Ah, the things you can get away with in a country without guns.
A man in an all-black outfit has been prowling Wallasey beach in Wirral, a peninsula in northwest England, according to people who live in the area.
One witness said the man was “waving his hands in the air and making panther noises,” while others said they saw him approaching cars stopped at lights on roads near the coast.
“Anyone know who the freak in the cat mask and morph suit is at the coastal park near the harvester?” another local wrote online.
One thing was clear from witness accounts, photos and several short smartphone-shot videos: the costumed man wasn’t trying to imitate a friendly house cat.
“Was walking my dog tonight and heard a man making cat noises, shone a torch he was waving his arms at me before crawling up the hill. Never been so scared,” one witness posted to Facebook, per the BBC.
Sad as it may be, the first thing that came to mind when we read the witness accounts was that this doesn’t happen in the US, simply because odds are the costumed prankster would be shot.
It’s possible whoever is behind the strange sightings is making light of decades-long rumors that mysterious and elusive big cats have been prowling the UK countryside.
Similar to persistent rumors of Bigfoot in the US, the phantom cats of the UK have their own believers who argue that there’s an extant population of leopards or pumas who are exceptionally adept at staying hidden from cameras but are occasionally spotted by farmers and motorists in the British countryside.
There’s a podcast dedicated to the topic, and proponents of the idea say it could explain a handful of cases in which livestock have gone missing.
The podcast, Big Cat Conversations, even dedicated a 2021 episode to “Wirral’s liminal leopards,” with its host interviewing several people who say they’ve encountered large melanistic felids on the peninsula over the decades.
But as big cat experts have pointed out, it’s difficult to miss the signs when such apex predators really do claim an area as home. From unmistakable pug marks, to trees scratched and scent-marked with urine, to calls that can echo for miles in right conditions, big cats have many ways of making their presence known— and it’s often advantageous for them to do so, since they’re highly territorial animals.
One man who was out walking his dog told the BBC he thinks the whole thing is a prank.
“I don’t know his name, I think it’s just a wind up. He’s definitely not out to frighten people, he does it for fun,” he said. “He just likes being a giant cat. He doesn’t frighten our dog.”
Local police say they’re aware of the sightings. Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell told local media that anyone who feels threatened by the suited figure should call law enforcement and report his whereabouts.
via Pain In The Bud