The Dog-Headed Thing Beside the Road Had Hands Instead of Paws

A truck driver’s headlights swept across a dirt path in rural North Carolina, revealing something black crouching near the woods. At first, he thought it was a large German shepherd.

But the creature was sitting in an unusual position, almost like a person. It was eating something, and when the driver noticed how it was holding its food, he could hardly believe what he was seeing.

As the truck approached, the animal raised its canine head and looked toward him. Its eyes appeared red in the headlights, and for a moment, the driver had a clear view of something unlike anything he’d ever seen before.

The Rabbits Came First

The encounter happened on September 13, 2024, along Gum Springs Church Road near Moncure, North Carolina. It was approximately 6:15 in the morning, still dark outside, and rain was falling.

The driver was operating a tractor-trailer on his regular delivery route, with a coworker riding beside him. They were travelling through a heavily wooded part of Chatham County when several rabbits suddenly ran out of the trees and scattered across the road.

The men continued driving, passing scattered houses and stretches of thick woodland. A short distance farther along, the road curved past two residential properties separated by a narrow dirt path.

As the headlights illuminated the opening between the trees, the driver noticed an animal crouched near the edge of the woods.

He initially recognized the shape of a large dog, but something about its posture caught his attention.

Something Was Eating Beside the Woods

The creature had black fur covering its body and a head resembling a German shepherd. Instead of sitting on its hindquarters, however, it was squatting with its body held upright.

It appeared to be eating a piece of raw meat, gripping it with appendages that looked like human hands.

The driver watched as the animal brought the food toward its mouth. Its movements looked strangely natural, as though using hands to eat was perfectly ordinary for whatever this creature was.

When it noticed the approaching truck, the animal lifted its head. For a few seconds, the driver could see its face clearly before the vehicle continued around the bend.

He wanted another look, especially after seeing the creature’s unusual posture and the way it handled its food. But he was driving a large delivery truck on a narrow rural road, with work still ahead of him.

His coworker hadn’t reacted to the sight, and the driver assumed he’d missed it. Unsure how to describe the encounter, he kept quiet and continued along the route.

The Encounter Stayed With Him

The driver had spent years travelling rural roads and was familiar with the wildlife he might encounter. This animal’s appearance and behaviour were completely different from anything he’d seen before.

As he thought about the encounter, he remembered the rabbits running from the woods shortly beforehand. He wondered whether something had frightened them into the road.

The creature’s position also stayed in his mind. It had been crouching beside a dirt path that led into thick woodland, eating when the headlights caught it.

Eventually, he decided to share his experience with The Veil Project, an organization that collects accounts of strange creatures and unexplained encounters across the southeastern United States.

The driver was already familiar with the group and knew an investigator who would be interested in hearing his story. He described the encounter in detail, including the location and the brief moment when the animal looked toward his truck.

A few days later, they returned to Gum Springs Church Road to examine the area.

Investigators Return to the Road

In daylight, the driver was able to identify the location where he’d seen the creature. The surrounding properties were bordered by woods, with narrow openings leading away from the road.

He showed the investigator the dirt path and explained where the animal had been crouching. They also noticed a church and graveyard a short distance farther along the route.

The path crossed private property, preventing them from examining the ground where the creature had been sitting. They studied the surroundings from the public road while the driver reconstructed what he’d seen.

The location gave the investigator a better understanding of the encounter. Thick vegetation surrounded the opening, providing plenty of cover for an animal moving through the area before sunrise.

The Veil Project published the case on March 2, 2026, documenting the driver’s experience and the return investigation.

The description soon brought another mysterious creature to mind.

The Dogman Connection

Stories of the Dogman have circulated across North America for decades. Witnesses describe large, hair-covered creatures with canine heads and unusually human movements, often appearing near wooded roads and isolated properties.

One of the best-known cases is the Beast of Bray Road in Wisconsin. During the early 1990s, people around Elkhorn described encountering a wolf-like creature along rural roads.

Writer and investigator Linda Godfrey collected those accounts, bringing widespread attention to the mystery through her newspaper coverage in 1991.

Some witnesses described creatures capable of standing upright, while others encountered animals crouching or moving in ways that were unnatural.

The North Carolina driver’s experience shared elements with those stories, particularly the animal’s canine appearance and humanlike behaviour. But the encounter had happened so quickly that he never saw how the creature walked or where it went after.