Witness Reports Group Sighting of "Large Man" with "Wings That Were Wider Than a Car" in Chicago's Little Village

An illustration by artist Donie Odulio of the creature people have been reporting in and around Chicago and the greater Lake Michigan area. (Donie Odulio / Instagram: @donie_odulio)

Manuel Navarette of UFO Clearinghouse said he received the following report out of Chicago’s Little Village earlier this month.

I was just hanging out with my friends in the alley by the panaderia (Mexican Bakery). We use the alley and the parking lot to skateboard and just hang around and talk. There were five of us and we saw this thing standing on top of the flea market across the parking lot. It looked like a large man, but he had wings that were wider than a car. It was watching us, and it had very bright red eyes that looked like the taillights of a car. It stood there making these chirping noises that we could clearly hear, even from across the parking lot.
It stood there for about a minute watching us, it made us all feel like we were in danger and that it was after us. It then shot straight into the air and flew over us, the entire time it kept watching us as it flew over. My friend wanted to run but we told him to stay still, or it might chase us, and it would lead it to where we lived.
I silently prayed to La Virgin de Guadalupe for protection and this thing kept flying away from us and headed off in the direction of the arch.
It made us all very scared and when we talked about it the next day, we felt that one of my friends’ ex-girlfriends might have sent it after us. She practices Brujeria [Latin American witchcraft] and it just seems like something she would do. If it was meant to scare us, then it did what it was supposed to do as all of us were scared out of our wits.

According to Navarette, the sighting took place on Sunday, February 5th, at about 11:00 p.m.

The investigator said he was able to speak with the initial witness who submitted the report, "and he stated that they usually would go out to the parking lot and alley behind La Baquette Bakery, a local bakery that has been a staple of the Little Village neighborhood for many countless years."

The group reportedly used the area to skateboard and said it was a "relatively safe place to hang out without having to leave the neighborhood."

A map of the sighting area created by Lon Strickler for Phantoms & Monsters. *(Lon Strickler / Phantoms & Monsters)*

The witness estimated that the sighting took place between 11 and 11:30 p.m., Navarette said, and that it was clear and not as cold as it had been over the last few weeks.

"They reported a clear, moonlit night and that they were relatively alone in the parking lot," he said.

Historical weather data confirms that conditions were fair, and the temperature was around 30 degrees with very little wind at the time of the reported sighting.

Navarette said the witness told him that the entity "was sighted perched on the roof of the local flea market which sits on the same parking lot about 50 yards from where they were," and that it was a "pitch black, humanoid-shaped entity that he guessed was at least seven feet tall (but was unsure) and that it had enormous wings that he stated were as wide as a car."

The creature reportedly had "bright red eyes" that the witness compared to the "intensity of a car’s headlights."

Navarette said the witness described the group as frightened, as though the creature was "after them," and that "one of the group felt like running but his friends stopped him," since "they feared it would trigger a prey response by the entity that would have followed them home."

After watching the group from on top of the building, the creature reportedly took flight, but "did not take its eyes off of them and eventually flew out of sight."

Navarette said the witness speculated that the creature might have been sent by his friend's ex-girlfriend.

"He recounted that they had broken up recently and she had been very upset over the breakup," Navarette said. "The ex was known to be a practitioner of the Mexican witchcraft known as Brujeria."

Navarette added that he has attempted to contact the other witnesses through their friend, but has yet to hear back from them.

"I will attempt to reach out again in a few days and any updates will be posted to the website," he said. "This sighting will be forwarded to the Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research Team for further investigation."

This is the second reported sighting out of Little Village to specifically mention La Virgin de Guadalupe—a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus, often associated with a series of five Marian apparitions said to have occurred in Mexico City in 1531.

The prior winged humanoid report came from a father and daughter who claimed to have seen a “thin, black figure” with eyes that were “glowing bright red” near La Burbuja grocery store in Little Village at around 8 p.m. on October 25th, 2022.

That report also mentioned a chirping noise made by the creature.

A chirping or clicking sound has so far been reported in at least four other cases: on September 12th, 2017, a woman walking home from work reportedly encountered a "black devil" in Chicago's Little Village; on April 13th, 2018, a couple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, reportedly encountered a bat-like flying humanoid with "large glowing red eyes”; on September 24th, 2020, a woman reportedly encountered a seven-foot-tall, red-eyed creature after leaving work at the United States Postal Service sorting facility in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport; and on April 28th, 2022, a truck driver claimed to have encountered a giant, red-eyed “man-bat” while dropping off equipment at work in Bensenville, Illinois.

This report constitutes 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. They generally take place in the evening or at night, often in or near a park or natural area, and around water. Witnesses consistently describe a large gray, brown, 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, green, or orange eyes, and humanoid features such as arms and legs are often reported. Some witnesses have reported feeling intense fear and an aura of evil emanating from the creature they encountered. 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 misidentified large bird—such as a heron or crane—or some type of anomalous avian species could explain some, although certainly not all, of the encounters. A number of associated high strangeness incidents have also occurred alongside the creature sightings. These include reports of UFOs, other anomalous flying creatures and mysterious humanoids, parapsychological phenomena, and bizarre events experienced by those investigating the sightings.

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You can view a timeline of the sightings so far here.

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