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From WFAA, Dallas, Texas

Image of creature taken from sheriff's dashboard camera

A chupacabra caught on tape? That's exactly what a DeWitt County deputy sheriff said he may have done Friday while driving on a back road southwest of San Antonio.

The video shows some type of creature, which looks similar to that of a dog or coyote, running in broad daylight as Corp. Brandon Reidel followed it in his car. But while the animal may have some similarities, Reidel said from his view, it didn't look like a dog or a coyote to him.

"I've been patrolling these back roads for a long time and I've never run across anything like this until that day," he told KENS-TV, News 8's sister station in San Antonio.

Reidel said he noticed some interesting characteristics as he followed the fleeing animal.

"And you can tell that the front legs were shorter than the back legs," he told KENS-TV. "And the way it's running, it doesn't run like a normal coyote or dog would."

But what really sealed the deal, Reidel said, was when he watched the video later and got a good look as the animal turned its head towards the camera.

"When I saw it from the side, I was like that is exactly what we have been seeing in the papers, what we've seen on the T-shirt," he said of the animal's unusually long snout.

The creature was not caught.

While Sheriff Joe Zavesky told KENS-TV that he loves what the chupacabra sightings have done for DeWitt County, he said he believes in all likelihood that the creature was most likely some type of coyote-dog hybrid. However, he hasn't appeared to rule it out totally.

"I love this for DeWitt County," he said. "It has brought a lot attention to us, and I believe there is something to it."

Chupacabra sightings have been reported in Puerto Rico, Mexico and parts of southern America.

Some believe the animal lives by sucking the blood of livestock.

In July 2007, KENS-TV interviewed Phylis Canion, a rancher from South Texas who claimed to have a chupacabra's head in her freezer. KENS-TV videotaped the blue-colored creature, which Canion claimed killed animals on her ranch for years prior to its death.

Biologists at Texas State University-San Marcos tested DNA taken from the remains of the animal and found it to be a coyote.

The chupacabra has become such a legend, it has become a pop phenomenon. On Ross Avenue in Dallas, an ice cream shop is named after the creature. There are also numerous songs and at least one group named after the chupacabra.

See the video here.

KENS-TV's Chris Sadeghi and WFAA.com's Marjorie Owens contributed to this report.