Every now and then our inner child jumps around like a relapsing drug addict on planet cocaine when the news showcases a wild beast like Big Foot or the Mothman that ‘proves’ to us that monsters DO exist and reality is truly stranger than fiction. Unfortunately, a lot of the times, we grow up, we learn then that news is sometimes augmented, and much like a bitter parent who tells us Santa isn’t real, we later find the magic to vanish.

But wait!

A 34-year old Conetoe, North Carolina resident and hunter named Jett Webb has bagged a beast last month: an 8-foot long, 500-pound wild boar pig. Webb first spotted the swine romping around in the manly woods of White Oak Ranch Hunting Club in Bertie County on February 28^th.

“The Mohawk down the back, the tusks really lean, the muscular big front end,” Webb said. “This is far from a domesticated docile pig that we’re used to.” Webb told WNCT-TV.

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A few years ago, the animal was captured on trail camera footage – avid hunters failed to gun down the beast, until now.

With the .308-caliber AR-15’s stock tucked in his shoulder, a calculating Webb drew a bead on the gallivanting beast from 50 yards away, tensed his index finger, and sunk one fatal bullet in one of Mother Nature’s many monstrosities.

“It was very surreal.”

“It was a shock. It was very humbling to say the least, when you walk up on a beast that big and you say, ‘Oh my gosh. I had no idea that there could be something that big running around the woods of Eastern North Carolina.’”

Mike Mansell, president of the White Oak Ranch Hunting Club noted the rarity of the hog’s size: “It takes your breath away for a second to realize how big this hog is.”

“It took up the entire bed of the pick-up truck.”

Mansell also said the wild boar population is a community of beasts that will never die: “They’re a species that is invasive. Once you have them, you’re not going to get rid of them. They just continue to multiply.”

Webb has hunted “a similar-sized” monster pig before, and, proudly displays its mounted head on a wall of the White Oak Ranch Hunting club. The other swine will be going in the stomachs of him and his family:

“We’re not going to waste anything,” Webb said.

“So that pig will provide food for me and my family for a good year.”

Webb swears the picture isn’t photoshopped.

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For you doubters, such big cases of fatty creatures aren’t unheard of; the rise and fall of the 800-pound boar named Hogzilla happened in Alapaha, Georgia in 2005, and was the subject of a National Geographic documentary.

Images via White Oak Ranch Hunting Club