BFRO #2782: An Interview with a San Diego Sheriff's Sergeant Regarding a Series of Incidents after the Laguna Fire of 1970

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"The Zoobies" -- 1992 interview with Sgt. Doug Huse, San Diego County Sheriffs DepartmentMONEYMAKER: Okay, just go ahead and tell me about yourself, when you started working there and so on. HUSE: I started working the Alpine area (east of San Diego, California) in March of 1970. I came to the department the previous year. I was working out there in a patrol capacity for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department I was a deputy at the time and actually worked Alpine for about 2 years, from March of 1970 to April of 1972. As far as trying to recall exactly when this went down, the best I can come up with is that it was after the Laguna fire of 1970 ... September of 1970. MONEYMAKER: The Laguna fire affected which areas?HUSE: Well, it was the largest brush fire at the time in California history, and burned specifically in the Sweetwater River area from east of Alpine all the way south and west, probably another 15 miles. It was quite an extensive burn and through the area in question, Alpine, on the south side of Interstate 8. To recall the chain of events, it was extremely cold which means the time of year would've been sometime after September of 1970, probably December or January, maybe February...let's see, that would be 1971 ... well, it was definitely winter. MONEYMAKER: Was that about the time of your first contact with the key witness, Dr. Baddour (prominent San Diego psychiatrist)? HUSE: Yes, and I don't recall the reason, but Dr. Baddour was stopped by a two-man patrol unit. Baddour was traveling eastbound, which would've been from the San Diego area to what we learned later was his home in Alpine. On the front seat of his car, I don't remember what kind of car it was, he had a loaded .44 magnum revolver with a 6-inch barrel. That's the same type of gun that Dirty Harry made famous. It's the largest caliber hand gun you can buy. Of course this piqued our interest a little bit. I wasn't the contact, I was what we call the cover during this particular stop. My partner's the one who made first contact and found the gun. He secured the revolver and was asking the doctor, who'd identified himself as Dr. Baddour, why he was carrying the weapon. Baddour said it was because of a ... and I don't know what he actually said at the time, but my partner heard him say, "Zoobie," ... and so from there on all our conversations throughout the department referred to whatever Dr. Baddour had seen as a Zoobie. That wasn't what the doctor actually called it, I don't believe, but that's what my partner heard and that's how the name got coined.MONEYMAKER: At the time did Dr. Baddour describe this Zoobie to the officer? HUSE: Yes, he did, to both of us as a matter of fact. He described the Zoobie as a large, upright, walking hairy creature. Dr. Baddour convinced us and later other members of my department, including one of my patrol sergeants, that in truth he'd had three separate encounters with the Zoobies. MONEYMAKER: Did Dr. Baddour say how many of these Zoobies there were and where the sightings happened? HUSE: Yeah, one sighting was made by his entire family within the confines of his yard and immediate area, and at one time they saw three Zoobies. What Dr. Baddour described to us was what he assumed was a father, mother and child with the largest of the Zoobies being over 6 feet tall, maybe 7 feet tall. The tallest was very hairy and much larger-framed than an ordinary man. What he described as the mother was about 5 feet tall, and the smaller one was about 3 or 4 feet tall. Like I said, the doctor convinced a number of us that he'd in fact seen something unusual. What happened then was that we did get involved in an investigation of the sightings. I did because of the shift I worked which was either 10 p.m. at night to 6 a.m., or what we called the evening or overlap shift which was from 6 p.m. to 2:30 in the morning. Neither of those shifts was conducive to interviewing citizens in the area, so I wasn't able to locate other witnesses, and I can't recall if I ever talked, to a deputy who canvassed the area looking for witnesses. MONEYMAKER: How many people lived in the area at the time? HUSE: There were very few homes, probably 5 or no more than 6 residences, and Baddour's was the last home on the narrow road. Going back in my memory 20 years now, I'd say his house was a quarter to a third of a mile off the main road used to get to his place, almost in a straight line due south of Alpine Blvd. That area hasn't grown much since then, no planned residential development in there. At that time the Baddour family themselves consisted of the doctor, his wife, a daughter and a son. The daughter was 17 and the son was younger, maybe 13 or 14. MONEYMAKER: Can you describe what the terrain looks like, is it actually alpine forest, etc.?HUSE: It's not a forest by any means, the elevation's no more than 2300 feet. The road goes east and up, and in about another 20 miles it eventually climbs to about 5000 feet. MONEYMAKER: Does

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