An Illinois resident was driving home from work near Thornton Township, IL when he observed a bat-winged humanoid gliding over a quarry. There were also some supernatural aspects mentioned.
This account is taken from two sources, a documentary by Caps Wisconsin and the Bob After Dark Podcast. In his podcast, Episode 50, the host, Bob (real name: Bob Anderson), describes how deeply suicidal he was at the time of his sighting (no specific date, only somewhere between 2016 and 2017, outside of Thornton Township, Illinois) and how the strange upbeat lyrics that came into his car via a suddenly static radio just prior to his sighting (and afterwards specifically “Sweet Dreams” by Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics). He mentioned how the experience of the music, the sighting of the creature and his interaction with the other witnesses, ultimately helped him turn his life around for the better as if the entire experience had a much deeper meaning beyond just the sighting of a strange winged creature.
“My name is Bob Anderson and I host the paranormal podcast radio show called Bob After Dark where I talk about legends, lore, supernatural. I'm also a paranormal investigator and cryptozoologist. I have seen what I believe is the Mothman. I'm not a hundred percent, but I like to believe that what I saw was the Mothman. This would have been about 2016 – 2017 and, this is a quick trigger warning folks, a lot of mental health stuff if you're suffering from anything get help. So I was closing up at work one night and this was prior to me being where I'm at right now with my life and in my paranormal world.
I got off of work and you get to a certain point in life sometimes when you just reach that point and, save you the details, but I was done. I got off of work and I was travelling down I-80 going towards Indiana where I live and on 80 right by the state border there is a rock quarry that you drive over right outside the Thornton Township in Illinois right before Calumet City. Blues Brothers fan by the way. I was driving when, all of a sudden, my car radio turned to static and bits and pieces of things were coming in because the music leading up to that point was very strange too because you get to a certain point in life when things just really don't make sense. In this case I had a lot of the music I heard was things about being alive, staying alive, moving on, continuing on, Bee Gees, etc. things like that and my radio completely went static. At that point I got really upset because my day is just getting worse and I don't want to hear this kind of music and I don't want to have to deal with my radio being out in my car when I’m trying to go home and be done.
I look out to my passenger side, by the way, this is probably about for time's sake, I would say 8:30 at night and that part of 80 there's traffic but it's not super heavy at that time of day especially during the time frame that everything kind of happened to me. I look out to my right and there was this thing kind of was hovering right over the rock quarry. I look out and it was pretty big. Now it's not uncommon for the area. I was in to have things like bats and other weird animals that don't belong in the region because we live right next to like the major oil refineries and steel refineries or especially in that area so it wasn't uncommon for these types of animals to get off on trains. So it wasn't uncommon to look up and see something that didn't belong.
So, I was like, 'That's a really big bat' but it wasn't a bat because I’ve never seen a bat just kind of stay in place and almost lock, not lock eyes, I guess, but just kind of hone in on the area I was in. It was just kind of hovering me and three other motorists pull over to the side because it's just... I wasn't... I don't wanna say compelled but it was you know you see something like that, it's kind of strange, and I was in the right-hand lane so it wasn't like I was disturbing traffic and me and the other motorists kind of pulled off and I went to go take a picture after looking at it for what seemed like forever. But I only had a couple of moments with it and by the time I pulled my phone out, it was gone. I couldn't tell you if it flew away. I couldn't tell you if it disappeared, but it was like how it went away. It was just gone and the other motorists turned to me because we didn't talk up to that point. It was just kind of like boom, boom, boom. It's like, you know, what's that and then one motorist looked at me and said, “Oh, that was a thing wasn't it?” I was like, “Yeah, that's kind of strange” and they're like, “Well, I hope you have a really good day.” Man, I lost it. I 100% lost it. I don't really have an answer for how I felt because, you know, after you get to a certain point you start feeling a certain way... hearing kindness was just. It was a lot to me.
