Cpl. Brandon Riedel told KSAT in San Antonio he was in the midst of a training session Friday with a new recruit to the DeWitt County Sheriff's Department when they saw the animal running down a dirt road. He grabbed his video camera.

"You need to record something like this because it's not every day you find something that looks like this running around out in the middle of the county," he said.

Riedel is not completely convinced the animal is a chupacabra. It has a long snout that looks coyote-like.

Last year, a rancher found a carcass he said appeared to be a chupacabra. Some residents say there is no point in being too skeptical.

"It's like every good urban legend," Erik McCowan said. "Maybe it's better to just think it is the chupacabra and just leave it at that."