Report 11812: Twilight sighting on the west side of Lakeland

I just read one of these stories and I wanted to let you know about an incident that happened in the early fall of 1974. I still remember it clearly even though it has been 30 years.  It took place on the West side of Lakeland, Florida in Polk County.  This took place about 8 miles from the Saddle Creek area near Lake John which is at the end of Willow and Redwood Avenues. The area at that time was significantly more rural than today and there was wooded, swampy area nearby (the end of Cleveland Heights Golf Course).  I could show you specificaly on a map, but it was just northwest of Willow Ave.  We were sitting outside looking toward the northwest. The sun had just set. We heard wood being chopped or tapped just behind the house on the other side of the street. The sound was muffled- further away than the house.  We stood up and looked to see if we could see anything behind the house when something that looked like a very large upright monkey crawled up one of the pine trees and jumped to another one.  It looked around for a moment and jumped down; what must have been 20 feet.