It looked like something right out of a 1950′s horror flick, only this little booger was real; and in this instance, when I say “booger” I don’t mean a ghost or hobgoblin. I mean an actual booger… as in mucus.

The video went viral right after a sewage company captured the strange “creature” using a small remote camera, sent down into a pipe network beneath a small shopping center near Raleigh, North Carolina. What they filmed startled them; a strange, brain-like, quivering thing which retracted with haste every time the camera drew near. The web was in an uproar over the North Carolina “blob”, with excited talk about “a new species” popping up in various locales. What was the strange “sewer monster” they had filmed?

As it turns out, the monster was actually dozens–if not hundreds–of smaller creatures, working in co-habitation. “They are clumps of annelid worms,” one individual wrote after the cluster’s identity was revealed. “Almost certainly tubificids. Normally these occur in soil and sediment, especially at the bottom and edges of polluted streams. In the photo they have apparently entered a pipeline somehow, and in the absence of soil they are coiling around each other.” Even with this new understanding, the “sewer booger” was no less disgusting (if you’ve read this far, you might as well claim your reward and view the creature by clicking here).

Having overcome our disgust at this strange subterranean cluster of critters, we might stand to learn something from it in retrospect. After all, at a glance, this circumstance presented even the most well-trained cryptozoologists and Fortean experts with a potential “unknown.” One must therefore consider whether there might be other instances where reports of “strange creatures” result from misidentification.

One of my favorite stories of what sounds, at a glance, very much like a Yeti waving down cars right by the side of the road came from no place else than that of the great Gonzon poet himself, Hunter S. Thompson. In his seminal book Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72, Thompson described speeding along the Pennsylvania Turnpike on his way to Washington D.C. when “suddenly out of the darkness in the corner of my right eye I glimpsed what appeared to be a white gorilla running towards the road.” Somewhat shaken by the beast he’d seen darting toward him, Thompson lurched his car off to the shoulder and, armed with a flashlight and his trademark .357 Magnum, headed back up the road. “My instincts were purely humanitarian–but what about that Thing I was going back to look for?” As luck would have it, the “gorilla” had been one of two slightly inebriated young men with a blown out tire; fortunately for them, Thompson hadn’t finished his entire bottle of Wild Turkey yet either, and decided to help them and join them for coffee afterward.

No less, many reports of Bigfoot transpire in much the same way: someone is driving alone late at night when a strange apparition, hair covered and enormous, lunges toward their moving vehicle as the speed down the road. Traveling at any speed over 30 miles per hour (let alone the drunken 70 or better Thomspon had been traveling), trying to decipher the identity of any massive creature–Bigfoot, bear, or otherwise–might become a sudden challenge.

Unless, of course, you’re Rick Fisher, an independent tour guide and paranormal researcher living in Pennsylvania today, perhaps only miles from where “Thompson’s Gorilla” was seen by the Great Gonzo back in early ’72. Years ago, while investigating reports of a “Wookie” that was causing a stir in his hometown, Fisher had been called to examine a strange set of footprints of extraordinary stature traveling through the soft mud in a drained lake bed. It was winter, and Fisher was amazed to discover that the trail led right down to the deepest part of the lake which, in its drained state, still held close to seven feet of water in a deep pool near its center. The culprit has continued right into the water, stomping along through the pool and continuing along on the other side as though there had been no water there at all!

Hearing this story as Fisher told it at a Bigfoot conference in Ohio years ago, I found it damn near unbelievable, and hurried over to chat with him afterward. “Well, it gets even weirder,” he assured me, only after expressing that the end of the story was so bizarre that he preferred not to even include it with his presentation. “Weeks after the incident at the drained lake, I had been driving along next to a corn field when, suddenly there in the road just in front of me was Chewbacca the Wookie.” Fisher described a gigantic, hair-covered humanoid, so thin that it looked malnourished, strolling down the highway in front of him.

