In 2010, two teenagers in Plano, Illinois, stumbled across a bizarre, leathery-skinned creature under a police spotlight, an encounter eerily similar to chupacabra reports. But with livestock mutilations in the area and no surviving witnesses left to confirm the sighting, one question remains: did they truly glimpse the infamous bloodsucker, or something far stranger?

"Hi, Lon. As a teenager, my best friend and I were walking down the street where I lived one night (2010 in Plano, Illinois). We noticed a police officer with his spotlight shining on something, and being curious kids, we headed over to see what was happening. The officer remained in his car, but as we got closer, we saw what looked like a tall, skinny dog with leathery skin and cat-like paws or claws. Its skin was dark, and it had black eyes. As the spotlight got closer, the creature darted off, and we quickly turned to head back toward my house.

Around this time, a family friend had lost all of his chickens, which were found torn apart and scattered across the yard. Everyone suspected it was just a fox, but I believed the level of devastation was more than what a fox or coyote could cause without making noise.

Jenny and I shared our story with others as teenagers, but we were often dismissed and told we were exaggerating, that it was just a sick dog. Tragically, Jenny passed away in 2012, and I have no way of contacting the police officer to find another witness to what we saw. Now, in 2025, as an adult watching a documentary about cryptids, the description of the chupacabra closely matches what we encountered that night, and I can no longer brush it off as a mere coincidence." KT