern side of the farm, but the north and south borders were equidistant from our location. The barking seemed to come from about a few hundred feet north of us. We all instantly figured that it was Daphne and started quickly walking north. We heard the barking getting louder, and we were all about to start running when suddenly we heard that loud yelping noise a dog makes when it’s severely injured. We didn’t hear anything else…no gunshot, no yelling, nothing. Dave yelled: “Hello?! Is someone over there?!” No answer. He yelled again…and again, no answer. At this point, I was pretty freaked out and suggested that we all head back to Alex’s. There was no contest from anyone else in the group.

The wooded area was about 400’ from us, the large watering machine was to our right and the source of the dog noise was to our left. I kept looking left. I’m not sure what I was expecting to see, but I kept looking. The houses that were being developed were about 200’ north west of us, but I didn’t see anything over there either. We had walked another few feet when we heard another dog barking about a quarter mile south of us. We all stopped, looked south, but saw nothing. It was then that I heard something moving quickly behind us. I immediately turned around…something instantly caught my eye.

My vision was pretty well adjusted to the darkness by this point, but I still couldn’t figure out what I was seeing. A light-colored figure was moving at a frightening pace, probably 30-35mph. Its movement was accompanied by a loud, thick clomping sound which I assumed was each of its steps. It was moving southward, toward the barking dog, but it was about 100’ west of us. I couldn’t tell what it was, but either way, I was extremely frightened. I wanted to turn around and run, but my body was frozen in place. One of the laborers’ buildings was west of us with one of its lights shining in our direction. The figure moved quickly in front of that light, creating a silhouette visible for only a second. It looked to be between 7-8’ tall, hunched over, ran on its two legs, had humanly proportional-length arms but had a very thick torso; its side profile seemed to be about 2’ deep. It kept running southward at high speed toward the dog’s barking, and we just watched, tracing its path through the field. It must have ducked under the watering machine since its path went right through the machine.

On the other side of the watering machine, there was another warehouse building with it’s light pointed somewhat in our direction. I figured that it would help to have a diagram of the area, you can see it here. The figure, again, passed in front of the light creating a brief silhouette, reinforcing its size and shape. I stood still, waiting to hear what I knew was coming. The loud yelping noise was horrific, but it was quick. None of us said anything for what felt like a minute, we just stared into the darkness, waiting to hear or see what was out there. Dave’s girlfriend was the first to break the silence, speaking louder than any of wanted: “Dave, I want to leave. Please, let’s go, please!” No one said anything for a few seconds. Then I heard that loud clomping/running noise. My first reaction was to turn around a bolt, but we were still a good distance away from the wooded area behind Alex’s neighbor’s house. I saw that the partially built houses were closer than the woods, so I started sprinting in that direction. I yelled to the group, but they were going towards the woods…I was running alone, and the clomping noise was getting louder behind me.

I was not a very athletic person; at 6’ tall, 200lbs, I was sweating and breathing hard within seconds. Adrenaline was pumping fast and I did not stop or slow down, I just kept running as fast as possible towards the closest house. The running noise was getting closer, maybe 100’ away, but I was quickly approaching the house. As I said before, the houses did not have any doors or windows, so as when I reached the backdoor’s opening, I ran inward, saw a staircase leading up and ran as quickly as possible. Never did I look behind me or slow down, I just wanted to find somewhere to catch my breath for a few seconds. I hid in a room upstairs at the end of the hallway. The window in this room lead out to the first story roof, which faced another unfinished house. I pressed my back against a wall near the window and waited a few seconds to rest.

My heart was beating faster than it ever had before, and my breathing was heavy…so I took a deep breath and held it in, trying to hear if it was near me. Suddenly, I heard loud, slow sounds coming up the stairs. I exhaled and took another deep breath, held it. Whatever it was, it moved slowly, heavily and what scared me the most was that it didn’t making any breathing sounds. The window was my only out, so I slowly put a leg out and touched the roof of the first floor. I then moved the other leg out of the room and crawled slowly on the roof, listening carefully. I didn’t hear anything. I stopped for a second, listening, still nothing. I looked over the side of the roof, put my feet over the side and jumped down.

