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A zookeeper at the Amarillo Zoo posts an anonymous report and description about the 'werewolf' captured on the security camera. He verifies the event and subsequent incidents.
"I'm pretty sure you've all seen this photo in the news: https://imgur.com/gallery/NrXhKUO
Before we get started, I'm writing this on a burner account for anonymity. I could get into some real trouble for doing this since I'm revealing information that only the Amarillo Zoo management really knows. Before we get hired, most of us sign a DNA. It's the standard stuff, but it means if anyone finds out who wrote this I could be in some serious legal trouble.
I attempted to post this on 4chan, but it was largely ignored or told me I was a liar. Maybe you guys will hear me out though. Even if you don't, I need to get this out of my mind.
So, about that photo. It's a photo from security camera footage at the zoo, as you all probably already know. The city finally released it to the public on Twitter because long story short, they're frightened. We all are. I've never believed in the supernatural or cryptozoology, seeing as I've been working with and studying real animals for most of my life. But I don't have words for what we've experienced lately. I'm genuinely incapable of explaining it. Science doesn't touch events like this and I'm at a loss to explain it beyond the conclusions we've all come to, which I'll explain later on.
All of this started about two months ago or so, back in April. I was with a few other zookeepers, doing the usual routine. Cleaning up pens, feeding the animals, and whatnot. It was somewhat late at night, after closing time, about 11pm or so. I'm filling the feed in the exotic bird area when I notice two or three parrots are dead. This was obviously concerning to us, as we all care a lot about the animals we care for. We aren't exactly flush with cash, and the Amarillo Zoo, although popular, doesn't make a lot of money. Losing critters out of nowhere can be a real blow to revenue since it can cost a lot to replace the animals. Anyways I'm getting off track. The point is, birds are dead. Out of nowhere might I add. It was only a few, sure, but if they kept dropping off like that it would be bad news. So I let the other zookeepers know about it, and we decide to search the cage. Perhaps some snot-nosed kid had fed the birds something poisonous, or maybe there was an illness or virus spreading among the birds. This was nothing too big, so when we let management know about it the next day they largely shrugged it off. We sent the carcasses to a vet to get them tested anyways, to see what killed them.
Well, the tests at the vet's office did not turn anything back. Like, at all. No poisons, no evidence of illness even. Not so much as a feather out of place. They had just dropped dead. It was weird, but we sort of forgot about it. A few weeks later we find more animals dead. We find three goats, largely in the same manner as the birds. We got them tested too because clearly, this was not something random. Management catches wind of this, so we start beefing up security, and keeping an eye on visitors. We start making more announcements to not feed the animals, etc. You guys might not know this, but zookeepers have a pretty demanding schedule. It can vary by the zoo, but many of us sleep in bunks at the zoo so we can take care of the animals 24/7. You know, in case a lion or chimp breaks out and we need to make another Harambe meme (which was tragic, btw). We tend to rotate in schedules so each of us gets the chance to sleep at home a few days a week. So in addition to the other stuff, we start taking turns watching the security footage at night.
The deaths don't stop happening though. And we aren't seeing anything at night. In early May, we noticed a few of the sheep in our petting zoo section missing. They just straight-up vanished. It was very frustrating. By this point, we start getting the police involved. We call them up and tell them what's been happening. They say they'll leave an officer around along with our security to watch things at night until the weird stuff stops happening. We zookeepers start really watching our security cameras too. Whatever was happening, it was probably some crafty creep who got a kick out of killing animals for fun. I and my colleagues were getting pissed too. The animals were clearly stressed, and a few of them stopped eating regularly. We hated the thought of someone trying to hurt innocent animals for fun.
Well, then the really scary stuff starts happening. We get up in the morning and find the sheep that were missing. Or what was left of them. Their skins were all we found, strewn about the sidewalk near the zoo's entrance. We knew it was our sheep because their ID tags were included with the fur. Police say they didn't see anything the night before. Security says the same thing. We are all baffled. We manage to it get all cleared up before the zoo opens. We decide to keep the strange happenings under wrap so as to not alert the individual doing this. We don't want them to know we're onto it.
A full day passes without incident. We had a normal day the next day too when at night, I hear a bunch of shouting. It was around 2am, and the security guard is running for his life. He's shouting for the cops and is shaking all over. Says he saw something climb over the wall to the lion exhibit. Says it was covered in fur. The police have him show them us where it's at and when we all get there, there's nothing. We check the security footage and all we managed to capture is some movement in the darkness in the lion's area. The security guard is crying and saying it was a 'werewolf.' We laugh him out of the room. He keep insisting it was a werewolf. Like something out of Harry Potter he says. We laugh at him. We're sure at this point it was probably some coyote that managed to find a way into the zoo at night. The sheep skin was weird, but maybe the thing had been eating the carcass nearby in the wooded area by the zoo. It is called Thompson Memorial Park. It's small, but it could hide a coyote or two.
