Chilean Winged Wonder
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 23rd, 2008
Mr. Oscar Solar Valdebenito, married, a sergeant with the Carabineros, was performing his duties as a security guard in the Preventive Custody Center of the city of Angol on Friday, April 28, 2000. The facility was under construction at the time.
Mr. Solar was alone and was making his rounds of the construction site’s interior. Once he returned to the guard shack on the southern side, using a passageway located in the back, he noticed the presence of an “animal” standing 1.20 meters tall, average complexion, with a small head in proportion to the rest of its body. The creature sat on top of a metal pole ending in four luminaries, standing some 8 meters tall. The animal landed at the very same time that the watchman turned his attention to the site.
Solar was able to see the lights go out and the pole shake as a result of the creature’s descent. The estimated weight of this strange being was some 40 to 50 kilograms (according to the eyewitness). Its head featured two medium-sized ears, sideways and pointing upward, with rounded tips, pricked up like those of a police dog. Two long wings with pointed ends emerged from its shoulders. It never folded its wings, keeping them unfurled “like a vulture under the sun” (eyewitness’s description). He saw no feathers, only a kind of velvety skin, dark grey or black in color. He was unable to make out the face. The wings extended to the creature’s lower body, where he could also see two legs. A pair of stubby arms could also be seen under the head.
The witness was accompanied by four dogs, a beige female in the lead. Apparently, the “winged animal” pounced on the dogs, but these took off running and howling in a southward direction, abandoning the construction site. Five or six youths coming down from the north along the train tracks that go beside the site, also took off running when
they saw what was going on. The witness explained that he was standing some 30 meters from the pole. He didn’t manage to move or turn on his flashlight, such was the degree of fright and surprise inspired by the situation described. He recalls having heard a sharp, loud squawk as the “animal” landed on the pole. Judging by the tone of this squawk, it was reminiscent of a loudspeaker’s crackle.
The “animal” eventually landed on the ground after making a flight in a gentle curve. It landed on a conical pile of dirt. After the dogs took off, it flew off with two gentle flaps of its wings, flying over a 3 meter wall, above which five wires are suspended, providing light to another streetlamp on the corner. The creature never came close to
touching them. The animal came within 10 meters of the witness’s position. Its descent to the ground left prints on the mound of dirt – the witness managed to see “three thin holes” and fenced them off, but they were erased and destroyed on the next day at the order of the construction supervisors.
Personnel from Carabineros (state police) reported to the scene the next day, along with the Servicio de Investigaciones (civil police) who displayed their annoyance with the construction supervisor for having erased the prints, despite having been informed of the situation.
Further details:
The witness confesses that when “the animal” was close to him, flying off with a gentle beat of its wings, he was unable to control a bowel movement, a fact that he has tried to keep confidential on account of the customary jokes that tend to emerge in such cases.
The young men who were walking along the train tracks were never located, although efforts are under way, and Radio Los Confines apparently succeeded in this endeavor. But this rumor has not been confirmed.
(Translation (c) 2008, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Raul Nuñez, IIEE)
Originally in Spanish: Chile: Winged Creature in Angol; Date: 04.22.08
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Entertaining but unbelievable. No vertebrate has had six limbs.
no vertebrate known to known science. There could be something. How many cultures around the world have “demonic” looking creatures? Something is out there.
Very Entertaining in deed…..but I agree unlikely to be anything but a story. I’m not saying it is impossible, just unlikely. Sounds like your typical gargoyle description anyway. Maybe there is a movie in the making, seeing as the trend of marketing movies with an urban legend has become so popular. But who knows.
Given there’s not a six-limbed vertebrate in the entire fossil record, this one goes on the trash heap.
I suppose it is possible what the man saw were not arms, but something else. Possibly a thumb-like appendage on coming from the top of the wings?
Whoa, there, fellas-given that the face was indistinct, isn’t it at least possible that the “stubby arms” were a mis-identification of some other anatomical feature? I’m at least intrigued-and I’ll suspend any judgment until some further reports come in, hopefully from the “five or six young men”. I would point out two other things missing from the report: any estimate of the creature’s wingspan, and any mention of time of day and lighting conditions.
Very interesting, more “fortean” than “cryptozoological” if you ask me.
What would the needed wingspan for a 40-kg being be? 4 meters? more?
There’s also nothing related to the eyes of the being, but I’m willing to bet they were glowing red, as it is customary in such encounters.
Another paranormal flesh and blood creature?
Clear case of mistaken avian identity. Everything looks bigger and more threatening when you’re scared. I wouldn’t doubt that it was a vulture. Perhaps a search of the area would have found a dead animal nearby; like next to those nearby rails.
What about a large owl (keeping in mind that darkness and surprise can exaggerate certain aspects of a sighting) or a flying fox? I would expect the flying fox to be fairly light (I believe most bats are lightweight for their sizes) but a large owl might fit the bill.
The ear tuffs, strange call, silent flight….those ‘three thin holes’ could be from talons.
No wait let’s be sensible about this. If i’m not mistaken it could be a ropen and the fact that it landed near a pile of dirt it could have mistaked it for a tomb. These animals are known to feed off of carcasses. And because this event is in the southern hemisphere makes more sense that with that wingspan it could travel thousands of miles via the air currents in search of food.
Great horned owl, or maybe a fruit bat (which would be quite the discovery in South America!). Size and distance are notoriously hard to gauge.
Whatever it was, I think a hoax (at least, a hoax by the witness himself) can be ruled out, for one small reason. Maybe people like bathroom humor now more than they ever have before, but I don’t think he would freely admit to losing that particular kind of control (or claim that he did), just to make the story more dramatic. Somehow that convinces me that SOMETHING happened.