Upon landing, I felt a horrible pain in my ankle, instantly realizing I sprained it. My landing came with a loud thud, so I wasn’t surprised to hear loud, quick movements upstairs in reaction. There was no way I would make it all the way to the woods. But what else was I to do? I saw another nearby house and started limping over to it quickly. Due to the ankle injury, I was basically hopping on one leg all the way there. But I made it through the garage, up the stairs and into a room. I didn’t know what to do, there was nowhere I could go, and now my injury was making an escape even less likely. The room I was now in was the one closest to the staircase, at the beginning of the upstairs hallway. I was in the corner of the room by a window. I sat down by the window, trying to catch my breath, listening intently to everything around me. Nothing…no slow, loud walking, no breathing, just some light wind. That slow, loud walking noise I heard in the other house...I suddenly heard two of those steps in rapid succession in the room next to mine. I wasn’t sure how it got upstairs without me hearing it. But, I was frozen in place, too exhausted to get up and too scared to make a sound. It started moving slowly again, towards the door of that room. My heart was about to burst, I thought I was about to have heart attack, but then I heard him.

“Adam!!! Aaadaaam!!” The voice was very familiar, it was that of Alex’s father. He was a bluegrass singer, and his voice carried more than most. Although hearing his voice was a relief, I didn’t respond. How could I? Whatever this entity was, it was no more than ten feet from me. Suddenly, I heard the loud running sounds exit the room. I looked up and saw a momentary glimpse of the creature pass in front of my room’s doorway, further reinforcing its size, shape and color. The heavy running went down the stairs and seemed to have left the house. I didn’t move at all, I just sat there, listening. During this time, I kept hearing Alex’s father and the rest of my group yelling my name. That loud clomping sound returned, but this time it was going away from me, in the direction of the voices. What I heard next was the first thing to actually make me jump that night.

Three gunshots. A few seconds passed, and two more gunshots rang into the night. I kept quietly still. “Jesus fucking Christ, man!”, yelled Alex’s father. I waited for what felt like minutes, but was probably only seconds. Everyone began yelling again: “Aaaadaam!!” However, I kept quiet and didn’t move. I just listened to the voices as they kept approaching my location. Then when I heard them within 100’ or so, I got up and looked out the window toward the sod field. I saw the group, with a few flashlights, so I yelled back: “I’m in this house!! Upstairs!!” They saw me and darted in my direction. I turned around from looking at the window, expecting to see some horrible creature staring me down. But, all I saw was the empty, dark, unfinished room. I heard them running up the stairs. This sound was so much different than the loud, heavy sounds that the other thing made. Alex’s father came into the room, ran over to me, and asked me if I was okay. I told him about my ankle and he helped me up off the ground. I asked him if he shot it and he responded: “I’m not sure what I shot. I don’t think I hit it, though. It ran off real fast. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

They helped me out of the house, across the sod farm, through the woods and then through the neighbor’s backyard. Police were waiting for us…the old woman heard the gunshots and called 911. We all gave our account of what happened, but the officers seemed extremely skeptical, asking each of us if we were drinking or doing any drugs that night. We answered honestly, and the police went onto the sod farm to see if they could find anything. It was about 11pm at this point and I was completely exhausted, so with Alex’s help, I limped back to my house and fell asleep on my couch.

The next morning, I went to Alex’s place and spoke with his father. He explained that the cops did not find any dogs or blood, but they did find large divots in the sod leading toward the house next to the one in which I was found. To this day, Corey thinks it was some type of large horse that had gone crazy or something. Alex, Dave and his girlfriend think it was a large, horrifically mutated wolf. I tend to think that is the best explanation at this point. Whatever it was, since then, none of us return to the sod farm at night.