They had a show on monsterquest where they did some test to see how much force(psi) it would take to puncture the fender, and it was much higher than any known animal bite’s psi.

It probably wasn’t a known animal, I’m guessing it was a hoaxer.

The Carolinas is also the periphery of Cherokee & other Southern Amerindian tribes who had a long standing legend of a dangerous animal known locally as the (great) anole. A giant lizard with glittering scales that could run as fast as a man, climb into trees, prey upon Indian children and dogs, but only cougars were the only animal capable of killing it. Being a former herper as other members here and having kept anole lizards, the ambiguous original modern sightings report(actually 2nd) where the green scales and 3 toes and 3 fingered hands with long claws are the only parts clearly seen, get even more interesting with a Colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers. Having reported seeing a half-dinosaur, half-man running alongside his car late one night after having spent years at the Pentagon, about to be promoted to General, Robert Cooper saw a death sentence to his military career. Google Robert Coopers police sketch of lizard man.

As engineers are accomplished technical draftsmen with moderated artistic talents, the Colonel’s sketch of the entire creature seen partially in the car attack sighting looks alarmingly like a bipedal anole lizard 7 feet tall with therapod 3 fingered digits & alligator belly, in contrast to the Western Collard Lizard which does indeed look more “Allosaurus” but with 5 toed typical lizard digits or it’s possible Western giant morphs, The Mountain Boomer & dangerous to humans “Hide Behind” the lizard as big as a bull with hind legs 10X larger than the forelegs of the Ozarks & South West.

As Iguanodons were thought quadrapeds by British Crystal Palace exhibit scientists during the American Civil War days & bipedal therapod carnivorous dinosaurs were not scientifically classified in the Western Hemisphere until the Cowboy Days… if the data on bipedal large North American reptiles existed prior to the later 19th Century….. Are OceanicsSharks much different than Devonian shark fossils?

It does seem though that lots of critters would have the ability to damage a car. Even small dogs with attitude problems can tear apart your house or apartment, after all. We should always remember Occam’s razor and look for the simplest and most direct explanation that fits the data at hand. Known animals are likely the culprit. If they had DNA evidence and photos to go with it, that would be food for thought…