The Loveland, Ohio, creature, also known as the Loveland Frog, was sighted several times near the town of Loveland, Ohio. It has become
a famous cryptozoological phenomenon due to the widely publicized account of two Loveland police officers that claimed to have
seen the mysterious creature in March of 1972. The common telling of this story goes something like this:
On March 3 1972, an anonymous police officer was driving on Riverside Road at around 1 am, when he saw what looked like a dog on the
icy road. He pulled over, and shone his headlights on it. It suddenly stood up, jumped over the guardrail, and went down the embankment
into the Miami River. The officer described the creature as being 3-4 feet tall, about 50-75 pounds, with leathery skin, and a frog or
lizard-like face. He called the dispatcher and returned to the station. He and another officer returned to the scene later that night,
where they saw scrape marks on the hill going into the river. No official report was filed.
The second sighting occurred two weeks later. Another police officer was driving into Loveland, when he saw an animal in the road.
Thinking that it was an animal hit by a car, he stopped to move it. It suddenly stood up, but in a crouched position, then hobbled
over to the side of the road, stepped over the guardrail, while keeping his eyes on the officer. The officer then shot at it but missed.
His description matched that of the first officer, only he may have seen a tail.
Neither of the officers filed an official report of the thing, but word of their sightings leaked to the media, and the modern legend
of the Loveland Frog was soon spread across the land. A farmer in Loveland also claimed to have seen a froglike creature in March 1972.
Investigators began to speculate on a connection with the 1955 sighting of reptilian creatures, and the possibility of a secret race
of lizard men inhabiting Ohio's rivers. Some have suggested that the officers may have actually seen a monitor lizard or a
large iguana, which can be over six feet in length. But if so, these reptiles would have to be escaped from a zoo or otherwise
transplanted to the area, since they are not native to the region.
Abnormally large reptiles and reptile men have also been reported in other parts of the country, including the 'Lizardman' of
Wayne, New Jersey, and the 'Giant Lizard' of Milton, Kentucky. The most celebrated successor to the Loveland Frog in recent years
was the Lizard Man craze that swept Bishopville, South Carolina, in 1988. A man reported that a 7-foot reptilian beast with red eyes
and three-fingered appendages chased his car along a country road at over 40 miles per hour. A large number of other sightings
followed, and police officers discovered three-toed tracks.
Unfortunately for cryptozoologists, no further sightings of abnormally large man-reptiles have surfaced lately.
On March 3 1972, an anonymous police officer was driving on Riverside Road at around 1 am, when he saw what looked like a dog on the
icy road. He pulled over, and shone his headlights on it. It suddenly stood up, jumped over the guardrail, and went down the embankment
into the Miami River. The officer described the creature as being 3-4 feet tall, about 50-75 pounds, with leathery skin, and a frog or
lizard-like face. He called the dispatcher and returned to the station. He and another officer returned to the scene later that night,
where they saw scrape marks on the hill going into the river. No official report was filed.