An evil gnome like creature terrorizes a farmhouse in Porterville

Looks innocent doesn't he? 

I love strange creature stories and am always lamenting the fact that the Central Valley is lacking in them (unless you want to count the numerous sighting of dogs with mange being reported as Chupacabras). So imagine my surprise (and a bit of shock) when I came across a story of a supposedly evil gnome that was terrorizing a farm house near Porterville.

The first incident occurred when a woman by the name of Tammy moved herself and her three children into a small farmhouse on the Tule River near Porterville. Soon after moving in Tammy started feeling like something was watching them and had an uneasy feeling ever time she walked by the old barn. For some reason most of the animals on the farm seemed to avoid the rickety old building and soon she noticed that the number of her ducks and chickens had started to dwindle, but couldn't figure out why. She was soon going to have an idea why.

One night Tammy and her son were coming back from grocery shopping when, as she parked the car and got out, noticed movement to her right. Thinking nothing of it she picked up a grocery bag and noticed it again, this time accompanied by what she described as a "very freaky, very evil sounding chuckle". Looking in the direction of the noise Tammy noticed about 50 yards from her a small humanoid looking figure. Or as she described it, a gnome.

The figure was about two to three feet in height, wore black baggy pants and a gold colored shirt. The face was partially covered by a long salt and pepper beard and on top of the head was a long, red pointed hat. The nose was large and bulbous and the eyes were rather deep set. As the figure grinned at them, Tammy noticed that the grin was almost from ear to ear and the teeth looked to be an ugly brown color and appeared to be either pointed or jagged.

Horrified, Tammy dropped the groceries and grabbed her son and ran off towards the house with the cackling little man right on her heels. Tammy was able to get inside the house and was in the midst of telling her two daughters what she saw, when she saw movement outside the kitchen window. Upon investigating she saw the top of the figure's red pointed hat moving back and forth underneath the window. Finally after what must have seemed like an eternity, the figure disappeared and Tammy was able to get the groceries from the car. This was the only time she actually saw the figure, but until she moved out she would always hear creepy chuckling coming from the old barn, as if it was taunting her or something.

You would think that this would be an isolated occurrence, but it seems the gnome wasn't satisfied with just terrorizing Tammy and her family.

In March of 2010 a family moved in to the same house on the Tule River. According to the wife, Charlie, it was perfect for what their family needed. Her husband took a particular liking to a pond on the property and decorated it with fairy, gnome, and toadstool yard ornaments and stocked it with Japanese koi fish. Not surprisingly, Charlie and her family also had an eerie feeling about the old barn on the property and tried to stay away from it as much as possible.

One night, at around 3:00 am, Charlie and her husband were woken by what can only be described as a "raspy, gurgling singing". Charlie and her husband looked out their bedroom window and what they saw defied what they considered their reality. Standing by the pond and holding one of the garden gnomes was a creature that came out of a Grimm's fairy tale, as Charlie described it. The creature was two to three feet tall, wearing maroon pants and a baggy yellow shirt with a brown vest over it and a dark waistcoat. It had a large gray beard and was wearing a reddish brown pointed hat. Charlie went on to say the most horrible part of the creature were its eyes and teeth. When it grinned it's teeth appeared to be jagged and pointed and the eyes were small and beady and had a dark mean look to them.

Apparently the creature saw the couple looking at him (it?) and reached into the pond and grabbed a koi and dropped it into its mouth and swallowed it. Furious, Charlie's husband pushed open the window and yelled at the creature to leave the yard or he'd call the police. The gnome grinned and laughed as he gave them the finger and disappeared. The police were called, being notified that an "intruder" was on the property, but when they got there an hour later the only evidence that was found was small footprints, about the size of a child's, around the pond.

This wasn't the only time the gnome would visit the pond. Night after night it would be seen holding a yard ornament and eating a fish. The family eventually wised up and moved the ornaments and put the fish into a tank inside the house. Apparently this didn't go over well with the gnome. Upon the usual time of its appearance of 3:00 am, when the gnome saw that the yard ornaments and fish had been removed it went into a crazed frenzy and began yelling and screaming in some language that nobody could understand. But they understood it was pissed. It began to run around the house screaming in whatever language was native to it. The family felt safe until Charlie realized the dog door in the kitchen was unlocked and feared the creature would try to enter the house through that. She was able to lock and then ran upstairs to close the rest of the windows. The last they heard of the creature was a very loud screeching, cackling sound that was heard underneath one of the living room windows. Charlie's husband went to investigate and saw the top of the creature's hat underneath the window.

