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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Unknown object filmed over Fresno, CA

Someone sent me a link to this video that was of a UFO that was reportedly shot over Fresno sometime in August 2008. Not really sure what it is to be honest.



What I found really interesting is that the strobe pattern of the lights is similar to
this UFO which was seen on Interstate 5 back in 2007. Could this be the same craft or something similar? Only time will tell.


Saturday, September 26, 2009

Zombie protest in Fresno, CA

As I had mentioned yesterday, there was to be some sort of gathering of zombies at the intersection of Blackstone and Shaw area. Armed with my camera, my iPhone for video, and a hell of a lot of courage I headed to the area around 6:00. When I got there I was a bit surprised. There were actually two groups that were protesting. Feeling that the safer group was the one against zombie rights I headed to that one first. Not really sure if that was a a smart idea or not.


The anti-zombie rights group of people

Upon arriving at their corner, I was greeted with anti-zombie chants of how they were taking people's jobs, brains, etc. I talked to them for a few minutes and was even able to get some video asking them to share their views on why zombies should not have the same rights that us living have.



After recording that bit of video I decided to muster enough courage and head across Blackstone where the (larger) group of zombies were at. I figured if they came after me I could just run into traffic and let Fresno drivers take care of them for me. As usual I was wrong.


This is what waited for me across the street.


At this point I started to change my mind, they looked
a bit hungry.


As soon as I arrived at the zombie corner, they eyed me rather hungrily. Thankfully when I told them I was there to document their plight, they backed off. I tried asking questions but all I got was a series of moans, grunts, and cries for "Braaainnnnssss". As I read their signs I realized all they wanted was equal rights that us living have. From jobs, to fair treatment. And these zombies seemed to come from all walks of life.


Even the undead are hurt by the current
recession. If I had kids I'd hire this one to
look after them.


Feeling a bit safer now I decided to take even more photos and some video. Apparently that was a bad idea.



The only way I had escaped that was that a car had mistakenly turned into the parking lot where the zombies were at. There were a group of people in the car and thankfully the zombies turned to these new treats allowing me to get to a safe distance.


I almost pitied these poor people, but they should
have been more aware of their surroundings.



Luckily the group got away. What you don't see is
the carcass of a zombie being dragged from their
back bumper.


At this point I realized I had better get the hell out of there. I thought I would do one more video just to show the plight these poor zombies were going through as I still felt sorry for them. Once again I found out that recording video of zombies is a bad idea.



Thankfully I was able to get out of there with no zombie bites and my brain still intact (though if it was intact before I had shown up is debatable). As I was leaving I noticed several zombies (and even a few of the living) holding up signs for a Halloween attraction called Fright Night Scream Park. Apparently this is where both groups will be staying during the month of October (along with other groups of friends apparently). For more info you can go to their website here. I'm going to try to venture to there next week just to see what exactly is going on.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Zombies to invade Fresno today!


Could road signs like this be a daily occurrence in Fresno? Let's hope not.

I get plenty of strange e-mails here at Weird Fresno. From people claiming to have seen Bigfoot in their back yard, to seeing lights in the sky. But after doing this for over a year now, I recieved the strangest e-mail yet. Zombies are to invade Fresno today.

You read correctly. The walking dead are in Fresno.

Now I'm not really sure what is going to happen. The e-mail I sent was rather cryptic. All I was told is that there is to be a gathering of zombies on one of the corners of Blackstone and Shaw today from 5:00 to 6:30 or so. Nothing else was said. Blackstone and Shaw has been known lately for protest gatherings. Could the walking dead be protesting something? And why here in Fresno?

Whatever the case may be, this blogger of all things weird and completely bat shit insane intends to find out. I'll be armed with a camera, a video recorder, and a sawed off shot gun. Expect a post tomorrow of what happened. Assuming I don't get bit and join their ranks. Or you can check out for yourself what is going on this evening, if you have the stomach for such things.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

My first paranormal investigation

I have been investigating the paranormal off and on for nearly a decade now. Even though I was interested in the subject I never actively pursued anything with a serious mindset. That changed in the summer of 2000.

