The Creature
June 6th 1982
John Claybrook
Four people, who wish to remain nameless, were walking home from the theater last night, reported to the police that they were being followed home by some sort of flying creature. They contacted me to tell their story, in the hopes that it would make people aware that there is something out there, in the night, watching us. Here is the story as it was told to me, earlier this morning.
“We had just left the theater; we saw the late showing of ‘Close Encounters’ and we were walking home, down 54 towards route one. I was the first one to see it. I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, we had just seen that movie; but it felt like something was following us. So I turned around and looked and I could swear I saw something duck into the bushes at the post office. I stopped everybody and went and took a look; I’m a pretty big guy, you know, if someone was messing with us, I was going to get to the bottom of it. There was nobody there. So we kept on walking. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being followed and I told everyone what I thought I saw.”
John Doe # 2 continued the story. “We were all creeped out, for sure, and we stepped our pace up a notch. We reached the Henry Clay shopping center, and that’s when we all saw it. It flew from that big brick AT&T building on Taylor Street, over to the roof of the shopping center. It stood there watching us with these great big red eyes… It was big, easily six feet tall or bigger. It kept stretching its wings out, and I would say it had a wingspan of about ten feet or so.”
“No feathers.” Jane Doe #1 said. “The wings were more bat-like than they were bird-like, as far as we could tell from where we were. I wasn’t about to get any closer to the thing to find out for sure. But I don’t think it had any feathers.”
“The police said we must have seen a bird. That thing was not a bird.” Jane Doe #2 said.
“That’s right. We must have stood there watching it watch us for just a few minutes when a truck came down Taylor St. and spooked it. It flew straight into the air, with an unbelievable speed. You wouldn’t think something that big could move that fast but it sure did. Straight into the air. Like a bullet out of a gun. No running start or anything.” John Doe #2 shook his head. “It was crazy.”
We know it sounds crazy, but that’s what we saw. We ran to the police station to tell them our story. We know they didn’t believe us.” John Doe #1 said.
“That’s why we came to you.” Jane Doe #1 said. “We thought maybe we’d at least get the story out, make people aware that some thing is out there. And we thought you might be able to help.”
I can say for certain that the four young people that came to my office early this morning were certainly shaken up. They were convinced they had seen something, and it was not normal. You can decide for yourself folks. Did they have their own close encounter? Have you seen this creature too? If you think you have, please contact me here at the Herald Progress, with your story.