I received the following report from Manuel Navarette at UFO Clearinghouse:
I’m writing this out after taking a day or two to really, really think out if I wanted to report this and tell others of what I saw the other night in Oz park here in Chicago. I finally decided that writing this out and submitting it would be therapeutic to me and might hopefully help identify what it was that I saw and maybe help someone else avoid the same thing.
I live in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in the city of Chicago and live about 1 ½ blocks from Oz Park. When the weather is nice, I usually go outdoors and to the park to jog and walk my dog. The night of April 7th was no different, it was mild and the cold weather had finally subsided so I decided to give the treadmill a break and go outside to jog and let the dog get some fresh air. As I came to the corner of Burling St and Webster Avenue where I cross the street to the park, my dog began acting very peculiar and acted like she didn’t want to go to the park. This is very strange as usually my dog goes absolutely nuts when we go to the park and has the time of her life running and sniffing. On this particular evening, she acted like she was mortified to cross the street and enter the park.
As we crossed the street and came up to the area where the basketball courts are located and the start of the trail that goes around and through the park, my dog was practically being dragged as she resisted wanting to continue. After much effort, I finally got her to finally cooperate and begin the walk. I started walking East toward the Oz Garden, a route that is my usual when I come here to walk or to jog. As we walked toward the garden, I noticed that many of the birds you usually hear in the park were all but silent and that the only noise you could here was the usual city noise from the surrounding neighborhood.
As we rounded the sidewalk to head south with the garden to my left, I heard what could only be described as the flapping of wings. I really didn’t give it a second thought as I assumed it would be some passing Canadian Geese that I’ve seen in the park recently. As we came toward the clearing where you would find the Baseball fields, something caught my eye and what I saw still scares the crap out of me. I saw a large man, probably 7 feet or taller standing on the ground. It was solid black, but what really stood out were the large, and I do mean large pair of wings that were folded behind him. These wings stood taller than the man by at least a foot and a half and jutted out of his back. I could not see it’s face as it had its face turned away from me and probably didn’t notice me at first. It finally turned and noticed me and I saw the bright, ruby red eyes that appeared to glow from within. It was at this time that it turned and faced me and I got to see what it really looked like.
It was about 7 feet tall, and instead of clothes, it looked like a giant half man, half bird kind of thing. It reminded me of the character Birdperson from the show Rick and Morty, only a LOT scarier! This thing stared at me for about 15 seconds, which felt like an eternity and then in a loud whoosh it unfurled its wings and screeched really loud, and jetted into the air. These wings looked almost bat-like and were at least 10 feet across from tip to tip. I felt like this thing could see right through me, read me, it knew what I was thinking, like it could stare right into my very soul. It was the most terrified I have ever been in my life. It rose into the air like a bullet and I heard it screech once more before losing it from my view as it rose above the trees and possibly the buildings. It was at that time that I realized that I had yet to scream or react in any way. I was just numb, numb from my head to my toes. I finished my walk early and walked home, all the while trying to see if I could see it again once I got to the street.
It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced and it lead me to look up giant mutant birds online and eventually came to sights talking about similar sightings that other people have had and eventually to where I could post and report my own sighting. I don’t want you to think that I am crazy, I’m just a normal person who had a weird and strange experience. I do not abuse drugs or take any kind of hallucinogens or anything like that. I know what I saw was real and that I saw it in Oz Park, in Chicago, Illinois. I don’t want publicity at all, I just want to tell my story and to warn others who might jog or walk the trails of Oz Park. I never felt like I was in any real kind of danger, if I did not provoke it. But, I felt that this creature could have ripped me limb for limb if I had approached it or threatened it in any way. Maybe it was passing through like the Canadian Geese do when they are migrating. Either way, I hope that we never get to meet face to face again. Thank you
NOTE: This isn't the first, second or third time a 'Mothman-Like' being or creature has been reported in the Windy City. Below are previous reports in 2011:
We were going down 63rd St. going west and were coming up to Pulaski Rd.