“I wanted to pinch myself. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Fisher told me. “And at that very moment, just as it was dawning on me what I was actually seeing, the thing vanished.”

“What?” I asked him, confused.

“It didn’t leap off to the side of the road, and I never took my eyes off of it. Right there in front of me it just vanished. Poof, and it was gone.” Fisher seemed just as troubled by his explanation, or lack thereof, a I did. “See,” he added, “that’s why I just don’t tell people anymore, especially at conferences like this.”

Indeed, there are certain instances where normal things are mistaken for abnormalities, as in the case of Hunter Thompson’s white gorilla or the “booger monster” of Raleigh. And yet, however strange and anomalous something like Bigfoot might be accepted to be outright when taking into consideration the possibility that it exists, stories like Rick Fisher’s leave us questioning whether or not even the tangible aspects of Earth’s mysteries are what they seem to be. What if certain cryptids weren’t even terrestrial as we know life on Earth to be, but were instead strange entities capable of lapsing between dimensions? If nothing else, it provides a little food for hungry minds… but the answers we seek will inevitably remain elusive.

Attack of the Amorphous Monster: When Things Aren’t What They Seem is a post from: Mysterious Universe

It was around 7 PM, and I was crouched in the middle of a remote country back road, forming a natural bridge between two haves of a brackish pond in a swamp outside Great Falls, South Carolina.

Timber rattlers and Water Moccasins are prevalent in the area during late spring and summer, particularly here in swampy bottoms around the fall line. I’m carrying a walking stick made from tough, dried pine, flexible enough to scoot even a large snake off to the side without harming it… but capable of dealing a death blow in the event that any of my scaly new friends refuse to share the road.

My curiosity brought me here–if not the notion of another kind of scaly critter said to be living in these parts. A subject of interest to those who might gather around nighttime bonfires in the neighboring counties, I’m skeptical of its existence… likely just rooted in local folklore and urban legends. However, I’m not one to take any chances either; across my left shoulder is a pump-action Remington 870 Magnum 12 gauge. The barrel has a full-choke built in, and although this gun is favored by turkey hunters in hunt clubs throughout the region, this evening it’s serving as my designated insurance policy. Wild hogs would be less intimidated by my walking staff than the snakes… but then again, there’s a chance there’s something even scarier than a charging hog lurking out here.

Back in the 1980s, a strange rash of stories began to emerge from the backwoods around Scape Ore Swamp in nearby Lee County. It started in June of 1988 with a late-night encounter described by then-teenager Christopher Davis, who told the local news about a “monster” that chased him down a country road on two legs; clawing at his car as it ran alongside him until he exceeded thirty miles per hour. Soon, locals throughout the community began to describe seeing a large, human-like creature which, although it closely resembled descriptions of “Bigfoot” and other alleged ape-men reported around the country from time to time, instead bore a curious identifying characteristic: scales.

Dubbed “The Lizard Man of Lee County,” it became a media sensation, and to this day, folklore surrounding its presence in the area has lent itself to T-shirts, television commercials, and every manner of odd merchandising. And yet, in spite of the tongue-in-cheek associations made with the thing, many swear it actually did exist–whatever it was.

Like a real-world Creature from the Black Lagoon, one man who witnessed the creature standing near an open tract of property he was working on described it as “something prehistoric.” Another believer was Liston Truesdale, who at the time served as Sheriff of Lee County. Fascinated by the odd reports locals were sharing, he began taking the story seriously, compiling thick folders full of newspaper clippings, witness sketches, and testimonies of those who claimed to have seen the monster.

And then, it just vanished.