Given all that had gone on the family decided to get out of the house and Porterville in general. One has to ask, was this the same creature that Tammy saw a few years prior? I first heard of both Tammy and Charlie's story on MysteriousUniverse.org and it seems the author of the article was able to put the two women in contact with each other. After exchanging info and indeed confirming that both had lived on the same property, they agreed to meet and revisit the property where their terrifying encounters had occurred. Upon arrival, they noticed the barn structure that had given both of them an eerie feeling had been torn down but the property still had that dark feel to it. Before they left they decide to knock on the front door of the house to see if anyone was home. A woman answered but was not happy to see them and told them to leave the premises after being asked about the barn or if she had experienced anything weird.

This story intrigues me to say the least. First you have two witnesses describing a similar looking creature that they saw years apart from one another.  Then you have a creature that is known only in folklore but is usually of a pleasant nature, not the mean asshole that was seen by the two women (for some reason I find it hilarious that he flipped off Charlie and her husband). So what did these two women see? I'm going on a different theory here and I know I'll probably get more grief than I usually do, but I think what Tammy and Charlie saw was one of the fairy folk. Namely a redcap.

Redcaps come from English folklore and were said to be a type of malevolent murderous fairy that mostly inhabited ruined castles found along the border between England and Scotland. They would murder any traveler who was foolish enough to stray into their homes. Redcaps got their names from the practice of dying their hats with the blood of their victims. They were described as having the appearance of an old man with red eyes and large teeth.

So how in the hell did a mean little creature straight out of English folklore get all the way to Central California? Remember the United States used to be a British Colony and the early colonist brought over their beliefs from their home land. What if somehow the things they believed in became real? Tibetan Buddhism has a concept called a Tulpa, or a thought form. Basically the idea behind it is that if something is concentrated on enough it is somehow brought into existence.

What if some of the early settlers that came here still held a belief that redcaps were real? So real that they took form and had a life of their own? And over the many years the now very real redcap wandered the country and somehow wound up in California. How else do you explain what was seen? If it was just one person that saw the creature the idea of a hoax of prank could be brought into consideration. But the fact that two people saw the same thing years apart has me wondering what the hell is on the outskirts of Porterville.

Now obviously this is merely conjecture and nothing more. It can't be real; it's just some creature out of a fairy tale right? Tell that to both Tammy and Charlie. Whatever they saw was real to them and it scared the hell out of them. And I have a feeling it's still there, waiting to terrorize someone else.



Since I found this story on another site I feel I have to link back to the original MysteriousUniverse article. You can find it here.

Also it seems the show Monsters and Mysteries on the Destination America network did a story on the creature. You can find the episdode on YouTube but you have to pay $1.99 to see it. I see the show on all the time and imagine they probably run repeats of this episode.

Will the Rapture occur tomorrow?

The gold seal makes it official.

If you've been following the news lately, or seen one of the numerous billboards, you would know a small Christian group is claiming that the Rapture will occur on May 21, 2011. Which happens to be tomorrow.

The group is based out of Oakland, CA (where I saw several billboards last week) and is an independent church founded by a Harold Camping. According to Camping he was able to figure out the a "code" in the bible and claims it's basically a cosmic calendar of sorts and was able to pinpoint the Rapture based upon the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

Camping has a radio network and has been able to spread his message through that as well as utilizing bus bench ad space and the previously mentioned billboards. I think the billboards have to be my favorite part as they have a gold seal on them stating "The Bible guarantees it". As if having a cheesy gold seal on here makes it official.

Let me also say that I believe in God, that I'm a Catholic. But I think what this guy is claiming is ridiculous. This isn't the first time he's claimed to "know" when the Rapture is going to occur or knowing when world is going to end. This isn't the first time he's done this. Camping also claimed that Christ would return on September 6, 1994. Obviously that day came and passed with no incident. Just as May 21, 2011 will.

As I had stated in a post I did back in February, I have several friends who's birthday is on May 21. Local derby grrl Karma Kaze, wife of blogfather Mike Osegueda, Tanya, and President/Ceo of Storyland & Playland Barry Falke all celebrate their birthday tomorrow. So if the Rapture does indeed come I will be out there looting to get them each a present. But most likely I will be at home playing Call of Duty or something. I really need to get a girlfriend.

Tarantulas on the lose in the United Kingdom

Tarantulas, like this one, may be on the lose by the

thousands in the UK.

There's concern in the United Kingdom that a large group of tarantulas may be on the lose in England after two Chilean Rose tarantulas were found in the Greater Manchester area.

The rare tarantulas are a popular breed among collecters and some fear that more may be out there. The first one was found by a woman in her garden and then almost a month later the second one was found when it was trapped underneath a plant pot.