I then remembered about a giant Indian that is on the roof of this tobacco store (that's what it was when I was a kid it's something else now) on the northwest corner of 63rd and Pulaski Rd in Chicago. One time when I was a kid I was on the CTA bus going east on 63rd St. when the bus came to a stop at Pulaski. I was looking out the window and notice three teenage girls standing on the sidewalk right next to the bus. Two of the girls were pointing up at this Indian trying to show the third girl something and they all giggling. So I was wondering what they pointing and laughing at.
So some time went by and then one day I went to the currency exchange right over there. On the way out I decided to walk over by the Indian to the same spot where I seen these girls laughing and pointing to see what it was they thought was funny. Well it turns out that if you look at the Indian from this exact spot his left thumb is sticking out and it looks like his thing is sticking out his pants. So when my wife and me were going by this Indian on August 22nd 2011 at about 2:00pm I decided to get a picture of this. I just got new smartphone and I wanted to check out how good the camera would work. So I got out of the car and went to the spot and took about four pictures of this Indian. So we left and went home and later on that night I went to look at the pictures I took. When I was checking these photos out, in one of the pictures I notice the object that was on the backside of Indian. At first I didn't think nothing of it, I figured it was plane or something. But just for the heck of it I enlarged it. It looked something similar to a bird or a bat, but then again it doesn't. So I have no idea what it could be. I was reluctant to send it in because I figured there was some explanation for what it is. But then I thought it still qualifies as UFO, because I never seen anything like it before and don't know what it could be.
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A possible Mothman sighting in Chicago, Illinois?
*We received this sighting on Wednesday, our investigators have already spoke with several of the witnesses and a full investigation is currently underway and more information will be posted as it becomes available.*
These are the events as they happened on Friday, September 30, 2011 in the area around Miller Park in the University Park neighborhood in Chicago , Illinois. Approximately 1 block from the main campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Things began like any normal Friday night, I and a couple of friends were going to go out to have a few drinks at a local bar. As I got to my apartment, I jumped into the shower to start getting ready while my roommate went to her room to get ready. I finished and walked out of the bathroom to my room and started to get ready to head out for the night.
As I started to get dressed I heard my roommate scream loudly, I dropped what I was doing and ran to her room to see if she was alright. I walked in to see her cowering in the corner of her room, white as a ghost and shaking. She was babbling hysterically, saying that something was looking in at her from the window. I looked toward the window and didn’t see anything but the light coming from the other apartments across the court yard. I asked what she had seen and tried to tell her that she might have been mistaken, we live on the third floor of a five story apartment building and there is nothing outside the window but a 30 foot drop straight down to the courtyard below.
My roommate was hysterical and scared out of her wits; I took her to the living room and sat her on the couch. I then went to my room to put on a robe or a nightshirt on since I was only in my underwear. My roommate didn’t want to be left alone and actually followed me to my room and waited there as I put on a robe and joined her in the living room. After about 20 minutes of calming her down, she finally told me what she had seen in her window.
She stated that she was getting dressed and when she turned to face the mirror on her dresser, she saw a pair of orange eyes staring at her from the window. She turned around to see two brightly lit orange eyes staring out at her; these eyes were attached to a creature that was staring back at her through the window. My friend lost it and started screaming hysterically and backed herself into the corner. She said she was filled with this overwhelming feeling of complete and total terror, she felt like the creature was looking at her as though she was prey. She said she felt like a rabbit that was about to be pounced upon by an eagle.
I tried to rationalize with her what she had seen, telling her it could have been an optical illusion, or maybe it was the jitters from a week of hard studying. She dismissed everything, saying that she had seen what she had seen. As I sat there comforting her, my cell phone rang from my room. I got up and ran to my room and snatched it from my dresser top and answered it. It was my boyfriend and one of his buddies and they were talking a mile a minute, it sounded like they were out of breath, as I tried to get him to slow down, I walked past my roommates open door and to my absolute horror, I saw…a pair of glowing red eyes, looking through the window right at me!!
