*** FILE *** Phylis Canion holds the head of what she called a Chupacabra at her home in Cuero, Texas in 2007. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) (AP)
Call it the Chupacabra caper.
A Texas teen shot a weird-looking animal that he believes is the legendary Chupacabra.
Carter Pope, of the sleepy Texas town of La Salle, woke up and saw the beast in an open field.
"It just walked across and started shaking, slowly moving across. No hair at all on it. It's back legs were shriveled up," Pope told WOAI 4.
I mean, I honestly think it's a Chupacabra," the teen recalled.
The gruesome creature was shot three times, according to Pope.
The teen's father thought the story seemed dubious, but he was shocked by what he saw.
"I can believe it either way. I know it looks like nothing I have ever personally seen before," the surprised dad said, according to KENS 5.
According to FoxNews.com, Stories of El Chupacabra first surfaced in March 1995 in Puerto Rico when dead, blood-drained goats began showing up (El Chupacabra translates to "goat sucker").
That August, a newspaper printed an eyewitness description of a bipedal creature, 4 to 5 feet tall with spikes down its back, long, thin arms and legs, and an alien-like oblong head with red or black eyes.
That depiction became associated with the Chupacabra and reports of similar creatures began popping up throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, Mexico and Florida.
The frenzy had died down slightly by 2000, but picked back up in 2004 when something began attacking livestock in Texas. A farmer shot one of the offenders, and later more alleged Chupacabra carcasses turned up.
They looked nothing like the one originally sighted in Puerto Rico, though, and DNA tests later revealed that they were actually coyotes with a severe case of mange.
In the case of Carter's Chupacabra caper, the teen took hair and skin samples for testing to put an end to the mystery once and for all.
Contact Adrian Carrasquillo at Adrian.Carrasquillo@foxnewslatino.com or on Twitter @RealAdrianC.
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