The arachnids are said to be aggressive and are capable of blinding people by spitting hairs into their eyes. It's not likely that they will survive into the winter, given that the spiders come from a different climate, but authorities have issued an alert for people to be on the look out just in case.

As for me, I'm not afraid of spiders, but I blame the movie Arachniphobia for putting a bit of fear of them into me. And not that I was planning on going to the UK any time soon, but the idea of spiders running rampant throughout the countryside that can blind you by spitting hairs into your eyes makes me want to stay in good ol Fresno.

Full source: Telegraph
By Andrew Hough

Man tosses puppy at Hells Angels then escapes on bulldozer

A young man in Bavaria who reportedly forgot to take his medication taunted a group of Hells Angels at their clubhouse over the weekend by dropping his pants, throwing a puppy at the bikers, and then making his getaway in a stolen front loader.

The 26-year-old drove onto the biker clubhouse grounds on Sunday afternoon in Allershausen, a town just north of Munich, daily tz reported on Monday.

There the Munich student pulled down his Bermuda shorts, mooning a group of bikers before throwing a puppy at them, the paper said.

Then the man fled the scene, stopping at an autobahn construction site to steal a front loader, which he attempted to drive to Munich.

But his slow pace caused a 5-kilometre traffic jam, the paper reported.

After making it just one kilometre along the highway, the 26-year-old hitched a ride with a truck, which let him off in Eching, not far from Munich.

Police lost track of him for a while there, but they quickly located him again, finding out that he had neglected to take his medication for depression.

He was checked into a psychiatric clinic for treatment. Meanwhile the puppy he tossed at the bikers is being cared for by a Freising animal shelter.

Link to the original story can be found here.

Face of Jesus seen in satellite imagery of farmland

Satellite pictures appear to reveal the Lord's bearded face staring out of the ground in eastern Hungary.

Eagle-eyed web browsers noticed it while looking at Google Maps images of remote farmland.

It seems the Son of God is busy making appearances througout the world as last month he was reportedly spotted burned into the cooking fat of a pan of bacon. Which proves, in fact, that bacon is heavenly.

New Zealand man reportedly attacked by vampires

A New Zealand man claimed he was bitten by three people who allegedly drank his blood during a vampire-style attack in the dark.

Details of the bizarre late night incident on Mount Victoria, an unlit beauty spot that overlooks the capital, Wellington, emerged after two people appeared in court jointly charged with wounding with intent to render a man unconscious.

James Phillip Brooks, 22, and Xenia Gregoriana Borichevsky, 19, were both remanded on bail without entering a plea.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of a third accused, James Eric Orr, 19, who failed to appear at Wellington District Court.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail.

It is believed the victim, whose name has been suppressed by the court, passed out after being bitten on the night of February 20.

Outside the court, Mr Brooks said he understood there was blood drinking during the incident but added: "That wasn't me.

"Do I look like a vampire? I'm out during the daytime," he told the city's Dominion-Post newspaper.

Mr Brooks, who has a number of facial piercings and a mohawk haircut, said: "I may look like a punk but I'm not a punk. I'm just different.

"Yeah, I bit a guy. He hit on my missus. My girlfriend and my mate were biting him.

"If I'd hit him, I'd have really hurt him, so I thought I'll bite him seeing as they're already biting him."

He said drinking blood "wasn't my agenda".

Police refused to discuss the case because it is before the courts.

Ms Borichevsky's bail conditions were relaxed by the court after her lawyer asked the judge to lift a night-time curfew on her.

Dr Marc Wilson, a senior lecturer in psychology at Wellington's Victoria University, who specialises in studying paranormal beliefs, said drinking human blood was "incredibly unusual".

He said human teeth were not designed for breaking skin and sucking blood.

"You could do it but you would have to really want to."

Original story can be found here.

German man marries his cat

A lonely mail worker has wed his sick and obese cat after vets told him she might not live much longer, claiming they have the purrrrfect relationship.

"Cecilia is such a trusting creature. We cuddle all the time, and she has always slept in my bed," Uwe Mitzscherlich, 39, told Bild Newspaper.

Our hearts beat as one - it's unique!"

Mr Mitzscherlich, who is single and from Possendorf, in eastern Germany, described his cat as fat and asthmatic.

Because marrying an animal is illegal, Mr Mitzscherlich paid €300 ($428) for a television actress to play officiator in the ceremony. His twin brother, Erik, served as witness.

The happy couple dressed up for the occasion - Mr Mitzscherlich in a wedding suit and top hat and 15-year-old Cecilia, who loudly meowed her way through the exchanging of vows, in a white dress.