I wish I can tell you I saw wings flapping. I wish I could tell you that I saw something physical but I can't remember. I could tell you what it looked like but I can't tell you if I saw it flying, hovering, soaring, whatever... six foot... five... between five and six feet, let's say, if I, you know, it's in the distance at dusk so it's, you know, you're not gonna get the best kind of quality but the one thing I remember other than the other physical attribute, I'm going to tell you is almost like it was toned like it wasn't like a robust, you know, thing or it wasn't like it wasn't like it had the anatomy of another like a normal animal. It was almost built like a person almost or like a, it had that, like, human-like qualities about it. I saw the wings but I couldn't tell you if they were flapping and I remember seeing them when I pulled over but past that point, it was real quick, real fast... extended. So my assumption is it was doing some sort of hover, maybe it was flapping but I don't remember.
(Wingspan) Six feet at least, at least, if not bigger. That was the one thing I remember about it, like, there were three things I remember. I know I keep repeating that but if there were a few things I remember - really big wingspan. It almost had like... it wasn't like a human but it had human-like qualities, like if it was on ground, I'd tell you it was bipedal, you know, in a heartbeat. It wasn't, you know, if that thing was in front of me, it would have probably walked. That's it, like, it could stabilize on its own and it had glowing eyes, okay, red, and then the tone of body, it was darker so I guess it, you know, from what I could pick up on it, very, almost like a black-gray-silverish complexion, maybe a little bit of brown thrown in there as well.”
NOTE: This witness was also interviewed in the Small Town Monsters documentary 'The Lake Michigan Mothman.' The Thornton Township / Alsip / Hammond, IN area has had several sightings reported previously. Lon
Source: Wisconsin CAPS, from a video titled: “CAPS ROAD TRIP S4 E1 The Chicago Mothman Sightings Part 1” Uploaded on 30 Jan 2022 / “Bob After Dark Episode 50 – Moth Man”, Uploaded on November 2020 (Transcript)
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Chicago / O'Hare MOTHMAN Updates on PHANTOMS & MONSTERS Radio
Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research team presents updates on the status of the Chicago / O'Hare Mothman sightings.
Tobias Wayland is a passionate fortean who has been actively investigating the unusual for over a decade; the first several years of his investigative career were spent as a MUFON field investigator, and following that he investigated independently prior to becoming the head writer and editor for the Singular Fortean Society. Tobias is a frequent guest on various podcasts and radio shows, has contributed to several books on the paranormal, and is often invited to speak at paranormal conferences and events. He was also featured in the Small Town Monsters documentary Terror in the Skies and the series premiere of Expedition X for his work investigating Mothman sightings around Lake Michigan. He and his wife Emily have been involved with the Lake Michigan Mothman investigation since its advent in the spring of 2017, and recently published a book chronicling the experience, The Lake Michigan Mothman: High Strangeness in the Midwest.
His years as an investigator have served him best by illustrating that when it comes to the anomalous, the preternatural, and the paranormal, any answers he's found are still hopelessly outnumbered by questions.
Singular Fortean Society - https://www.singularfortean.com
Manuel Navarette is the founder and curator of UFO Clearinghouse and an active paranormal investigator. He is currently one of the chief investigators of the Chicago / Lake Michigan Mothman phenomenon (along with Lon Strickler and Tobias Wayland) and a member of the Phantom and Monsters Fortean Research Team. Manuel has been interested in the paranormal since the age of 17 and has had multiple sightings of UFO’s and recently of a winged humanoid at Chicago O’Hare Airport. The website he founded, UFO Clearinghouse is a website dedicated and committed to providing the most up to date information on recent UFO sightings, reported alien abductions, and cryptid sightings. It is designed as a place where information can be freely exchanged and accessed by paranormal researchers and investigators for the reason of furthering the search for the truth.
UFO Clearinghouse - https://ufoclearinghouse.wordpress.com/
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Have you had a sighting of a winged humanoid or huge bat-like creature in the Chicago, Illinois metro area / Lake Michigan region? The entity has also been referred to as the 'Chicago Mothman', 'Chicago Owlman' & 'O'Hare Mothman.' - Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map - Please feel free to contact me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com - your anonymity is guaranteed. Our investigative group is conducting a serious examination of his phenomenon. We are merely seeking the truth and wish to determine what eyewitnesses have been encountering. Your cooperation is truly appreciated.
You can call me directly at
410-241-5974
Thanks. Lon Strickler
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