The incidents don't stop though. We start finding organs in the enclosures. Just out of nowhere. And they weren't random. Intestines, in the shape of a heart on the floor of the porcupine exhibit. Two sheep eyeballs in the holes of our wooden fences. We had been watching the cameras, and we couldn't really see anything except for quick flashes of white from time to time. The animals were still acting strange. Normally friendly animals suddenly just stayed in their sleeping areas, even when fed. We were really freaked out at this point, and the police started sending more officers to patrol the zoo at night.
It all culminated on May 21st. It was 3am, the usual night. It was quiet out, and I was watching the cameras with a security guard. We were looking at one of the outside camera areas when we noticed it. The photo above captures exactly what we saw. I was stunned when I saw it. At first, it sort of reminded me of that clown who was walking around during the 2021 Capitol Riots in DC. Some guy wearing a coyote pelt on his body. But it wasn't right. Its limbs were strangely animalistic, and yet still strangely human. Not only that, but I don't know if any of you have noticed, it was holding some kind of stick. It was doing this weird freezing-jerking motion. It would pace, and then freeze. It would stay perfectly still. Then it would jitter about and start pacing again. We phoned the police obviously, and say there's an intruder on the fence, that it might be our guy. Well, three or four officers go right toward the fence.
I'm out there since I wanted to see this individual get arrested. The police decide to split up and they point their guns at it. They start yelling at it to stop right where it is and not to move and that it was under arrest. The thing starts heaving. The security footage uses night-vision, so it may seem like we could see it easily, but in real life, it was pitch black out. They get their flashlights out and point them at this thing. It's the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. Eyes totally devoid of color, just milky white like some kind of demon. Sharp teeth. I begin to wonder if that security guy was right after all. Maybe it was some sort of werewolf. But I've had time to think about it, and the moon wasn't full that day. It sounds childish and dumb, but when you've seen something so unexplained you start grasping for straws trying to figure it out.
So the thing is making this jittery movement, and it starts to make a 'rattling' sound. Sort of like when you hear sprinklers go off in your yard. The thing is furry, and the police start yelling louder because it's moving toward the officers on the other side of the fence. It starts screaming and it was the most god-awful sound. Like boiling a puppy alive. The officers are terrified like we all were, and they start shooting at it. I've never seen anything like it. Thinking about it now makes me want to cry, like seriously. It took five shots dead center in the chest and to the head and it didn't even flinch. The officers see this and shoot at it more. But it just takes it, without so much as a flinch, still screaming, but louder now. It suddenly moves lightning fast and is on the other side of the fence. I gasped and started running. I could hear its screams and the rattling. The officers realize their guns are useless against this thing and they start backing away. We all start booking it back to the zookeeper's bunk area. We sat in that room and the officers called in backup. Meanwhile, the thing was jerking its way around the enclosure, and making its way around the zoo.
We waited in the security camera room, watching the security cameras and waiting for the other police to come. We watch this thing walk in the zoo like it's nothing. Jittering around in its weird way. We can hear it screaming to some extent still. Suddenly, we watch as the thing vanishes. I can't really describe it. It was there and then suddenly it wasn't.
The backup arrives, and they search the park. Officers take our stories. They find nothing in the zoo. We check the footage again. We have it on camera. We didn't have good footage of it inside the zoo, but the footage outside the fence is crystal clear. We are all freaked out. I didn't sleep a wink that night. We start debating about what it was to pass the time. It is all we can talk about when we get to work. We wonder if it was a werewolf. Agree that werewolf is a bad explanation. We start wondering if it's an alien, a demon, or something else. One of our colleagues though says he knows what it is. Says he's heard stories about things like it when he was growing up in Arizona. He mentions what he thinks it is, and I realize I've actually heard of the thing before too. Given everything we had seen, it makes a lot of sense and matches up with everything.
I'm not gonna say what it is here. If the legends I've heard are true, and I believe they are 100% true now, it's bad mojo to even talk about them. It's dark and evil that the Navajo take it very seriously. If you still can't figure out what I'm talking about by now, Google "Navajo" and "Scary Stories." That should bring up all you need to know.
All I need to know is that one of those things is stalking the zoo. The footage is remarkable. It made it to the mayor's office. It has had the police department totally stumped. It has had the entire city spooked. They've been looking at that footage over and over again trying to come up with a rational explanation. They can't. That's why the City of Amarillo tweeted out the footage. A lot of people have taken this all as a joke, but I assure you none of us are laughing. We are all terrified. The whole world knows now. The only good news about all of this is that the weird shit has stopped happening. We still hear rattling at night though when we're walking around the zoo.
You might have noticed the zoo put out a statement saying no animals had died. That's technically true, but only because we had listed the earlier deaths as natural. That was before we realized they weren't.
I'm typing all this right now on little sleep. I haven't been able to sleep well since I've seen that thing's eyes. I've finally had a day or two off zoo duty so I'm at home typing this. I'm using a VPN so hopefully, no one can trace this post back to me. But maybe I suppose I shouldn't mind if I get fired.
Truth is, at this point, I'm not sure I want to go back." Anonymous Zookeeper
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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.
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