They stared at me for about 3-4 seconds before what ever it was abruptly left. Like my friend, I totally lost it and screamed at the top of my lungs and sprinted to the living room. My boyfriend was now screaming into the phone “What’s wrong, what’s wrong!”
Within 2 minutes, he and his best friend were pounding on the door to our apartment, followed shortly thereafter by one of our neighbors who had heard us screaming.Once we assured the neighbors that we were fine and that they did not have to call the CPD for us, we shut the door and I immediately lost it when my boyfriend held me.
We told him what my roommate had seen in the window and that what ever it was had come back again, that’s when I had seen it. He then began to tell us that he and his buddy were on their way to our apartment to pick us up when they had seen what they describe as a large bat with large glowing eyes. It was perched on top of a basketball hoop in the neighborhood park. They stated that it saw them and had alighted into the air with an audible whoosh.
He states that there were about 6 people in the park and all of them had seen it when it had taken off. He states that there was no way anyone could have missed it, it was about 6-7 feet tall, dark grey to black and those eyes glowed with the intensity of two glowing embers.
He says that they saw it easily when it took off and headed away from the park due to both the lights of the city as well as the nearly full moon that night. They lost sight of the creature after about 5 seconds, that’s when he picked up the phone and called me. He says that when they heard me start screaming, they sprinted the block and a half to the apartment.
Needless to say, none of us went out that night and my boyfriend and his buddy stayed with us through the weekend. My roommate refused to go back to her room till it was well after daylight, she closed and locked the window and drew the blinds shut. She says that it’s the only way that she felt secure to be in there after dark.
I’m still weary about coming home or going out after dark; even though I know I have to do it for both school and work. I hope that what ever it was, was sufficiently scared off by two insanely screaming college students and that I hope that I NEVER see it again. I don’t think that neither I nor my roommate will ever be the same again after this.
There is one interesting fact; my boyfriend told me when I saw him on Tuesday that a few students around the campus (UIC) had been talking about a large bat that some people had seen on Friday night. A lot of the people who spoke about it were spooked by it. I never figured that anything like this would or could be seen in a city as large as Chicago , or a campus as busy and bustling as UIC.
It totally makes me wonder what it truly was and if it meant us an harm. - ufoclearinghouse
Then the following was reported:
10/14/2011 - unedited: I am currently attending university in Chicago, Illinois and I wanted to respond to the informational flyers about recent events involving the large bat-like creatures. I was enjoying an evening with my girlfriend and taking a well deserved break from my studies. We decided to go out and enjoy the unusually warm weather that we were having and go for a walk. As we walked toward a community park near the campus, we were talking about our classes when a commotion amongst a group of people caught our attention. As we looked toward the group of about 4-5 people, something caught my eye and I looked up to see this thing fly overhead.
It looked like a man; it looked like a man with wings! He flew about 10-12 feet above us and was perfectly silhouetted against the evening sky. In all honesty, it looked like an immensely oversized Sugar Glider, the kind I would see back home in Tasmania . It had the rough shape of a sugar glider, but its eyes were nothing like the soft eyes of a glider. They glowed red! We saw it for about 4 seconds before it disappeared from view. At first I thought I saw a man in a hang glider, but it was those bloody eyes that made me thing otherwise!
I at first thought of ringing someone, but I didn’t want them to think I had gone crazy. To say that I was Gobsmacked would have been an understatement - ufoclearinghouse.webs.com
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| Image of bat-like object witnessed on 8/22/2011 |
Link to previous sightings - Photo: 2nd Mothman / Bat-Like Object Witnessed Over Chicago
The Mothman Prophecies
UFOs Books)
Mothman and Other Curious Encounters
Unexplained Mystery Books)
Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend
Folklore & Mythology Books)