The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word cryptid as “An animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the yeti.” For the following witnesses to living cryptids, there is no dispute. In this series of National Cryptid Society’s case files, you will read what the witnesses have experienced in their own words. Not everyone has the same perspective or experience, so eyewitness accounts may vary in length and detail.
Keep an open mind when reading these accounts, and also remember one’s perception and memory of an event can be influenced by the emotions felt at the time of the occurrence. The contributors to this series of articles are doing the best they can to recount what are in some cases very shocking and traumatic experiences.
If you have a personal cryptid sighting story you would like to tell us, our contact information is at the bottom of this article.
NCS Case File #23: Slender-Limbed Shadow Creature (possible Black Stick Man)
Submitted by Ghyllie
“This incident occurred in August of 2016 in Palacios, TX, a tiny seaside town located on the Gulf Coast about 90 minutes south of Houston.
J, a 56-year-old man, was sitting in a chair in front of his home at about 5:30 am having a cigarette and a cup of coffee. J is a level headed person, doesn’t spook easily and doesn’t buy into any of the paranormal hype that’s so popular today. He feels there is an explanation for everything. Or, at least he did.
After a few minutes he began to feel uneasy, but couldn’t figure out why because there was nothing about the morning to feel uneasy about. It finally dawned on him that he felt like he was being watched. He glanced around but there was nobody there, and then he saw it. Hanging on the light pole across the street was what could only be described as a Thing.
The Thing was black and its body was about the size of a large dog. It was the arms and legs, if they WERE arms and legs, that looked as though they belonged to an entirely different creature. They were long and skinny. VERY long and skinny. So long were the legs that it was standing on the ground the creature would have been close to 6 feet tall. The arms were as long and skinny as the legs were. It was unlike anything that J had ever seen in his life.
It turned to look at J, or at least he FELT it look at him, but there was no face to speak of. But even with the absence of a face J said you could just feel the Thing make eye contact with you. After J and the creature looked at each other, J said that the Thing began to behave as though it had messed up by allowing itself to be seen, like J had seen something that he wasn’t meant to see.
At that point, the Thing went up the pole using a hand over hand motion, with its feet flat against the pole. Its limbs weren’t wrapped around the pole, it simply walked up the side. When it got about 3/4 of the way up the pole it simply wasn’t there any more, like it had stepped off into some sort of portal.
When it got to be full daylight, J and his wife took a walk across the street to see if there were any type of claw marks on the pole from the creature climbing, but to their shock the pole was made of smooth aluminum. J and his wife keep looking for it but almost a year later nothing else has been seen.”
This report describes a creature that has been sighted numerous times in various countries and is sometimes described as “black stick men” because of their dark bodies and unnaturally elongated limbs.
Below is a video that has circulated the internet for years, although the credibility of this video has been questioned, it does serve as a visual depiction of how these creatures are said to move if not evidence of their existence.
YouTuber williamdefalco has discussed these beings in his video series describing various cryptids.
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