Report 22905: Man recalls sighting as a young boy on his way to go fishing in John A. Roebling Park near Bordentown

A friend and I were going fishing after school. This was in late spring about 5pm. We were walking down a trail around a slight bend. The trail then went straight for about 50+ yards. That's when we saw something cross our trail ahead of us. We only saw it for about 5-10 seconds but it felt like time stopped when it happened. It took one or two steps and turned and looked at us. It was traveling from our left to our right. It paused for a moment when it saw us and then it quickly moved away. I wouldn't say it ran but it moved much quicker then it did before it saw us. We just looked at each other and said what the hell is that? My friend wanted to run back down the path to the lake. I wanted to run after it. I had to keep saying let's go see what it is before he would follow me to the point it crossed our path. This took about 10 seconds. My friend followed behind me to the point where we saw it. We could see about 100 yards in the direction it went and we couldn't see it at all. I looked all around for tracks and didn't see anything other then rub marks. We didn't smell anything strange but the swamp area down there smells bad anyway. We didn't go fishing that day and just went back home. I was a little scared at first but I got really scared walking back home. On the walk back home we discussed what we saw. We knew no one would take us serious and believe us. We were just kids and we thought we would just get in trouble. We promised each other that we wouldn't tell anyone what we saw. It was over 6 feet tall but it wasn't over 7 feet. It was dark brown to black. At first I thought it was a big black guy in a fur coat until it turned slightly and looked at me. Then I knew it wasn't a bear or a man. This area connects back to Crosswicks creek and into the Fort Dix pine land area. I have often thought about this day and about the NJ devil folklore and wondered if it was the same creature we saw that day. After all these years I have only told my wife and daughter about this event.