I was waiting for my friend Tom (whom I mentioned before in many posts) to get off work as we wanted to go look for some ghosts, when he told me a co-worker of his Fred, was also interested in the paranormal. I met Fred, and while he was a bit energenic, I could tell he definitely new about ghosts. Even better was that he had a digital camera, which at that time was a big deal since they were so expensive. I was excited by this because I had been reading on the internet at that time that ghosts would usually manifest themselves as "orbs" or these balls of light and a digital camera was the best way to capture them. I told him about the New Hope Cemetery in Madera which Tom and I believed to be haunted (the stories behind that are for another post). At that time, Tom's roommate Scott showed up to see what was going on. Scotty has always been a skeptic so we decided to drag him along just to see if we could get him to believe. Fred asked if he could take a friend of his along (it was a girl, so I think he was trying to hook up with her) and we all headed off in Tom's truck to Madera.

I had been wanting to go back to the Madera Cemetery for a while. I had recently purchased an EMF detector (theory on these is that ghosts can alter the magnetic field in the area and these things detect the changes) and wanted to try it out on this cemetery which Tom and I believed was haunted. Even better now that Fred had a digital camera, we could hopefully document anything that occurred. I decided to give Scotty the EMF detector and told him how to operate it. The rest of us had flash lights and I had a film camera. Tom and I headed in one direction, while the others headed elsewhere. Not even five minutes into this, I heard Scotty yelling that the EMF detector was going off and Fred was getting several orbs in the pictures.

Excited by this, all of us grouped back together and starting taking pictures and noticed we were getting even more orbs. We were so excited by this that we didn't think to what could cause the increase in orb activity, we just figured the place was really haunted. After a few hours (and rolls of film), we left. We did try a cemetery up in Raymond but didn't have any luck up there.

At this time, I thought we had hit the jackpot. We finally had proof of the cemetery being haunted with all the orbs we got. For years I thought we had captured ghosts on film (albeit the digital type) and told anyone and everyone I knew about it. Hell, the four of us even started our own paranormal investigation group as we were so emboldened by what had happened that night. The problem was, I didn't know any better. I had read something on the internet from a self-proclaimed expert on the paranormal that orbs were the manifestation of ghosts. But these weren't ghosts, they were dust particles reflecting the flash of the camera. What I did not mention before, was that this cemetery is out in the country and that there is no grass there, only dirty. And during the summer the ground is dusty. So by us walking around, we were stirring up dust which the camera was then picking up as orbs due to the flash. As for the EMF detector, I discovered later that if you held it a certain way the thing would light up. That's what I get for buying something that is supposed to be a ghost finder on the internet.

My point of this story is this. Don't believe everything you read on the internet, especially when it's involving anything paranormal related. When I do investigations (which are infrequent now) if I get an orb in any photo, I discount it almost immediately. Unfortunately there are still groups out there that post nothing but orb pics, but it is not my place to judge their methods. I've learned a lot since that night. I'm much more skeptical now of things, though I still do believe in the essence of the paranormal. Just that I need hard evidence to make me believe something when I'm told it's a ghost, or a UFO, or a bigfoot sighting.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Panama youth claim to have killed alien

The discovery of a strange creature in Cerro Azul, Panama, sparked controversy among the people, for what some say might be a creature from another planet, others simply believe that it is just an animal.

A few young men were having fun on a hill when they saw at the entrance of a cave a creature that was approaching them. They were frightened and stoned it to death.

Panama's Channel 13 showed images of a strange creature that appeared last weekend in Cerro Azul, east of Panama City, and alarmed local residents.

According to Telemetro, polemic unleashed between those who believe it is an animal and those who think it's an extraterrestrial creature.

No authorities said anything about the find.

Telemetro said four children, aged between 15 and 16, saw the "thing" out of the water fall of Cerro Azul and stoned it to death, afraid of being attacked.

Here are some photos of the alleged alien.

http://momento24.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/extraterrestrecol.jpg

Personally, I believe this isn't an alien. What kind of intelligent being, capable of traveling light years across the galaxy, if not the universe, would be hiding in some cave (wearing no clothing) and then be stoned to death?

