Across the road into the mist

01

The Encounter

Craig Jenkins said that he served with Suffolk Constabulary in the Lowestoft division between 1978 and 1985. On a winter night patrol he was driving north on the A12, just beyond Blythburgh, when a very large black dog charged from trees on the western side of the road.

He braked and watched it cross ahead of him towards the marshes. He compared its size with a child's pony and its build with a rough-coated mongrel crossed with a wolfhound. Moonlight and the open road gave him a view lasting perhaps half a minute before the animal ran into mist over the marsh.

Jenkins later became a police dog handler and said the animal was unlike any dog he had seen. This is a witness's retrospective account, not a recovered constabulary report. His police service supplies context, not official confirmation.

02 / Historical context

First recorded account

The detailed statement was submitted to an East Anglian black-dog research website and survives in a later forum quotation. The original submission page is no longer readily recoverable.

Later researchers mention Jenkins among A12 and Blythburgh reports, sometimes saying there were several experiences. Only this one detailed road-crossing statement has presently been recovered, so the archive publishes one encounter, not several.

“like no other dog I have ever seen”

Craig Jenkins, retrospective statement preserved in a later quotation

03

What the record supports

• Craig Jenkins is named and gives a service period, patrol setting and clear road location.
• The animal crossed the road from west to east towards the Blythburgh marshes.
• He described exceptional size, a wiry or shaggy coat and a wolfhound-like build.
• The account reports no attack, pursuit, sound, glowing eyes or physical trace.

04

Later accounts and changes

Descriptions of a former policeman seeing Shuck are apt to sound like an official case. No duty log, incident number or constabulary record has been produced. The statement is personal testimony made later.

The mist is part of the landscape and of the witness's account. It should not be turned into a claim that the hound dissolved or vanished supernaturally.

The comparison with a pony describes size. It does not mean the animal stood pony-high at the shoulder, a measurement Jenkins did not give.

05 / Source audit

How this record was checked

These are the checks behind the dossier. They show what was inspected, what it establishes and where caution is still needed.