I received a series of reports from Olive Township, New Jersey starting in 2015 after my Hackettstown 'Mantis Man' sightings investigations episode was presented on national television.
I received this report:
"Hello - thanks for reading my email. Maybe you can answer my questions. I live in Mount Olive Township, NJ, which is very near Hackettstown. There is a large wooded wetland adjacent to my yard. Lots of deer and other animals roaming around.
On Friday night, I was on the porch smoking a cigarette, when I noticed movement at the edge of the woods. The porch light was on and it illuminated most of the yard. I kept watching, when I noticed a man-shaped thing step out into the yard. I ran back into the house to grab my pistol.
I went back to the door and watched from the inside. I noticed my neighbor moving a bicycle through their yard, but didn't notice anything else. I didn't notice anything further.
After I went to bed, I was really having problems falling asleep. I got up and walked downstairs. I put my coat on and went out onto the porch to have a smoke. After a few minutes, I noticed small bits of white light in the woods. Kind of reminded me of penlights. That only lasted a minute or two. There was no sound. The neighbor's dog was not barking, which was weird because she reacts to anything.
On Saturday afternoon, I walked to the back of the yard to grab some wood for our fireplace. As soon as I approached the woodpile, I smelled a strong odor that reminded me of rotting roadkill. It was really bad, so much so that I had to turn around and get away from there. I was gagging and getting sick.
About an hour later, I again walked to the woodpile. The stench was not as bad as before, so I quickly put some split logs into the sling and headed back to the house.
Later that night, I was again on the porch smoking a cigarette. Suddenly the neighbor's dog started barking at something in the other direction. She was really going at it, while pulling hard on the chain. Just then 4 or 5 of these man-like things ran through the neighbor's yard, then into mine heading towards the woods. They moved like a herd of animals, staying together. It was so strange. The legs were very thin with small feet. I'd say they were about 5 ft in height. They wore loose dark-colored robes or something similar. The heads were small with no necks. I couldn't tell what color they were, but it was lighter than the robes.
I am confused and upset by what I witnessed. I later looked on the internet to see if there were similar sightings. I found the Hackettstown report on your website and decided to ask you what your thoughts were. I will admit that there are some strange things going on in this neighborhood. I haven't mentioned this to anyone, but others around here have seen many UFOs and lights. There have also been a few hauntings, according to some of the neighbors. Do you have any idea of what it was I saw? Thanks - JN"
NOTE: I called JN and he returned the call. I don't think this was related to the Hackettstown 'Mantis Man' sightings, but who knows. JN told me that he now thinks it's possible that these 'things' weren't solid in form. He also went into the woods to see if there was a rotting carcass there, but he didn't find anything. I started to look into other incidents in his area. I found one reported UFO sighting from several years ago. The area is the Mine Brook wetlands in Mount Olive Township, just northeast of Hackettstown, NJ. I believe that this may also be part of Stephens State Park, but I'm not positive of that. Any information would be helpful. Lon
I later received the following account:
"Hello, Lon. My name is Davida. I was shocked but very pleased to see and read the article that you recently posted about strange sightings in Mount Olive New Jersey...I just moved from Mount Olive on November 22, 2014 and literally felt like I was fleeing from whatever is there. I have an extensive collection of events that took place at my home there, which was surrounded by the same woods described in JN’s story. I have lost all of my pets, 5 in the last 14 months, I totally believe due to the entities that are there. I have been attacked at night, as well as my other family members and pets, so I know it’s real. This is very serious and I had intended to write about my experiences once I settled into my new home in Georgia. I have pictures of non human footprints which appeared after fresh snow had fell and led up to my home. These beings definitely enter homes, right through the walls or windows. I came across the article, as I started to research that area to see if anyone other than myself had experienced the same and I would love to connect with the neighbor who wrote the article. I saw UFO’s just about every night, rising in the distance beyond the woods and tried to drive to see where they could be coming from, but I never found the site. I could see them especially in the winter months when the trees were bare. I wondered why none of my neighbors were speaking about this, but from the article, I see I was not the only one who saw them. Thank you very much.
I contacted Davida and asked for more information:
"Hi, Lon. I hope all will be well. I have been attacked at night by something that would hold me down, making me feel like I couldn’t move or speak, until I would finally get words out, then it would release me. The last time it happened was December 2013...it had snowed that night...I told my son about it the next morning and as soon as he looked out the window, he saw a straight line of footprints that went from a shrub to under my bedroom window. We went outside and saw many footprints that looked like cloven hoofs with a ball in the rear on some, many leading to our home, but some leading to our neighbors' homes. They all looked like they either started from a tree or ended at a tree. My son had been through the same attacks at night, so he knew what I had experienced, as well as my ex-husband. He decided to sleep in my bedroom until we moved.
One night right after that, he said he was woke by something during the night, and saw what looked like a short man rush at him in the dark. He knock him with his arm and said it disappeared. There was always a strange vibe in the house after dark and a couple of my dogs would see things, especially one in particular, an American Eskimo, named Dakota. Every evening as soon as it would get dark, he would pace all over the house, trembling at times and always looking as if he saw something. He never did that in the house we had moved from. A few weeks after my son’s experience, we both couldn’t sleep. It was 3:30 AM...the dogs were up as well and one of them had to go to the bathroom...my son went with me to let them out. I had an African Grey Parrot, that I kept in my bedroom. She was very vocal and talked a lot, most of the time knowing what she was saying. She was alive when we went downstairs...we didn’t look at her cage when we came back up, but a few hours later, I found her dead at the bottom of her cage. This was January 29, 2014. As for my dogs, three of them looked like something would all of a sudden hit them and they would start stumbling around, walking crooked and knocking into things. It happened to 2 of them in the same week and I thought that was very odd. Each one of them died after suffering greatly, being diagnosed with various illnesses and diseases. Within approximately a year, I lost 5 of my pets...this is some of what went on in the last year, but things had happened since we moved there in 2007. I contacted you to be connected to the neighbor because I hardly knew anyone since I lived there. My home was surrounded by the woods on three sides, with a long driveway, so my house wasn’t close to any other neighbor. If you can pass my contact information to the other person, it would be great. Thank you"
Weird N.J.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets
Weird N.J. Vol. 2: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets
Haunted New Jersey: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Garden State
Monsters of New Jersey: Mysterious Creatures in the Garden State (Monsters (Stackpole))
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