Actress Christin-Maria Lohri, who officiated the ceremony, was quoted as saying: "At first I thought it was a joke. But for Mr Mitzscherlich it's a dream come true."

Original story can be found here.

Florida Vampire to Run For President in 2012

Could this "vampire" be our next president?

Not satisfied with living in Florida, Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey wants to move to Washington, D.C., to become the nation's first vampire president, reports CBS affiliate WTSP.

Sharkey, 45, spent Friday on a Greyhound bus with his new fiancee, Audrianna Foster, a 19-year-old girl from Ohio he met online. She too believes she is a vampire, or vampyre.

"I haven't dated a girl older than 19 since 2006," said the Tampa man as his 19-year-old daughter and his 2-year-old grandson met him at the Greyhound station. "It's good to be me."

"The Impaler" claims he's a direct descendent of Vlad II the Impaler, better known as Dracula.

He has scheduled a Monday press conference in Tampa to announce his plans to file paperwork to run for President of the United States in 2012. He recently switched his party affiliation from Independent to Republican so he can run with the G.O.P.

He ran for Governor of Minnesota in 2006 and also had short-lived bids for U.S. Senate in 2000, U.S. President in 2004, and U.S. President in 2008.

In an extended interview with WTSP, Sharkey shared well-thought-out opinions on capital punishment, the abortion issue, and veterans issues. However, he also bragged about having numerous teen-aged girlfriends in recent years.

The girls have also provided several skeletons in Sharkey's closet.

He's accused of "brainwashing" a 16-year-old in Minnesota. The two were engaged until last month. Her family now has a restraining order against Sharkey and claims his texts to her violate it.

He reportedly admitted to harassing another 16-year-old Minnesota girl online in 2009.

He was arrested in Tennessee several years ago and is currently on probation from Indiana after he was found guilty in 2009 of intimidating a judge. He served six months in a Marion Co. jail before his release. Sources confirm the Secret Service has had to keep him on its radar, since he moves around the country.

Sharkey was once on the Executive Committee of the Hillsborough Co. Republican Party (HCRP) in the 1990s, but A.J. Matthews, HCRP State Committeeman, says he didn't show any of the extreme behaviors he's exhibiting now.

"He does believe in Republican values," Matthews said. "Is he going to make a big splash with his current identification of being a vampire? That's up to the voters to decide."

Matthews said he'd help Sharkey with campaign basics, just like he would any Republican candidate. But he's been trying to advise him to focus on mainstream issues and away from the extreme behaviors.
Sharkey, meanwhile, continues to develop a movie on his campaign, "The True Impaler."

Original story can be found here.

We here at Weird Fresno just have one question for Mr. Sharkey. Is he a Twilight Fan?

Man has 12 fingers and 14 toes

An Indian man is proud of the 12 fingers and 14 toes which have put him in the record books.

Rather than feel self conscious about the way he was born, Haramb Ashok Kumthekar has always celebrated his extra digits.

The 24-year-old business graduate was born with six fingers on each hand and seven toes on each foot.

This means he is the unofficial record holder for the most recorded number of fingers and toes on a living person.

However, he does not hold the Guinness world record which is held by fellow countryman Devendra Harne, who has 12 fingers and 13 toes on his feet.

Haramb does not hold the official record because, technically, some of his fingers are attached and are not classed as separate digits.

However, he is recognised by the Indian equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records, the Limca Book of Records.

Haramb's extra fingers and toes are caused by the medical condition polydactlyism, which comes from the Greek for "many fingers".

While each of Haramb's extra fingers and toes have separate bones, they don't all boast nerve endings and he is unable to move them or feel them all properly.

And while he is proud of his extra digits, Haramb admits that it can be frustrating at times, especially when it comes to finding shoes for his feet or gloves for his hands.

Original story can be found here.

Leprechaun seen in Mobile, Alabama

I know this video is old, but couldn't help but post it as I love the sketch of the purposed leprechaun (if you look closely you'll see a flash of the sketch of the Unibomber near the end of where the show the sketch of the leprechaun). Happy St. Patrick's Day. Éirinn go brách!!

Korean man marries pillow

Lee Jin-gyu fell for his 'dakimakura' - a kind of large, huggable pillow from Japan, often with a picture of a popular anime character printed on the side.

In Lee's case, his beloved pillow has an image of Fate Testarossa, from the 'magical girl' anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

Now the 28-year-old otaku (a Japanese term that roughly translates to somewhere between 'obsessive' and 'nerd') has wed the pillow in a special ceremony, after fitting it out with a wedding dress for the service in front of a local priest. Their nuptials were eagerly chronicled by the local media.