As quickly as all the hype had begun, it quickly subsided by the end of July that year, nearly coinciding with one local radio station in the area offering a 1 million dollar reward for anybody who could capture the creature alive. Of course, they were certain they’d never have to pay up, and as I cut through an open field adjacent to an overgrown duck pond, I ponder what might have been the real story behind such a strange legend. Had the people in nearby Lee County really seen a large, unidentified reptilian creature of some sort, or were the stories merely fueled by pranksters and merrymakers who sought to have a laugh at the expense of their more impressionable neighbors? The Scape Ore Swamp, once vast and remote, is now much smaller, surrounded by condominiums and highways. Perhaps the thing, whatever it was, retreated to more secluded areas… as I glance at the pond to my right, barely visible though the trees and thick undergrowth, I imagine this might rank high on the list of such places (see image below).

Suddenly I hear a noise, growing and gurgling so loudly that, at first, I think it’s the sound of a truck coming in off the road behind me. I turn to look, but there’s no vehicle. No, this is the sound of something churning through the water nearby–something huge–and something headed directly towards me.

It’s hard to fathom what’s occurring, and my mind races to try and discern what’s about to come stomping out of the water and crash into the field beside me. Accompanying the growing splashing noises, I also hear odd shrieking; a call not unlike other animal noises I’ve heard, but not identifiable either. I’m wearing full camouflage, and for an instant I consider dashing back across the field into the tree line, where I might find a point of concealment. The splashing continues, and whatever I’m hearing sounds huge… and pissed.

A cool breeze is blowing, but with the fear building in me so suddenly, I notice sweat is now forming on my brow. I pull the shotgun off my shoulder, turn off the safety, and without turning my back to the pond and the thing–whatever it is–moving through the water towards me, I break into a half-run, opting to take my chances at facing the beast with the ultimate hope I can cross the field and get up the bank to where the road continues above me about 150 yards away.

Whether or not some slimy relic of a bygone era is what pursues me, the threat of a charging hog, paired with the cottonmouths I’ve been warned about with heads the size of human fists lying in the tall grass, are daunting enough by themselves. Finally, I make it to the base of the hill, and glance carefully at the ground for snakes before trying to peer through the brush, hoping for a glimpse of this large creature that had startled me so badly. Instead, there is only silence, and the soft sound of the breeze beating the pines that line the hill a few yards away.

As I make my way toward the road above, my heart is still beating at the thought of encountering a beast I’m ill-equipped to face alone in the woods, and I’m reminded again of the encounter Christopher Davis had in the summer of ’88. “I looked back and saw something running across the field towards me,” he had told the press. “It was about 25 yards away and I saw red eyes glowing. I ran into the car and as I locked it, the thing grabbed the door handle. I could see him from the neck down – the three big fingers, long black nails and green rough skin. It was strong and angry.” Davis attempted to start his car and make a getaway, but the creature pursued him. Looking in his mirror, he described seeing “a blur of green” chasing him. “I could see his toes and then he jumped on the roof of my car. I thought I heard a grunt and then I could see his fingers through the front windshield, where they curled around on the roof. I sped up and swerved to shake the creature off.” Recalling such details of the Davis story, perhaps I’m luckier than I realize to have made it to the hill without further incident.

Still, many would assume that Davis had been lying about his encounter; after all, how on Earth could anything so strange, let alone so large, manage to exist… and manage to be so elusive? This, however, wasn’t the opinion of Sheriff Truesdale, who had known Davis throughout his early adult life. Years later, Truesdale recalled to journalist visiting the area that the incident had had more of an affect on him than most realized. “At that time,” Truesdale said of the encounter, “(Davis) was a super nice kid. You know, I bet he told the story more than 100 times every week for several weeks.” Sadly, on June 17th, 2009–more than two decades after the strange encounter that made him famous–Davis was murdered in a drug-related home invasion, with one newspaper account detailing that a narcotics officer “recovered 10 grams of marijuana and two scales from the kitchen of his home.” Truesdale alludes that not only was the teenage encounter Davis had with something horrific in Scape Ore Swamp no tall-tale, but that the pressures of fame that ensued, as well as the lingering fear of something terrible that attacked him, contributed to his growing reclusive nature, and ultimately circumstances surrounding his death.

