8 Mythical Creatures Recently Spotted In Real Life
5. A Leprechaun - Alabama, USA (2006)
In 2006, a camera crew from local television station WPMI descended on Le Cren Street near UMS-Wright in Mobile, Alabama, to investigate crowds massing in the area. Some members of the crowd soon told reporters that people had sighted a leprechaun hiding in a nearby tree. An amateur sketch of the diminutive Irish creature was produced, and this likeness in combination with colourful interviews with local residents helped to make the report an early viral video on then-new YouTube.
Some believe the story was merely a prank played by the residents at the expense of the news crew, and some, including the OReilly Factor, suggested that the popularity of the video played off racial prejudices. A followup investigation by AL.com in March 2015 featured an interview with a man who claimed to have been the first to see the leprechaun.
He described the appearance of the creature as being a metamorphosis, with the mouth or nose appearing first, followed by the rest of the face. Since the infamous report, he has tweeted about sighting the leprechaun several times, reporting 70 percent visibility on one occasion in 2010.