What is the East Coast Nightcrawler?
Elaborate hoax or… something else?
As an Ohio native, there is one particular cryptid incident, dubbed “The Nightcrawler” that sends shivers down my spine every time I think of it (which is often). This is one of the strangest I’ve yet seen, perhaps because of the clear quality of the video and the speed at which this mysterious figure moves.
For several days leading up to the actual encounter on August 27th, 2017 in Youngstown, Ohio, strange things were happening outside the witness, Ron Bockla’s, residence. According to his submitted case report with the National Cryptid Society, reports of “strange clicking noises, trash cans knocked over, strange droppings in the yard” and the dog consistently alerting around midnight, had him spooked.
On the night in question, the dog went crazy as usual, barking in the direction of the back deck. This time, when the homeowner looked out of the windows, he saw two eyes looking at him briefly from the backyard, and then the figure took off, running down his driveway “15 feet in 2 seconds” and past his Monte Carlo.
The home security footage captured the moment, showing a bird-like figure, not particularly tall, with long legs and feet that “pointed outwards if it was standing still.” Though the witness at first stated the creature had dark feathers and a snout, he also said it didn’t appear to have arms or wings. It simply appeared to be “legs, a torso, and a head.”
So what could this intruder be? Several different theories have emerged:
Dog or Child
The National Cryptid Society reports when reviewing the video it appeared to be the “back half of a dog” or child, but to me, this looks nothing of the sort. This is clearly a figure standing upright on two legs, but no child could move as quickly as this. In watching the entire clip, this figure does move incredibly fast, just as Mr. Bockla said.
Emu
There is a theory that this is an emu, a tall bird, as according to Mr. Bockla, there are emu farms in this area of Youngstown. I could find no such farms when conducting research for this article. Could this just be the case of an escaped, rogue bird? Emus do emit a sound that is capable of being heard at a distance of two kilometers. The clicking sounds the witness describes must have had enough resonance to be heard through the walls of the home and insulated deck windows. However, in viewing a photo of an emu, the bird is bulky, with thick feathers. This is not a bird with a lot of girth--in fact, it’s the opposite. This figure is thin, almost frail.
Neighborhood prank or extraterrestrial
The Youngstown Nightcrawler certainly appears to have alien features, such as a large, white head and long, almost misshapen legs. Certainly, I would believe this over the emu theory. And of course, the possibility of a prank can’t be discounted. There are plenty of accounts like this that have been proven inauthentic--though this particular sighting has not yet been deemed one of them.
Curiously, another Nightcrawler incident was reported on the West coast in Fresno in 2007 at around the same time at midnight. The video shows a white figure with two long legs walking through a resident’s yard. In viewing the video, however, this figure almost looks to be wearing a sheet or pants, as you can see the bottoms of the alleged pantlegs billowing out.
Theories have emerged that contend the figure is nothing more than a puppet on a string wearing pants. To me, this physically looks completely different than the Youngstown Nightcrawler. Could someone have seen this and gotten an idea to re-create a similar scenario in east coast suburbia?
Like so many of these cryptid cases, it will remain an unknown, and placed into the realm of neighborhood lore, until it reemerges again.
