Meets The Weird » Florida

Giant Lego Minifig Washes Ashore On Florida Coast

John D — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:08:18 +0000

Being a Floridian I have spent more than my fare share of time on the state’s beaches and from time to time have seen some weird stuff wash up on shore, but I have never seen anything this weird/awesome in my life. Earlier today at Siesta Key Village, Florida, Jeff Hindman found a giant Lego Minifig washed up on the beach. Now for the life of me, I can not understand why he left the 8 foot figure on the beach (if I had found it, it so would be sitting in my living room making my inner child uncontrollably giddy), but he did.

Amazingly, this is not the first time that this has happened. Yes, giant Minifigs have washed up onshore before. Four years ago a similar Minifig was found in Holland followed by a second in Brighton, England a year later. At the time research into the giant Minifigs revealed a connection to a website for Ego Leonard which is apparently run by a group of Dutch artists. Could this giant Lego have spent years floating in the Atlantic before making its way to the Sunshine State or is it part of a new group of giant figures deposited off the Florida coast (possibly linked to recent opening of LegoLand Florida)?

Giant Lego Man washes ashore in Florida

Possible Mothman Sighting In Chicago, Illinois [September 30, 2011]

John D — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:00:14 +0000

[UPDATED] It looks as if a Mothman may have paid a visit to the Windy City. According to witness reports a large bat-like creature with glowing red eyes was spotted in the University Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois on Friday, September 30th 2011. Witnesses spotted the creature, which they estimated to be 6 to 7 feet tall, perched on a basketball hoop in Miller Park. When it took off, the heard an audible “whoosh” as it beat its wings. Nearby two female witnesses were moved to hysterics when they spotted a pair of glowing red eyes peering in the window. Researchers have identified multiple witness and are currently investigating the incident.

If the creature that was spotted in Chicago was a Mothman, could there be a tragedy in the city’s future? If we are to believe the historic sightings of the Mothman, it very well may be. After the 1966 and 1967 sightings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia the Silver Bridge, which connected the town to Kanauga, Ohio over the Ohio river collapsed during rush hour killing 46. There are also reports of a Mothman type creature being spotted around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant shortly before the plants catastrophic failure in 1986. If the Mothman is indeed an omen of catastrophe, what does the future hold for Chicago?

UPDATE: I can’t believe that I failed to make the connection when I was writing the post, but Friday Oct 8th there was a major freight train derailment 100 miles outside of Chicago. The derailment set off a series of massive explosions that caused the evacuation of the 800 residents of the small town of Tiskilwa, Illinois. Amazingly, no one was hurt in the accident. Could the Mothman sighting be linked to this accident, or is something else in store for Chicago?

A possible Mothman sighting in Chicago, Illinois? [via @CoraxSays]

Meteor-like UFO Spotted Over Miami, FL [February 28, 2010]

John D — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:08:26 +0000

The evening of February 28th, several witnesses saw what appeared to be a meteor falling from the sky over Miami, Florida. However, it soon became apparent to the witnesses that the object they were watching was no meteor. According to three separate reports to MUFON (report #1, report #2, report #3) the “meteor” split into multiple objects which proceeded to change direction and fly off. Additionally, one of the witnesses saw the exact same thing happen moments later in the same area of the sky. This is a video (unfortunately of very low quality) of the same sighting taken by a fourth witness that shows the objects appearing to hover in the sky as they split apart and the second “meteor” falling and splitting up.

One possible explanation is that planes from the nearby Homestead Air Reserve Base were dropping flares, but in all the footage I have seen, flares are usually dropped separately in a line and are all individually visible from the time that they are dropped. The lights were only visible as a single point of light until they neared the ground in all of the witness statements. (Please feel free to correct me in the comments if I am wrong, as my knowledge of military flares is admittedly limited.) Additionally, if the lights were flares being carried by prevailing winds, they should have all been carried in approximately the same direction at approximately the same speed, but two of the witness accounts say that the objects flew at different speeds in multiple directions. This leads me to believe that these objects were not flares, leaving me wondering what exactly flying over South Florida that night? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

MUFON Witness Report #1
MUFON Witness Report #2
MUFON Witness Report #3
UFO Sighting Miami 28.02.2010 @ Dailymotion

UFO caught on tape hovering over Florida [2005]

John D — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:53:39 +0000

According to the description on Youtube, this video shows a UFO hovering in the sky above Florida on February 12, 2005. No other information is given. Is this footage of a shiny balloon that is so high/far away that the distance is obscuring its movement, or does this video show something else? Watch it and share your thoughts in the comments.

