I was driving down Leather Lane to Great Missenden on a bright sunny evening in late June. An animal leapt out of the hedge and crossed in front of me into the other hedge. It was as big as, or bigger than, a large dog-fox, but was glossy black or very dark grey with no markings. It had a long tail, and sprang like a cat.
What did I see?
Diana Morley
The Lee
Black Panther seen in heart of The Lee
"Don't panic" urge police
(April 2004)After repeated local sightings of the elusive ‘Black Panther’ The Newsletter is proud to bring you this World Exclusive picture of the beast, seen prowling on The Green only yards from residents’ homes – many of them containing small defenceless children and domestic animals!
The photograph was taken at approximately 2:45 pm on Thursday by a passing motorist with a motor-driven Nikon SLR, using a Canon telephoto lens, high definition film and shot at 1/60th sec., f16. “It would have been much sharper and brighter” he conceded, “had I not had such a splendid lunch at the Cock & Rabbit.”
Enlargements are being computer-enhanced to improve the resolution and will be sent to The Royal Zoological Society for detailed analysis.
Meanwhile Chief Inspector Carnaby, who has been temporarily allowed out from the Walter Mitty Institute for Psycho-neurological Disorders at Stoke Mandeville to take charge of the investigation, has sought to calm jittery residents. Speaking exclusively to The Lee Newsletter he said: “I would like to take this chance to categorically assure all your readers that what they have to bear in mind is that ... the whole thing is obviously an April Fool.