I came across this story today, and it’s stuff like that that gives cryptozoology a bad name. Bad enough we have the attention-hungry hoaxers, but then I see little stories like this that, though seemingly harmless, have a cumulative effect on society at large and their perception of cryptozoology and the people who actually conduct serious research. Read the article and you will be able to see what I mean.
Fox. Not a coyote.
WASHINGTON — A werewolf is on the loose in Woodbridge, or is it?
Police officers received a call Monday around 10:05 p.m. from a neighbor who reported seeing a suspicious creature roaming the area of Colchester Road and Randall Drive, InsideNova reports.
“A coyote, or a werewolf,” Prince William County police spokesman Jonathan Perok told InsideNova.
Officers searched the surrounding woods, but didn’t find anything.
It would seem that the Woodbridge werewolf is not the only lunar-challenged creature to visit Virginia.
Sightings have also been reported in Henrico County, near the Confederate Hills Recreation Center. A blog dedicated to all things werewolf says the sightings could be a hoax, given their proximity to a rec center, or there could be another likely explanation: bigfoot.
I’m not sure why this was reported as a werewolf, or why certain people are claiming it might be Bigfoot (the author of this article should not that it shoudl be capitalized…yes, I’m a cryptozoology nerd). A coyote being reported seems mundane enough, but for the media to jump all over his claim that it might have been a were wolf or even a Sasquatch is just silly. Though Halloween is right around the corner…
