Nighttime Encounter with Beloit's 'Phantom Chimera' Marks Second Sighting Report of Creature Since 2013

South Bluff Road. (Emily Wayland / Singular Fortean Society) — South Bluff Road. *(Emily Wayland / Singular Fortean Society)*

The Singular Fortean Society was contacted recently by a man who said that he and his wife were driving home earlier last month when they encountered a bizarre creature crossing the road just outside of Rockton, Illinois.

According to his testimony:

My wife and I were driving home the evening of August 8th, 2019. It was a little past 11:00 p.m. We were on South Bluff Road, heading north, having just turned off of Prairie Hill Road near the bridge. As we turned the corner, she first spotted "it" on the right side of the road, nearest the river. She spotted eyes reflecting light, and assumed it was a normal animal (opossum or raccoon). I saw movement and said "deer", as whatever it had longer front legs, like a tall dog. Then, as it crossed the road in front of us, we realized it was not a deer. Or any other easily recognized animal. I have grown up in rural areas, and am well acquainted with various rural creatures. This was not a coyote or fox. It had a rounded head and a flat face, no snout or muzzle. It had no obvious ears, or they were very tight against its head. Dark brown in color, almost muddy red in the car headlights. Long, slim tail that curled under as it loped across the road. It moved in a way that could only be compared to an ape or bear's style of movement, as if all fours was faster but not completely necessary. My wife and I thought it moved like a gibbon. It left a bizarre impression on us both, as we can't settle on a creature that we believe it could be.

The chimeric creature described is eerily similar to something reportedly seen by a wife and her husband near Beloit, Wisconsin in 2013. That sighting took place only eight miles north of this one.

According to the wife’s testimony regarding the 2013 encounter:

It moved like a cat, graceful with a long flicky tail. It didn't look like a cat though, except for the head. It was dark, but not black, brindled, dark browns with some black. The fur was short like a dog with some glossiness to it. Its head was massive and triangle shaped, the eyes were large and green. The head looked so robust, like you could hit it with a bat and it would break the bat. It was flat like a cats, no snout like a dog or bear. Its chest was also triangle shaped and really muscular with legs that came down like a bulldogs. The back end was a smaller triangle with legs that came off like a German Shepard. This thing was big and solid muscle. I think the top of its head would of came to my chin, so about four-foot. The tail was about the same length as the body.

"This was what was confusing, it moved like a cat, but didn't look like one," the earlier witness explained. "The whole time I had the feeling it knew we were watching and found the situation amusing. Also the longer you watched it the harder it became to see it. Like its edges were blurring. It got to about 30 feet from the road and lied down, in a ‘C’ shape, just like a cat. It was staring at us and I was staring at it. But the longer I looked at it, it almost seemed to become pixelated."

The more recent witness described a similar feeling of high strangeness during his encounter.

"There was definitely a sense of oddity, even now my head is trying to wriggle up a fit as to what it was. The whole incident lasted only a second or two," he said. "Amusingly, I live within five minutes of the first sighting."

He added that he has had some experience with the unknown previous to the sighting, but none since—although his encounter with the phantom chimera did happen very recently.

"I actually have been quite interested in the grand 'fortean unknown' for a long time. I've been part of a few 'haunt hunts', present at a seance or two. I've been to Bachelor's Grove, Gettysburg and the grave of Inez Clark. Since [this sighting]? Not really. Been fairly quiet," he said.

The witness also shared a news article he had found from early July of 2019 in which a mountain lion was reportedly seen near Beloit by Orfordville resident Luke Reints. Interestingly, when interviewed by local news, Reints never described a mountain lion; he said only that he had seen an animal resting underneath a bridge along the Rock River.

"I saw something out of the corner of my eye," he said. "It was kind of moving a little bit. I got the chills right away. I just started backing up all the way to my truck."

By the time Reints returned to the scene with a police officer, the animal was gone.

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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