It would seem that the bat-like Chicago Mothman that we have been following for the last week has made yet another appearance. Here we have a report submitted to the UFO Clearinghouse (unedited):

“I am currently attending university in Chicago , Illinois and I wanted to respond to the informational flyers about recent events involving the large bat-like creatures. I was enjoying an evening with my girlfriend and taking a well deserved break from my studies. We decided to go out and enjoy the unusually warm weather that we were having and go for a walk. As we walked toward a community park near the campus, we were talking about our classes when a commotion amongst a group of people caught our attention. As we looked toward the group of about 4-5 people, something caught my eye and I looked up to see this thing fly overhead.

I at first thought of ringing someone, but I didn’t want them to think I had gone crazy. To say that I was Gobsmacked would have been an understatement”

As one commenter on UFO Clearinghouse stated, the report seems a little “overwritten”, but I am not as quick to immediately write it off as a hoax as the commenter is (though I am not about to accept it as gospel either). There are some people who just happen write/talk in an overly flowery manner for a number of reasons. It is troubling that the report while so full of “detail” seems to lack any real detail of the encounter like where or when it occurred. It is possible that those details are missing because the encounter never happened. I also think that it is possible, especially if more cowardice was involved in the encounter that the witness is willing to admit, that he may not be sure where or when the encounter happened and the extra fluff is an attempt to compensate for the details he is to proud to admit. If the Chicago Mothman is becoming a “thing” we do need to become more mindful of hoaxes as the awareness of the phenomena grows. Unfortunately, we will see false reports from skeptics poking fun at investigators and from everyday people who just want to be a part of the excitement. Hopefully more witnesses will come forward and help to corroborate these Mothman sightings.

Another sighting report of the Chicago/UIC Mothman

[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]

Here we have an interesting video that, unfortunately, comes to us with very little information other than it was recorded on October 4th somewhere in the United States in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. From the weird aspect ratio we can surmise that it was taken with a cellphone camera, like the one found on the iPhone 4 (which I know firsthand will produce this aspect ratio if held vertical). From the color of the objects we can rule out Chinese lanterns (which would be orange) since there does not appear to be any tampering with the white balance (the street lamps are still orange as they normally would be). What we can’t rule out is that we are seeing white or clear helium balloons with white LEDs inside, at least with the resolution available on YouTube. If this footage was shot on an iPhone 4 there should be better quality footage of this event somewhere that might clear this up. Adding some weight to the balloon theory is the audio track. This sighting seems to have occurred at a bar or concert where the balloons may have been used as accent lighting. However, the audio isn’t completely in favor of the balloon hypothesis. If you listen carefully you can hear people asking “what is it?” Ultimately, without more information and better video, I don’t think this sighting can be labeled one way or another. What do you think?

UPDATE: The location this video was taken is now being reported as Lee’s Summit Missouri and more reports of the sighting are piling up in the MUFON database. Could this be the next Phoenix lights?

UFO formation recorded in USA October 4 2011 [via UFOs On Earth]