NEWS: Two separate sightings of the “Jersey Devil” were reported in October 2015.

On 7 October 2015, News 12 New Jersey shared a photograph purportedly showing the mythical “Jersey Devil” on their Facebook page:

Dave Black, the man credited with the photograph, told New Jersey On-Line that the image had not been manipulated or staged:

Before I could write about his experience and print the photo, I had to be sure he was sincere. “Yes, I swear it’s not Photoshopped or a staged thing,” Black responded when I asked if he was willing to let me use his name and state that the photo he sent was not manipulated in any way. “People have said it’s fake, but it’s not. I’m honestly just looking for an explanation for what I saw.”

While New Jersey On-Line may have double-checked Black’s sincerity, and while Black may have insisted that the image wasn’t staged, many viewers remained skeptical. After all, the Jersey Devil is supposedly a kangaroo-like creature with, bat-like wings, a kangaroo body, and the head of a goat. As far as we know, nothing like that actually exists in the animal kingdom.

But just as the skeptics were getting ready to dismiss this photograph of the “Jersey Devil,” the web site Weird New Jersey reported that there had been a second sighting of the creature. This time, a woman named Emily Martin actually managed to get the beast on film:

There you have it. Martin’s video is undeniable proof that if you film an inanimate object being tossed through the air on a dark night, you can convince people that the Jersey Devil is alive and well:

“I realize this sounds crazy but I saw a red animal with a long neck and horns. I swear on my mother’s grave, this is not a joke. I pulled over to take a video and as I started filming it got on its hind legs and flew away. I am an middle school teacher but moonlight tutoring algebra for high school students. Was driving home from an appointment on Old Port Republic Rd in Leeds Point when I took this video. So excited, had to share with someone. I searched online and a few others have similar stories. Channel 12 posted a photo online of it.”

Martin insisted that her brief and conveniently dark video was real and undoctored, but her evidence was hardly convincing. The creature’s body is immobile other than its wings during its supposed flight (a characteristic common to piñatas but not legendary cryptids), and Martin reacts as if she had just filmed a lightning bug rather than a mythical beast with a goat head, bat wings, and a kangaroo body.