Woman Reports 2015 Sighting of 'Crow Man' across from Chicago's Washington Park

Lon Strickler of Phantoms & Monsters recently received a report from a woman who said that in 2015 she saw “A very large ‘crow man’ hovering over a high-rise apartment building about a block away from my house” overlooking Chicago’s Washington Park.

According to her report:

Hello, a friend shared an NPR article about the Mothman sightings in Chicago and I was shocked when I came upon your website and research.
On November 1st, 2015 around 10 am I was chatting on the phone with a good friend, minding my business making plans for brunch, when I glanced out my bedroom window and immediately noticed something out of place. A very large “crow man” hovering over a high-rise apartment building about a block away from my house. A man, jet black from head to toe, upright hovering in the air about five feet above the Midway Plaisance Senior Apartments on East 60th Street. For reference, this is a 17-story high-rise apartment building directly across the street from Washington Park on the south side of Chicago (miles from downtown and not a lot of high-rises in the area).
So I’m on the phone with my friend but I go silent as I’m watching this thing hovering and kind of spinning around slowly over the building and my friend on the phone starts asking me if I’m still there. I start describing to her what I’m looking at and of course she thinks I’m crazy. By the time I get off the phone to try and take a picture the thing starts to float away and move westbound behind some trees where I lost sight of it. I call my friend back and she is trying to rationalize that I saw some sort of life-sized leftover Halloween decoration flying 20 stories in the air like a balloon. I can’t say exactly what I saw as it was unlike anything I have ever seen or could even imagine, but it was alive and wasn’t any damn balloon. The whole sighting only lasted about 60 seconds but I got a good look at it from my 3rd floor window before it “flew“ away.
The thing had wings tucked behind it, but didn’t need them to hover or move around. I wouldn’t say it “flew” at all, it literally hovered in a standing position. It was jet black from head to toe, front to back. It had to be about eight feet tall, and I could clearly make out a head, arms, legs, and wings folded behind it. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and the sky was a crisp bright blue. It was so sunny that its jet black body looked iridescent with shades of blue and purple reflecting off of it in the sunlight as it did a slow 360 degree turn. From the iridescent color and wings I can best describe this thing as a “crow man.” It almost looked like how the feathers of a crow looks iridescent from where I was standing. At the time I googled “crow man sightings in Chicago” and couldn’t find any other sightings on the internet to justify what I saw, or help anyone believe me. I only told about 3-4 close friends and family members and they just kind of joked, filed it away mentally, and we all moved on.
Well, fast forward to about a week ago and one of the friends I had told my sighting to sends me this NPR article where I came across your collection of other reported sightings, each sounding eerily similar to what I saw. Now, I’m a busy college educated 'mom-preneur' raising two little ones, with a demanding career, and a side business, and don’t have time for any visits from the Men in Black, the government, or a creepy Mothman seeking revenge for snitching on him. But how is this not national news or a public safety alert? I literally started crying when I clicked on the map in that article and read a reported sighting from Washington Park in 2011 just a few hundred feet away from the high-rise building where I saw it in 2015. For reference, Washington Park is 372 acres, and this particular area is pretty close to the large pond on the southeast side of the park by 60th and Cottage Grove.
Wish I had more to share but honestly I was too terrified to run outside after this thing to take a picture. It had wings and didn’t need them to fly. I wish I could go back to minding my business, but really hope you can expose what is going on here. Let me know if you have any questions.

Strickler was able to speak to the woman over the phone, and she confirmed the details of her report. No new details were added during that conversation.

This sighting took place nearby one from 2011, in which a college student said he saw a “man with wings” fly overhead while out for a walk in Washington Park on the night of October 14th.

Washington park is just over a mile west of Lake Michigan, and within several miles of dozens of other sightings reported in the Chicago area.

This is the latest news in a string of ‘Mothman’ sightings from within a few hundred mile radius surrounding Lake Michigan, including every state bordering the great lake. These sightings ostensibly began in the spring of 2017, but more historical accounts are being reported as more people become aware of the phenomenon. Sightings of weird winged beings around Lake Michigan have been reported at all hours, often in or near a park, and around water. Witnesses consistently describe a large, gray or black bat or bird-like creature—although in a small number of cases the creature was described as insect-like—sometimes with glowing or reflective red, yellow, or orange eyes; and humanoid features such as arms and legs are often reported. Many of the sightings are also of something seen only briefly or are described only as a flying creature with few details, which leaves open the possibility that a large avian being could explain some encounters. Sightings of anomalous avians, including thunderbirds and pterosaurs, are often reported in or near the same locations as those where witnesses have reported winged humanoids.

To report a sighting, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

You can view a timeline of the sightings so far here, and an interactive map here.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

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