UFO Sighting in Florida [via UFO Evolution]

Skunk Ape Commemorated On Silver Coin

John D — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:36:44 +0000

First seen in 1818, the skunk ape has been a part of Florida folklore for nearly 200 years. Now, the Sunshine State’s very own bigfoot has been commemorated on a silver coin produced by Florida Skunk Ape, LLC. The one troy ounce silver coin features a rendering of a skunk ape on the front and an inscription reading “Florida Skunk Ape – The Southern Most Bigfoot In The U.S.A.” with the silhouette of Florida on the reverse. The novelty coin is also stamped to indicate that it contains on ounce of .999 fine silver. While the coin may never be worth more than the silver that it contains (about $16 at the time of writing), it is a nice piece of memorabilia for anyone interested in skunk apes or cryptozoology in general. The skunk ape commemorative coin is available from FloridaSkunkApeCoins.com for $29.95 with free shipping.

Florida Skunk Ape Silver Coin [via FloridaSkunkApe.com]

UFO Spotted Flying Along I-4 in Florida [April 14, 2009]

John D — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:45:48 +0000

Taken while driving along Interstate 4 in Florida in April of 2009 (where exactly, I cannot tell – I-4 crosses the entire state), this video shows what is apparently a UFO flying in parallel to the highway. At first, I thought that it might be a blimp, but it appears to be moving at least as fast as the cars on the highway (cars travel at least 50 if not faster Mph on most of I-4) and other than the flashing lights on the top and bottom it does not appear to have any other visible marker lights (I would expect a red light on the left side of the craft). Does this video show a UFO, or is the object of a more common origin. Watch the video and let me know what you think in the comments.

UFO OVINI REAL on YouTube

Mysterious lights spotted over South West Florida

John D — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:39:38 +0000

For approximately one minute a series of bright flashes were visible across the South West Florida communities of Cape Coral, Sanibel, and Ft Myers. Witnesses reported electrical anomalies in their homes and some were even unable to start their car. Following the event, 5,000 homes on Sanibel Island were without power. Currently there is no official explanation for the flashes, though some speculate that the lights may have been caused by failing substations. However this theory would not explain the inability to start cars or the strange sensations felt by witnesses. Watch the flashes for yourself and let me know what you think they are in the comments:

Mysterious lights in the sky over Southwest Cape 21st Nov 2009 [via IQXS]
Bright flashes of light in the sky

Cryptid Of The Month: The Skunk Ape

John D — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:05:03 +0000

Sometimes referred to as the Bigfoot of the South, the Skunk or Swamp Ape is a hominid that is said to inhabit the South Eastern United Sates. The skunk ape gets its name from the horrible odor that seems to accompany most sightings of the creature. They are described by witnesses as having brown to blackish fur and stand on average about 6 feet tall, though some witnesses have reported specimen as tall as 10 feet. The skunk ape most walks upright on its hind legs, but some reports indicate that swamp apes will sometimes drop to all fours to run. While there have been skunk ape sightings throughout the swamps of the South East, a large majority of sightings occur in the Florida Everglades.

Skunk ape sightings in the state of Florida date back as far as 1818 when residents spotted the creature in Apalachicola. Sightings continue to this day with the most recent Florida sighting being reported in the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization database occurring in March of this year. The incredible consistency in the descriptions that accompany sightings in Florida have led researchers to believe that if an unknown primate species exists, it most likely does so in the swamps of Florida. Taking up most of the southern tip of Florida, the Everglades provide almost 4 million acres of sparsely populated swamp for the skunk ape to call home without ever having to see a single human. Adding to the mystery, the local Seminole and Miccosukee Indian tribes that have lived in the Everglades for centuries are very reluctant to speak to outsiders about the creature.

Skunk Ape @ Wikipedia

UFOs and the South Florida Power Outage

John D — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:54:43 +0000

I recently came across an interesting report about the recent power outage that affected many South Floridians (you may have heard about it on CNN). Florida Power and Light, the local power company, has blamed the outage on human error, but this post tells a slightly different tale. Apparently callers to an unnamed internet radio show reported numerous UFOs over the general area of the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant and across the East coast of Florida. Both cylindrical and triangle shaped UFOs were reported. Power outages and fluctuations have often been linked to UFO sightings including the famous incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base in 1967. During that incident, a number of nuclear missiles mysteriously malfunctioned while a UFO hovered overhead. To this day, there is no explanation of why or how the weapons became disabled. Is the incident at Turkey Point, which left over half a million Floridians without power a repeat of what happened at Malmstrom Air Force Base 40 years ago? Only time will tell.

UFOs Possibly Related to South Florida Power Outage