I was talking to Katrina Neufeld last night via Twitter about the creature and she mentioned that she thought it might be a sloth. It’s hard to say without a close-up of the creature’s hand to see if it has long curved claws that sloths are known for having. But a sloth does have a snout similar to what is shown in the pictures, albeit it’s black.

Perhaps this is an albino or some sort of mutant sloth (which would explain the lack of any hair and skin pigment). As far out there as that theory is, it seems more plausible than that of an alien being stoned to death in a cave in the middle of the jungle.

Link to original story.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Strange creature chases witness in Orange Cove, CA

A witness reports that while leaving a friend’s house in Orange Cove late one evening, they saw something strange. They left their friend’s house around 2:00 am and headed south on 10th street towards Sheridan school. They were about four houses away from their friend’s when the witness saw some movement in a driveway. They were ready to disregard it until they saw a figure in the porch light instantly leap onto the roof of the house from the ground. Startled the person slowed down to try to see what was going on and could make out some movement on top of the house. Not much could be seen of the figure, though its size was estimated to be larger than a cat.

Running late, the witness continued to drive down 10th street. As they looked into their rear view mirror, they saw the figure jump back off the house. Scared they locked their doors and began to drive faster. Looking back into the rear view mirror again the person to see that the figure was now chasing the vehicle. They could only catch a glimpse of whatever it was, but it was enough to make them drive faster to escape it. From what they could see, it was about four feet high and had long spindly legs. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human. The witness even further describes it as somewhat of a toad like creature as they said it looked like a toad would look if on its hind legs.

Terrified now, the witness reached Sheridan school now, which is at the end of 10th street and turned west onto J street. They stopped at the intersection of 9th and J street to see if the creature was still following them. At first they didn’t see anything, but after a few seconds the creature came back into the person’s field of view. It continued south across the street towards the school, avoiding the street lights so it wouldn’t be seen. It jumped the chain link fence with no problem. A bit curious now (and with the car doors locked) the witness turned south onto 9th street and drove alongside the west gate of the school and tried to stay focused on the creature. They were able to follow the creature as it ran across the school field, but as they reached the end of the block and turned west onto South street they lost sight of the figure and were unable to find it again. A bit terrified they went home as fast as they could.

From what the witness describes, it wasn’t running extremely fast, maybe comparable to an average athletic person. But it’s ability to jump great heights definitely exceeded that of a human being. The witness mentioned the sighting to his friend the next day. The friend had never seen anything like that nor heard of any sightings. But they had heard someone or something constantly running up and down the street late at night.

The original witness's story can be found here.


Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Fresno's own Bigfoot hunter

FRESNO, Calif. - What’s David Raygoza’s idea of a good time? A full tank of gas in his Jeep, fresh batteries for his video camera and a bag of apples for bait.

Bigfoot bait.

Raygoza, 49, is an award-winning principal at Central Unified’s Pershing Continuation High School west of Fresno, Calif. But for 14 years, he’s also had a secret hobby: tracking Bigfoot in Sequoia National Forest in the southern Sierra Nevada.

Raygoza admits his belief in the legendary creature makes him sound crazy.

‘‘It’s one of those things that you don’t talk to people about. I think mainstream America looks at it like UFOs or ghosts,’’ Raygoza said.

Also known as Sasquatch, Bigfoot purportedly is covered in hair and stands 7 feet tall. The creature roams remote forests, with most sightings concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, from north of Eureka, Calif., to British Columbia, said David Byrne, a high-profile Bigfoot hunter.

Raygoza had kept a low profile on his Bigfoot convictions until July, when he led a symposium on the creature in Hanford, Calif. Raygoza has several photographs of large footprints he believes could be from Bigfoot, as well as video he says shows glimpses of the creature. He said he once found an old nest Bigfoot may have used.

Raygoza’s interest in Bigfoot dates back to his senior year at Riverdale High School, when he read a newspaper article about a 17-year-old student in the Bay Area planning a Bigfoot hunting expedition.

‘‘I thought, ‘Wow. What a bold thing to do,’ ’’ Raygoza said.

Then, 14 years ago, while camping with a friend in the Sierra east of Fresno, Raygoza came across 17-inch footprints he could not identify. A science teacher at the time, Raygoza was hooked on tracking Bigfoot.

