William
Dranginis saw a bigfoot once. It was hairy, a good 7 feet tall,
and sprinting through the woods of Virginia. In the decade since
that 12-second sighting, Dranginis has dedicated himself to
getting another look. To improve his chances, the 45-year-old
surveillance and security expert from Manassas, Virginia, bought
a 24-foot mobile veterinary unit and converted it into the Bigfoot
Primate Research Lab.
So far, Draginis has spent about $50,000 to outfit the mystery
mobile with state-of-the-art gear, much of it custom-built.
He mounted a Raytheon NightSight 200 thermal camera on a 25-foot-tall
crank-up mast. (The camera can detect an animal in the dark
800 yards away.) He's also got two night-vision scopes, a surface-to-aircraft
radio, and TV monitors that can combine images from roof-mounted
videocams into one 360 degree view, or receive feeds from remote
cams in the woods. He deploys at least two weekends a month.
And still no second sighting. "Early on, I said if I could
just look into the eyes of this thing I would sell all my equipment
and get back to my life," he says. "But my main goal
now is to try to establish contact, then push for legislation
to protect the areas they inhabit." You are now exiting
Sasquatch territory. - Mark Yarm (WIRED
Magazine)
William
Dranginis saw a bigfoot once. It was hairy, a good 7 feet tall,
and sprinting through the woods of Virginia. In the decade since
that 12-second sighting, Dranginis has dedicated himself to
getting another look. To improve his chances, the 45-year-old
surveillance and security expert from Manassas, Virginia, bought
a 24-foot mobile veterinary unit and converted it into the Bigfoot
Primate Research Lab.