First Bigfoot, Now A Wombat!
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 30th, 2008
Did someone in New Zealand get wind of the “Molester Blames Bigfoot” story of last week, and decide to float the following about? Humm, I guess I could have posted this on my “copycat effect” blog.
But it seems more likely that it is another one for the “humans-are-weird-animals” file.
BTW, there are three kinds of wombats: The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), also known as the naked nosed wombat or the forest wombat; the southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons); and the critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii). The kind of wombat in this story was not defined.
I share it here with all due respect for my friends in New Zealand and Australia, and other people with a sense of humor as we approach April Fool’s Day.
A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after telling police he had been raped by a wombat and the experience had caused him to start speaking “Australian.”
Arthur Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker from Motueka on South Island, rang police on February 11 to say he was being raped by the slow-moving Australian marsupial at his home, The Nelson Mail reported.
He rang back soon afterwards to say he was withdrawing his complaint against the wombat, a court was told.
“Apart from speaking Australian now, I’m pretty all right you know,” he told police in the second call.
Cradock pleaded guilty to using a phone for a fictitious purpose and was sentenced to 75 hours community work.
Prosecutors said alcohol played a large part in Cradock’s life, although his defence lawyer said he was not drunk on the afternoon of the phone calls. “Man sentenced over wombat rape claim,” Australian Broadcasting Network, 28 March 2008.
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.
Cute. Amusing.
At least in this case (unlike the bigfoot molestation story), the “copycat effect” was not taken to the extreme and used as justification for any subsequent activities.
“Apart from speaking Australian now, I’m pretty all right you know,” he told police in the second call.
now that’s comedy!
Loren thanks for sharing.
The Enquirer will love this one!
Wombats on the loose –
attacking women!
Lock your doors, gals…
Arthur Cradock was identified as a “New Zealand man.”
Oh brudder.. cartoons and cocktails.