Several different versions of this story, told to me by several different people through the years, leads me to believe that while some details may have been enhanced (as happens with any really good story) it is based on an actual event. This probably happened sometime during the 1960's.

It seems the Village of Pleasantville was in a state of high alert- a "creature" of some sort had been seen prowling the streets at night, sometimes even peeking into the homes of the good citizens there. Each new sighting would cause reports to sweep through the small town and the topic of conversation everywhere was the creature.

It varied in size from five to seven feet tall (depending on how scared the victim was) and about the only thing everyone agreed on was that it was hairy. Bigfoot hairy.

It crept around in the shadows, staying just ahead of anyone looking for it. And it must have had some intelligence, they reasoned, because it wouldn't be around when the vigilante groups were out.

There was something else that they noticed, too: a ripe, awful smell that was getting worse with each sighting. Hence, the creature was christened the Limburger Cheese Monster.

Even though it would seem that residents would be able to smell it coming, the monster still managed to roam the streets without capture. There were isolated reports of residents arming themselves with guns, and whether it was for protection or to have an unusual, though smelly, trophy remains up for debate.

After weeks of lurking in shadows and terrorizing the town, the creature finally made a mistake, was caught, and the truth was discovered: it was not a monster, just a man in an old gorilla suit playing a practical joke that had gotten out of hand.

One version has the man trying to scare his wife out of the house so he wouldn't have to split anything with her in their divorce, another has the man just playing a prank on his neighbors that escalated out of control.

At any rate, the angry residents got rid of the gorilla suit in a stinky billow of smoke, and the man involved was not well-received in Pleasantville for a very, very, very long time.

Where do you want to go? Select your destination: