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.
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 #38: What is that? Strange creature caught on security camera in Youngstown, Ohio
Submitted by Ron
Encounter Date: 27 August 2017 12:03 AM
Location: Youngstown, Ohio
“There’s been some stuff going on the past few days. Clicking noises from the patio, trash cans knocked over, and the dog goes absolutely crazy around midnight.
I was sitting in my kitchen playing a mobile game on my phone, when I got a notification for movement detected on our garage camera. At the same time my dog, a 7 month old 50 pound German Sheppard goes insane… barking, growling, snarling at something on our deck. I get up to go look and I see this thing take off running past my car and down the drive way, it ran 15 feet in 2 seconds. It looked like a humanoid bird.
I saw it on my deck with my eyes and it was a little better than what was on the camera, but it was tall had bird like legs that were thin and the feet pointed outwards if it was as if it was standing still. The left foot pointed left and the right foot pointed right.
It was probably 3 to 4 ft tall had jet black fur or feathers… whatever you want to call it. I don’t know what it was. Its head was white with… I don’t really want to call it a beak but more like kind of like a snout. Then again it was 12:00 at night it was pretty dark so I can’t be too certain on that.
There’s been a lot of strange droppings in the yard. They are not from my dog I know, they’re bird like but they’re massive.”
“I don’t know what the hell this thing is but I’ve lived on the street my entire life. That house… I’ve been there for 13 years now. I have to say there have always been strange things that went on, there but it wasn’t until just last night that I finally found something. I’ve never seen anything like this it doesn’t look like it has arms, wings or anything. It looks like legs, a torso and a head.
At first I thought it was a turkey or maybe an emu because I know there’s emu Farms, but it’s not big enough to be an emu and it’s definitely not a turkey.”
The witness stated the car the creature runs past is a 2003 Monte Carlo.
The video was taken by an Arlo Smart Home security camera system.
- To our knowledge, there are no populations of large, wingless or small-winged nocturnal flightless birds living in or around the area of Youngstown, Ohio.
- When we first observed the creature in the video, we thought it looked like the back half of a dog, a little person or child running in the driveway. However, the witness is adamant that what they saw was a bird-like animal.
- It’s difficult to discern but it appears as if the feet of the animal are “out toeing” as it runs in the camera’s view as the witness had stated in their observation of the animal.
- The creature does not just “appear” as it seems in the video. It appears in the first frame after the security cam senses movement. The empty frame is a placeholder in some parts of the video, and it does add somewhat of a dramatic effect.
- Another video that has circulated the web (that has not been verified for authenticity) appears to show a similar creature. The location is not been identified, but the video date is February 24, 2017. (see below)
Do you know what this creature could be? Contact the National Cryptid Society if you have any other information on sightings of a similar creature in the Youngstown, Ohio area.