“Chimp” With Club Update

In Monday’s 4:30 PM late dispatch from the Ventura County Sheriff’s department, via the Ventura County Star, authorities still were not able to locate the alleged "chimpanzee" seen with a club in his hand in a Thousand Oaks backyard. By late afternoon, there were no more sightings of the chimpanzee.

No new reports of sightings occurred on Tuesday, July 25, either, to the best of our knowledge. I expect that if there is more activity, we could hear about it first from Cryptomundo readers.

Cryptozoologist Chad Arment, author of two books on the subject as noted in the previous column, had this to say about one element of the event:

There’s another question that’s begged: why was it called a "club"? That implies cultural purpose (a tool for bashing things), as opposed to just a big stick. Was the animal seen using it, or just carrying it? Did the stick appear modified in any way? Or is there a belief that any stick carried by an ape is a "club"? (And, I suppose, was "club" part of the original description, or did the newspaper modify the report?)

Cryptomundo looks forward to any new sightings or a resolution to this mystery, soon.

Loren Coleman 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.

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