The following information was reported to Manuel Navarette at UFO Clearinghouse:
I would like to report a sighting that I had today in downtown Melrose Park, Illinois at Winston Plaza (1254 Winston Plaza, off Rt.64 W. North Ave.), on Saturday, July 29, 2017 just outside the Best Buy store.
I was coming out of the Best Buy with my husband when we saw what looked like a large black bat that flew over the building. It must have been at least 20 feet or more up in the air and was solid black and flying very fast.
I reached for my phone to try to get a picture of it, but by the time I fished out my phone from my purse, unlocked it and pulled up the camera the bat had flown quite a distance away from us. I was able to snap one good picture of the object before it got too far away from us. I am not the greatest photographer and my cell phone is a couple of years old already, but you can see the object in the picture flying off to the east toward the city. I did not see a lot of detail as it was up in the air and flying away from us pretty fast. I do remember it was solid black, bigger than any bird I have seen and had a large pair of wings that must have been 7 feet wide.
I hope the picture helps in telling what it was or was not.
NOTE: Manuel lives near the location, so he went there this evening and took a few images. He will go back out in the daylight for a better perspective. This is possibly the first photo of this being...we're hoping we can obtain a more definitive image or video soon. I want to note, and give a nod of appreciation, to our 'Chicago Phantom' investigative & researcher team: Manuel Navarette, Vance Nesbitt, Nicole Tito Grajek, Timothy Renner, Butch Witkowski, Rob Shaw, Sean Forker & Jay Bachochin. I also want to thank those people who have been keeping track of this phenomenon. A special thanks to Tobias Wayland at 'Singular Fortean', MJ Banias at 'Mysterious Universe', Tim Binnall at 'Coast to Coast'... and all the radio shows who have contributed in getting the word out to the public. As well, I can't forget the witnesses for trusting us and coming forward with their sightings and experiences. We've got a long way to go. Any updates will be included with this post. This sighting has been added to the Chicago Phantom / Owlman / Mothman / Man-Bat / Flying Humanoid Reports - Chicago Metro Area - Interactive Map
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