Tobias Wayland of the Singular Fortean Society and Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research received the following eyewitness account from Wauconda, Illinois:
On April 20th, 2014 Paula was sitting near a window in the bedroom of her ground-level apartment near the Lakewood Forest Preserve in Wauconda when she saw a bright beam of light “come shooting down” across the street at around 11 p.m.
“It was so bright and defined,” said Paula.
The light, which lasted between 15 and 20 seconds, was an orange/gold color and did not illuminate its surroundings; nor did it move much, making only a slight “side-to-side or back-and-forth” motion.
The light retracted at one point, only to reappear a moment later.
Paula fell back onto her bed in shock.
“Oh my god, this thing sees me!” she remembers thinking. “I had the deepest feeling this thing saw me, it knows.”
But the light retracted a final time and was gone.
“I heard a hum at the end, just before it took off,” said Paula.
Two years later, in 2016, also on April 20th, Paula encountered a terrifying winged being in the same area. She was taking the garbage out just before 6 a.m. when something drew her eye from across the street. In the early morning gloom she saw a huge, winged being.
Paula described the being as perhaps 7-8’ tall when standing erect, but it carried itself hunched over, limping along. It was completely black, and from what she could see its upper body and head were covered in hair. The being had long, leathery wings which were partially wrapped around its body as it moved towards Paula; jumping forward similarly to watching someone move through a strobe light. The terrifying creature made an unnatural groaning noise as it advanced.
Paula felt a palpable sense of evil emanating from the bat-winged monster.
“This is evil,” she recalled. “I’m seeing evil.”
Fearing for her safety, she quickly turned to flee back into her apartment. After fumbling with her keys for a moment, she opened the door and turned around, terrified that the creature might be right behind her—but it was gone.
Paula said that she only knew a few of her neighbors personally, and unfortunately the ones she knew had not witnessed either event; although one of her neighbors with whom she was friends did take her encounters seriously.
“I don’t know what to say,” Paula said of her experiences. “But I know what I saw.”
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Weird Winged Wonders: The Twilight World Of Cryptid Creatures
The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story
The Mothman of Point Pleasant