But he found no further evidence for 10 years: ‘‘I was really beginning to believe there was no such thing.’’

A chance meeting with a man in Coarsegold, Calif., at a gold-panning exhibit four years ago piqued his interest again. The man, an American Indian, said Bigfoot roamed an area near an old sweat lodge in Sequoia National Forest. He told Raygoza: ‘‘If you go there, you’ll find what you are looking for.’’

Raygoza and a friend made a trip to the location and found several sets of tracks Raygoza thinks were from Bigfoot. Over the past four years, he’s videotaped what he believes may be Bigfoot in the forest, although he admits the images are inconclusive.

‘‘Is it definitive? No, of course not,’’ he said.

Raygoza said he once filmed Bigfoot eating an apple he had put out as bait.

Stephanie Martin, a counselor at Pershing High, said she ‘‘didn’t have words’’ when she learned last summer that her boss believed in Bigfoot. She prefers not to discuss it with him; she said his stories sound credible, and she is scared by the idea that Bigfoot may exist.

‘‘I know it sounds kooky and crazy, and (Raygoza’s) obviously not,’’ Martin said.

Terry Cox, president of the Central Unified School District board, had not heard of Raygoza’s Bigfoot tracking but isn’t bothered by it.

She said she and her sons, now grown, have always enjoyed the Bigfoot legend. Her children belonged to Indian Guides when they were young and participated in several Bigfoot hunts.

One of the Indian Guide mothers made a Bigfoot costume that an older guide wore, running through the woods, allowing the younger guides glimpses of ‘‘Bigfoot.’’

One year, they forgot to bring the Bigfoot shoe coverings, so the creature ran around the forest in silver basketball shoes, Cox said.

Raygoza declined to be specific about where he searches in the Sequoia National Forest, saying that he’s worked hard tracking the creature and wants to be the one to come up with indisputable evidence that Bigfoot is real.

He has plenty of company hunting Bigfoot.

Byrne, the Bigfoot expert, has led three expeditions since the 1960s, outfitted with helicopters and infrared sensors. The work of Byrne and two other Bigfoot aficionados is part of a yearlong exhibit that opened last week at the State Capital Museum in Olympia, Wash., examining Sasquatch as a cultural phenomenon in the Northwest.

Several Web sites are devoted to the legend. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization lists hundreds of sightings, separating them into Class A or Class B reports. The organization says that Class B reports are not considered less credible or less important, but they have more potential to be something other than Bigfoot, such as bear sightings or practical jokes.

Byrne, though a believer, says that ‘‘90 percent of what we think we know is pure speculation. There’s no experts. We’re all students.’’

There are too many eyewitnesses to discount Bigfoot’s existence, Byrne said: ‘‘These are really good, down-to-earth people with no reason to fabricate a story.

‘‘I think there could be something out there.’’

But Denise Alonzo, a spokeswoman for Sequoia National Forest, is more skeptical. She’s worked in the area for 20 years, and ‘‘I’ve never heard or seen anything about a Bigfoot in the forest.’’

Stephen Lewis, chairman of the earth and environmental sciences department at California State University-Fresno, said that if the creature existed, trackers would have found ‘‘Bigfoot poop’’ and other forensic evidence.

His department offers a critical thinking course, ‘‘Facts, Fads and Fallacies in the Natural Sciences,’’ which explores the pursuit of mythical creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster.

‘‘My speculation is that people have a need to believe in magic and mystery, unexplained phenomenon,’’ Lewis said. ‘‘People enjoy the idea that there’s something out there that is mysterious and not yet discovered. They get captivated by all this stuff.’’

Raygoza is not bothered by the skepticism.

He said he’s enjoyed not only the pursuit of Bigfoot, but the beautiful wilderness he’s explored.

‘‘I’m going to continue looking until I get that shot that is definitive, where people won’t say, ‘That’s a bear,’ or until I can’t walk those hills,’’ Raygoza said.

Original article can be found here.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Bigfoot caught on camera?

In Jefferson County, Kentucky a man was having problems with his garden as there was something disturbing the crops he had planted. Not sure if it was some sort of wildlife or perhaps a vandal he set up a field camera to take pictures. For those who don't know, a field camera is a camera with an infrared sensor on it. When an object moves in front of the sensor, it's tripped and the camera takes a picture of the object. Hunters mainly use these on trails to see what game is there.



