Case INT/0005 — Crichton, Mobile, Alabama, 2006
MULTIPLE WITNESS / ARBOREAL / CONTEMPORARY SKETCH
- Date of events
- March 2006.
- Location
- The Crichton neighbourhood of Mobile, Alabama, United States. The most geographically remote case in the archive, and the only one involving a tree that has its own place in local culture.
- Witnesses
- Multiple residents, gathered at the site over successive evenings.
- Summary of account
- Residents gathered around a tree where several people said a leprechaun appeared after dark. Observers described the figure as visible from some angles and not others, and as disappearing when lights were directed at it. One witness supplied an amateur sketch, which was broadcast, and which the archive regards as the case's most valuable artefact: it records what a witness was prepared to commit to paper on the night.
- Alternative explanations
- Offered freely by participants themselves at the time, ranging from a shadow cast by branches to a practical joke. The scene was good-humoured; several attendees said openly that they had come for the crowd rather than the leprechaun. Their reports are recorded like any others.
- Sources
- WPMI (NBC 15, Mobile), original March 2006 broadcast; see the CBS News retrospective linking the report. The broadcast became one of the early widely circulated internet videos, which is why this is the one case visitors usually arrive already knowing.
- Editorial notes
- The light-sensitivity detail (visible in darkness, gone under illumination) is recorded without comment beside the directed-attention material in INT/0001 and INT/0002. The three cases are widely separated in time and place. The archive draws no conclusion.
- Revision history
-
Date Change 19 Mar 2006 File opened five days after first broadcast. The archive's fastest response to date. 2 Apr 2006 Sketch designated primary artefact. 15 Mar 2021 Retrospective coverage linked as the original station page had moved.