'He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere,' said one friend.

'They go out to the park or the funfair where it will go on all the rides with him. Then when he goes out to eat he takes it with him and it gets its own seat and its own meal,' they added.

The pillow marriage is not the first similarly-themed unusual marriage in recent times - it comes after a Japanese otaku married his virtual girlfriendNene Anegasaki, a character who only exists in the Nintendo DS gameLove Plus, last November.

Original story can be found here.

Sheep gives birth to human-faced lamb

A sheep gave birth to a dead lamb with a human-like face. The lamb was born in a village not far from the city of Izmir, Turkey.

Erhan Elibol, a vet, performed a caesarean on the animal to take the lamb out, but was horrified to see that the features of the lamb's snout bore a striking resemblance to a human face.

“I’ve seen mutations with cows and sheep before. I’ve seen a one-eyed calf, a two-headed calf, a five-legged calf. But when I saw this youngster I could not believe my eyes. His mother could not deliver him so I had to help the animal,” the 29-year-old veterinary said.

The lamb’s head had human features on – the eyes, the nose and the mouth – only the ears were those of a sheep.

Vets said that the rare mutation most likely occurred as a result of improper mutation since the fodder for the lamb’s mother was abundant with vitamin A, CNNTurk.com reports.

A goat from Zimbabwe gave birth to a similar youngster in September 2009. The mutant baby born with a human-like head stayed alive for several hours until the frightened village residents killed him.

The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man.

"This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing," he reportedly said. "The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible. Evil powers caused this person to lose self control. We often hear cases of human beings who commit bestiality but this is the first time for such an act to produce a product with human features," he added.

The mutant creature was hairless. Local residents said that even dogs were afraid to approach the bizarre animal.

The locals burnt the body of the little goat, and biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation.

Link to the original article can be found here.

Graveyard Camping. Only in Madera.

Last Saturday I was with my friend Ashley and her brother as they needed some help filming a project. One of the locations they needed was a cemetery, preferably an older one. Being that they lived in Madera I suggested one out in the country called New Hope Cemetery. I had been out there many a times when I was a kid looking for ghosts and the place had a creepy factor, even during the day. We pack up out gear and head on to the cemetery. As we get near it, we can see a truck with a camper on it parked near the ruins of the church and a man, who appeared to be in his 40's) on the ruins of the church with what looked like a camper stove. Shocked and honestly a bit terrified by this we drove past and didn't stop. As we drove by the man actually walked out onto the road, dragging his leg like he was Keyser Soze or something. We kept driving on for a mile or so and curiosity got the best of us, so we headed back. Since I had recently sold my soul and bought a new iPhone with video, I thought this would be a good chance to test it out. Below is what I filmed. I apologize for the Blair Witch-esque video. Though I find it funny that I'm talking like I haven't yet reached puberty.





Ashley says the guy waved, but I didn't see him. Honestly I was so focused on videoing him that I didn't really pay attention. We decided to go to another place in Fresno and did the filming there. But I was still curious. Why was this guy there? Was he just camping for the weekend or was he squatting? I had to go back. I drove back by on Monday and the same truck was there, but there was also another vehicle there. Looked like a mid 70's Ford Ranchero. I have no idea what the hell they were doing there, but I did take a bit of video. Though it's choppier than the first. Mostly cause the road is full of potholes and I was driving as well as filming.





I'm not sure what's going on. I know the cemetery has been abadoned since the mid 80's, when the church burned down (rumored by Satanist, but that's for another blog post) and there has been a group of people that go out there and clean up the cemetery every once in a while. Perhaps this person is some sort of caretaker/watchman? I know in my high school days this was somewhat of a party spot and kids would go there all the time. Maybe they have someone out there to keep a watch on it. Or maybe the person is homeless and is staying there as they have no other place to stay. I honestly don't know. But It gets weirder.


The shot from Google Maps Street View. Looks to be the same
truck as in the video minus the camper shell.



An enlargement of the truck from a different angle. The front
looks similar to the one in the video.

I have no recent photos of the place, and didn't want to go by a third time and risk the ire of Keyser Soze, so I went to Google Maps, specifically their Google Street option to see what I can find. Well as luck would have it, the same truck (or at least the same model) sans the camper is in the Google Streets shot. I have no idea how old the shot is, but I think they came through my neighborhood about a year ago and I live maybe five miles from the cemetery. And it's not like I drive by the place daily, so I really can't say how long it's been there. But it's just weird that someone is camped out at a cemetery. Someone wants to go interview them? Do it and I'll be your best friend. Forever and ever and ever.