It’s nearly dark now, and I finally make it to the road. I’m less than a quarter mile from where the truck is parked, but I make haste anyway, preferring the armored shell of a Nissan 4-wheel drive to having to blast through scales with buckshot. Whatever this thing is, and whether it and others of its kind do actually exist, must remain a mystery for now. I have several miles to drive before I return to camp, and if it gets any darker, I may have more than just the darkness to contend with. Still, as I wind along the gravel back roads, I notice the forest is strangely inactive; the usual suspects that include deer, turkeys, and even the occasional fox or raccoon, are all gone. I see no eyes glowing in the headlights, and no shadows lurking by the roadside. If the absence of such critters here in the hilly woods of the South Carolina Piedmont is any indication, perhaps they know the area–and its potential inhabitants–better than I do. That said, I may be better off if I never become better acquainted with the locals.

Some things, after all, remain mysteries for good reasons.

Cryptids with Claws: Monsters of the American South is a post from: Mysterious Universe

Bigfoot (otherwise known as Sasquatch, Yowie, Yeti, and various other indigenous names around the world) is larger than life in every way; according to reports of the alleged creatures, their stature when posed alongside the average Joe is gigantic, with typical reports detailing monsters anywhere from six to nine feet in height.

Putting size aside, however, the very existence of such purported man-monsters is a bit larger than life, also. And yet, for those willing to suspend their disbelief long enough to consider the possibility alone that such creatures may exist in the remote wilds of this lonely Earth, occasionally there are even bigger things to contend with than either the credulity of such reports, or even the size of the average Sasquatch.

A new book by Fortean cryptozoologists extraordinaire Loren Coleman and Mark A. Hall, titled True Giants: Myth, Legend, Folklore, and Fact, is soon to be released by my friends over at Anomalist Books. This book, I can guarantee, will be unlike anything most people have ever read about Bigfoot-type creatures, as it deals with reports of entities larger than typical Sasquatches, cited by researchers such as John Green and, of course, the authors, as being close to twenty feet tall!

According to Coleman, another researcher from days past who acknowledged the existence of such creatures was none other than Roger Patterson, famous for having made the controversial film in 1967 that purportedly showed a female Sasquatch making a hasty retreat at Bluff Creek, California. Patterson, like John Green, both “acknowledged there were creatures taller than Sasquatch/Bigfoot out there,” Coleman said at Cryptomundo. “They called those giants the ‘Big Hairy Apes’.”

Could there actually be monsters of even larger proportions than Sasquatches at large around the world, particularly throughout the Pacific Northwestern United States and Canada?

Larger Than Life: True (Hairy) Giants! is a post from: Mysterious Universe

Occasionally amidst reports of mystery beasts and strange critters seen the world over, Australia’s loveable leaper, the kangaroo, appears in various distant locales under the rather Fortean label of “out-of-place-animals.”

Kangaroos have, from time to time, been kept as pets in parts of America and the UK, and escapees do sometimes result in what might be classified as “anomalous” sightings of the creatures.

Journalist Chris Cunnyrigham notes that “These animals have a propensity for showing up in areas outside their native Australia,” citing colonies that have appeared in Europe, for example under various circumstances. “These… were engendered by human agency (escaped pets and menageries of animal enthusiasts) and still don’t account for the phenomenon known as Phantom Kangaroos.” Indeed, there are many reports of kangaroos turning up in what are simply the oddest places imaginable–with no apparent human intervention of any kind–begging the question “how did the ever manage to get there?”

One recent string of reports involves the appearance of phantom marsupials north of Tokyo, Japan. Below is a short statement detailing the activity, as reported by ABC News:

The descriptions given by the apparent eyewitnesses seem close enough. For years they have spoken of a beige animal with large ears, one to 1.5 metres tall, that stands by the roadside and then hops away.

