The first official Nessie sighting of 2026, an ill-advised opossum toss in South Carolina, and a purportedly possessed Dopey statue accidentally destroyed at a Mexican urban park.
A pair of iconic cryptids popped up in the news this past week, beginning with the legendary Loch Ness Monster, which may have been spotted by an American tourist. The intriguing incident saw a peculiar hump emerge from the waters of the Scottish site just a few hundred feet from witness Tony Inhorn's boat. His account and subsequent sketch of the creature were so compelling that his report has been recognized as the first official Nessie sighting of 2026. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, a pair of men working overnight at an industrial plant were stunned when they observed an eight-foot-tall hair-covered creature, believed to be Bigfoot, walking in front of a nearby warehouse.
Photo: New London Police Department
This past week featured two rather strange arrests that wound up making headlines. First, in Connecticut, cops busted a man for allegedly chasing after some kids while wearing an eerie silver Scream mask and brandishing a menacing-looking weapon. While his antics may have merely been a misguided prank, the man now faces several charges related to the unsettling incident. Later in the week, a South Carolina man was arrested for allegedly taking down a staggering number of mailboxes in a vandalism spree that stretched across three towns and, in one instance, threw the remains of a dead opossum on someone's porch, leading to the man being charged with felony littering of hazardous waste.
Photo: Getty Images
By far the most bizarre story of the week came by way of Mexico, where a purportedly possessed 'Dopey' statue was accidentally destroyed by a clumsy young man. The peculiar piece stood near a playground at the Bosque Venustiano Carranza urban park in the city of Torreón for decades. A longstanding urban legend surrounding the statue was that it would come to life in the middle of the night, prompting all manner of paranormal enthusiasts and thrill-seekers to visit the site, hoping to see the magical moment for themselves. This is undoubtedly what Axel Rosas was doing when he went to the park last week and climbed atop the delightful depiction of Dopey, which subsequently snapped at its base, sadly putting an end to the piece and the urban legend attributed to it.
For more strange and unusual stories from the past week, check out the Coast to Coast AM website.