LITCHFIELD —  A Litchfield man claims to have seen a yeti, or Abominable Snowman, while out walking his dog last month during a brutal ice storm that left the town without power.

He reported the sighting to the website Cryptozoology News:

“It stopped right in front of us, looked at us, growled at my dog until he stopped barking. I couldn’t see his eyes well, but they looked brown to me, but very very dark, almost black. Big mouth, like a monkey, with big sharp teeth. I tell you, a freak.”

Writer Michael Bachman created the website a year ago. He said the tip came in via an email address that only worked for a day and a phone number that also only worked for one day. But he found the tipster, whom he said had the initials “M.P.” and was “a single man working in construction,” pretty credible.

“Usually, if the source shows signs to remain anonymous it is because they are not looking for fame or glory,” Bachman said. “Most of the witnesses that give too much information end up being hoaxers looking to make fast fame and some money. I guess the majority of the credible sources that contact us have jobs and families to take care of, so they tend to stay away from creating personal controversy.”

In that vein, M.P. declined to tell Bachman exactly where in town he saw the yeti, which he claimed was covered in white hair and screamed before running off on all fours.

Michael Merchant of Hampden, currently on the Spike TV show “10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty,” had heard of that sighting and said he’s looking to collect and investigate Bigfoot and yeti sightings in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont through his Zen Yeti website.

“You’d be surprised the sightings around Turner,” Merchant said. “They call it the ‘Turner Triangle.'”

A current investigation “extremely close to Maine” involves reports of rock-throwing, large footprints with defined toes and six years of strange calls in the woods.

“Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who’s seen something that might as well be a unicorn or a leprechaun,” Merchant said. “Anybody you tell is going to go say you’re imagining something. One of the guys I interviewed, he saw one 10 minutes south of Augusta; the thing was 9-foot tall. He called police and reported it to them and he told me they laughed and hung up on him.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com