Packers tailgater Timothy Merry patrols Lambeau in ape costume

Bigfoot wears a size 12 shoe, isn't camera shy and has been spotted this season at Green Bay Packers home games.

That's right, the mystique of Lambeau Field gets turned up a few notches whenever Timothy Merry steps inside his massive ape-like costume to patrol the parking lot.

"It's very warm," said Merry, who is a lean 6 foot 2 inches tall but stands nearly 7 feet when he puts on the hairy creature getup. "The head is a little top heavy, so your neck gets a little sore after a while. But other than that, it's perfect to wear to games in the cold."

Merry, a 27-year-old delivery service driver and middle school ice hockey coach from Hartland, first stepped into the suit for the Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings game Nov. 14 at the suggestion of a friend — the same friend who had scored the costume from a film studio.

"He said he'll buy my tickets for the Packers game if I wore that costume," Merry said.

On game days, fans sometimes mistake Merry for Chewbacca from "Star Wars,'' but they have no fear of getting close to him.

"Girls sometimes want to be picked up off the ground. They ask me if that's my real height, because I'm actually looking out my neck," he said.

Loads of people snap photos nonstop to document their close encounter.

Some people even told Merry they planned to use it as their Christmas photo.

"Every step I took, I was turning around and taking pictures with somebody," he said of his second outing as Bigfoot in an XXL green Clay Matthews No. 52 jersey at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game Nov. 20. "Girls loved it. Guys loved it. Even fans from the other team loved it."

And the interest didn't exactly slow down once he was in his seat inside the stadium.

"Pretty much every person that passed me tried to get a picture. It was kind of hard to catch the game," he said.

Merry has been a Packers fan since the mid-1990s, when the team became a playoff contender with quarterback Brett Favre at the helm.

"I'm a Packers fan,'' Merry said. "I'm not a Brett Favre fan.''

Merry usually takes in about two games a season, but now that he's crossed over into Bigfoot territory, he plans on attending more.

"I'm pretty much going to wear it every time I go to the Packers game, and now that I have it and know how much fun it is, I'm going to go to as many Packers games as I can,'' he said.