The sightings were all reported in the Mayama mountain district of Osaki city in Miyagi prefecture, a community of 441 households, located about 350 kilometres north of Tokyo.

Reports such as these are, for the most part, fairly mundane. However, in my own article “Screaming Kangaroos: Large Anomalous Marsupials in the USA?” I noted a few strange encounters with what have been described as “kangaroo-like” animals, some of which were violent, even resulting in death:

In the United States, reports of what have been called “phantom kangaroos” have been chronicled for decades, namely by researchers like Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman. In the state of Tennessee going back as far back as 1934, an “atypical kangaroo” was reportedly killing and partially devouring several animals, including German shepherd dogs in mid to late January. One witness, Reverend W. J. Hancock, described the animal as “looking like a large kangaroo, running and leaping across a field.” Another witness, Frank Cobb, claimed to have found a dismembered Alsatian, which he believed had been killed by the phantom marsupial. According to legend, a search party was formed, which followed the kangaroo’s prints to a nearby cave, where the trail ran out. The alleged “killer kangaroo” was never apprehended.

In addition to raising many eyebrows, this report raises a variety of questions; kangaroos, known to be strict herbivores, wouldn’t be killing and devouring small animals, let alone German shepherds. Additionally, the only reliably documented case of a kangaroo attack resulting in a human death occurred in New South Wales, in 1936, where a hunter was killed after trying to rescue his two dogs from a fight that had ensued with a kangaroo.

As often as they are reported, where do these “Phantom Kangaroos” come from? Aside from their obvious point of origin in the Land Down Under, what abilities do they mask that might allow them such curious abilities to travel great distances… or are they merely getting a little help from time to time, courtesy of folks who might fancy them as pets?

Anomalous Bouncing Beasts: Killer Kangaroos and Phantom Marsupials is a post from: Mysterious Universe

Just days after the circus surrounding the Polish Yeti videos we have another purported Sasquatch caught on film.

Kenny Mahoney, an amateur hunter from Kentucky, captured the image of the “creature” from his automatic camera setup in the back garden of his home.

While going through images of rabbits and deer, Mahoney noticed a humanoid creature that doesn’t look anything like the State’s known fauna.

“It looked like it had the outline of a head, and like gorilla type shoulders, and then the arms crossed is what it looks like to me,” Mahoney told a local news station.

When asked for an explanation Mahoney told the reporters “my brother-in-law said it may be a garbage bag blowed up in there, but all the smashed over vegetation in there-I really don’t know. I have no idea what it is.”

Mahoney himself is skeptical that the image shows a sasquatch but is stumped at what else it could be. The image has now been sent to a wildlife expert who specializes in black bears.

Early comments on Wave 3′s story suggest the object is simply a Crow caught in mid-flight. What do you think?

[Source]

Amateur Hunter Captures Gorilla-like Creature on Camera is a post from: Mysterious Universe

On August the 29th Jason Clarke from The Morningstarr in the UK reported on a new video from a Polish Tourist revealing a large hairy hominid.

27 year old Piotr Kowalski from Warsaw was holidaying in Poland’s Tatra mountains when he saw a large ape like creature hiding amongst the rocks ahead of him.

Is this footage of the legendary sasquatch or just another “Man in a Suit” hoax?

UPDATE: Polish Yeti Caught Spying on Bikini Clad Swimmer

As if the whole thing wasn’t dubious enough already, we now have a new video purportedly showing the man in a suit creature harassing some local campers. Bikini Clad campers I might add.

Video after the jump…

“I saw this huge ape-like form hiding behind the rocks. When I saw it it was like being struck by a thunderbolt,” he told the Superexpress.

Here’s the video. Very, very shaky video. What do you think of this new man in a suit European Sasquatch footage?

Click here to view the embedded video.

New video via Cryptomundo

Click here to view the embedded video.

[Yeti Filmed In Poland]

Polish Yeti Video Revealed is a post from: Mysterious Universe