After a few days the owner checked to see what the camera caught, hoping to find the culprits. On it were animals typical for the area, birds, raccoons, etc. But one large black object caught his attention. The object was about 55 yards from the camera and was estimated to be at least 8 feet tall given the height of the brush in the area. The owner theorizes it was Bigfoot as bears are not known to be in that area. But whatever the object was, it hasn't been seen since.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Texas man claims he has found the Chupacabra



Jerry Ayer, a teacher at the Blanco Taxidermy School in Blanco, Texas claims to have a dead Chupacabra

Ayer says he’s never seen anything like this before. He says one of his students found it.

“It got into his cousin’s barn and they thought maybe it was a rodent tearing stuff up, and they no idea since they’ve never seen it,” Ayers said. “He got out some poison and this is what they got the next day.”

The animal is described as gray, with leathery skin and unlike anything that is native to Texas.

“There’s no hair on it, it’s got long teeth, it’s got the long tail like a coyote but there’s no hair,” said Butler. “It just seems to me that the legs are a little longer than a coyote and I can’t tell you one way or another if it’s a coyote with mange or if it’s a chupacabra.” said Lynn Butler of Rosenberg speaking to a local TV station.

The Chupacabra from the Spanish words chupar, meaning “to suck”, and cabra, meaning “goat”; literally “goat sucker”), also called El Chupacabras in Spanish, is a legendary cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas, according to Wikipdedia.

Ayer plans to donate the remains to a museum.

Thanks to both Chris Hangsleben and Brodiemash over at the Dumbdrum for pointing out this story to me.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Several UFO sightings seen in Central California over the past week

In the last part of August 2009, there were several UFO sightings reported to the National UFO Reporting Center of UFOs seen in the central part California. I'm not sure if they are all the same craft, there are a few similarities but I think they are different craft. Still I believe they are worth mentioning in hopes that maybe someone else has seen one of them and will then report what they saw. Below is what was reported linked back to the original report.

Occurred : 8/16/2009 14:00
Location: Auberry, CA
Shape: Triangle
Duration:15 seconds

Silver triangle shape - Silent

I hesitated to report this, as we only saw this for a short time. We live in the Sierra Mountains about 4,200' elevation. Sitting at the table and looking due south thru a huge window, we saw a long silver triangle (jet or plane [?]) close at a low elevation. What is unusual is we live under a flight plan for Fresno - Las Vegas & back. These go north of our home. This craft appeared to be 1 mile or closer and low, almost equal with our elevation. At most I estimate it might have been 5,000'. It was headed west and when it tilted it was totally sleek from pointed nose to the tail which was completely straight across. No wings, just a very long thin triangle shape. We ran to the west deck & couldn't see it anymore. Did our eyes deceive us? No noise.

Possible fighter jet, w/no markings, but no noise.
Link.


Occurred : 8/18/2009 09:03
Location: Fresno, CA
Shape: Other

Two Jets following or escorting an unknown white dot looking craft.

I was walking with my mother on the Dakota and Fruit ditch in Fresno, Ca. I heard two jets so I looked up and saw that they were really close, and then I looked back up and saw that they were following something. The UFO was a white dot it kind of looked like the international space station does when it goes over. It had no blinking lights like the jets. It looked peaceful, moved slowly it looked to me as if the jets were escorting it somewhere.

We live close to the airport and it has an air defense base, I heard jets take off about ten minutes before, they were heading north then turned east, when I saw the two jets following this craft side by side they were head south west.

I remember the time being 9:03am because that is when I twittered about it.
Link.


Occurred : 8/19/2009 21:00
Location: California (central part), CA
Shape: Diamond
Duration:10 secs

On Aug 19, 2009 around 9:00pm me and my family were driving back from San Francisco to San Diego. We don't know exactly where we were but we were definitely in central California, deep in the boonies. As we were heading South, on our right side of the road we saw a diamond shaped flying object. It had red and green lights that surrounded the object. The object was first low then it tried to fly away but it seemed like something pulled it back then it went like 3 feet closer to the road then it went lower again. That's all I could see, we were driving too fast for me to see if it went in the sky or not. The object was definitely close to the ground, maybe about 4-5 feet off the ground.

