Dogs, not a lizardman, will rip your car apart

On November 21, 2023, the ABC news station in Harris County, Texas reported that two loose dogs severely damaged several cars over two nights at an auto lot. This is particularly interesting to me…

Let’s see what happened in this case, which is not unique, and I’ll take you back a bit into a fun cryptid legends that deflates under minimal scrutiny.

According to the news report:

Video shows the dogs tearing off bumpers and fenders in three separate overnight incidents from Nov. 6 to Nov. 18. Sales manager Gaby Fakhoury said at least five cars were damaged. He estimates the incidents will cost $100,000 to $350,000.

Finance manager Imran Haq told ABC13 he thought “a wolf” was possibly responsible until reviewing the footage.

“You just never think a dog has the kind of power to tear up a car like that,” Fakhoury said.

People don’t think normal domestic dogs can rip apart vehicles but the video showed that the two dogs worked together. They appeared to be after a cat that probably crawled up into the car.

In 1988, in a rural area of Browntown, South Carolina, the sheriff received a report regarding damage to the exterior of a car parked outside a home. The car parts had teeth marks. There was also hair and footprints on the vehicle. Even though these remnants were later found to be attributable to a fox, the story was contemporaneous with nearby residents reporting to have seen a seven-foot tall green or brown bipedal creature with red eyes. The creature was later known as the Lizard Man of Scape Ore swamp. I reviewed the best book about the history of this cryptid here. The sheriff himself seemed to connect the car damage to the monster-sighting. But it was always obvious to those of us not invested in the legend that the damage was reasonably caused by dogs (or a fox) trying to get at an animal hiding up in wheels or axel of the car.

Now we have another example to file away of dogs being the less monstrous (though still disturbing) cause of strange damage. We don’t have to add in wolves, chupacabras, or other monsters as the fantastic vandals.