I'm not good at describing how it moved but it certainly moved.
Link.


Occurred : 8/24/2009 17:30
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Changing
Duration:15 seconds

It looked like three bright dots, small gap then three more bright dots. it was dancing gracefully a mile or two above the horizon.

Link.


Occurred : 8/26/2009 20:45
Location: Clovis, CA
Shape: Triangle
Duration:2 minutes

Three flashing red lights in a triangular shape seen south of Fresno

I saw three flashing red lights in the formation of a triangle. View looking south of Fresno at an approximate 30 degree angle from horizon. Maintaining formation, they lowered until I could no longer see them past the trees.
Link.


Occurred : 8/26/2009 21:30
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Cigar
Duration:45 Min.

Two crafts spotted over Westfield shopping cntr. Modesto

2 crafts 1 with bright lights across could be cigar or saucer shaped. Other was cigar shaped deep bright neon blue glowing. It would glow and then fade out and come back. The other one hovered up and down quit a bit and side to side like having engine trouble. The blue cigar one stayed close as if to make sure the other was ok. A police or military white I think with markings plain stayed close by flying between them. Then they faded out. The hight I would say would be about 15 to 20 stories up in the sky.
Link.


Occurred : 8/27/2009 21:00
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Light
Duration:15-20 minutes

3 unidentified aircraft over Modesto, CA

August 27, 2009 9:00pm PCT I was riding my bike tonight and observed what appeared to be two aircraft of some kind at about 1000 ft. above our neighborhood. There were about 10 people in the street watching.

The highest craft had two bright white lights on it, and the craft appeared to be hovering, then moving a few feet, and then hovering again.

Beneath this craft was a second craft that had two very bright neon-blue lights. It made wide circles about 100 feet under the other craft.

Both craft made small changes in altitude and direction, but generally stayed in the area above our neighborhood for about 15-20 minutes or so.

A third craft (with blinking red and white lights on it) started to close on the higher craft, and this one looked more like a conventional aircraft.

At one point it flew between the two craft (below the higher one and above the lower one). At that point the lower one (with the bright neon-blue lights on it) began flying in a fast semi-vertical circular pattern.

The third craft continued on, and eventually the higher-flying craft began to fly away in a northwestern direction.

I ran to my house and got my camera, but by then they were all gone. I checked, and no else had a camera to take any photos.

I called the Modesto Police Dept. to see if anyone else had reported seeing the lights. I was told that someone else had called in, but no record was made of the call. Nor were they interested in making one of my call.
Link.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Want to be a paranormal investigator? This class is the best way to start.

With the popularity of Ghost Hunters and other paranormal reality TV shows, more and more people are becoming paranormal investigators thinking that all they need is a camcorder with night vision and a flash light. When I first started investigating ghosts I read book after book at the library (this was before the internet was as prolific as it is today) on anything I could find, from the typical ghost books, to photography, and even a few on criminology so I knew how to approach an investigation from a scientific point of view.

Fast forward ten years and there is now a class on the basics of how to be a paranormal investigator right here in Fresno. It's an Adult Ed. class and it's being taught at the Manchester Mall on Saturdays at 9:00 am from Oct. 17 to Nov. 21. I never too the class, the person who was running the group I was with started it. Her name is Jackie Meador and I have mentioned her a few times on this blog in the past. Jackie has been investigating haunted locations throughout the country for almost a decade now and she is one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met regarding the subject of the paranormal.

Like I said, the class is a basic one that teaches the principles of what it is to be a paranormal investigator. From type of equipment that is needed and how to use it, to the classifications of haunts, and even how to conduct the investigation and write the report, Jackie covers this all over a six week course. The best part, is at week three you actually get to put what you learned to practice and investigate an actual haunted location (the Sierra Sky Ranch).

If anyone is interested in becoming a paranormal investigator, or just learning about the paranormal I would definitely recommend taking this class. The class fills up quickly, so register now. But if you can't get in this semester, there is a Spring one available in a few months so check back then. Here's the link to the Fall class.