Photos of a cloaked figure in Gastonia, N.C. gave many people the creeps on social media. Uploaded on Facebook on Aug. 17, the photos showed a person wearing an all-black cloak standing near the edge of a forest. The creepy photos were reportedly taken near Hudson Woods Apartments, the Gaston Gazette reports.
Immediately, speculations about possible witchcraft activity in the area broke out. Reports of the mysterious shrouded figure dropping poisoned raw meat on a nearby playground in order to kill dogs also flooded the Internet. However, no raw meat was ever found and the story was never confirmed, according to Mail Online.
"I haven't heard of any other sightings. I've just heard of people being concerned," Donna Lahser of the Gastonia Police Department told the Gaston Gazette.
The identity of the cloaked figure had been a mystery for almost two weeks, leaving the police and the property manager scratching their heads for answers - until now.
When the photos broke out on social media, a woman contacted the property management and said the person in the photo was her daughter, who was doing something for school.
"She contacted the property and said it was her daughter working on something related to school," Lance Calhoun of Southwood Realty said.
Although the police take reports of suspicious people very seriously, they will reportedly give an exception to this case; the only crime the mysterious cloaked figure would have committed would be littering, if the raw meat story was true.
Now that the mystery of the cloaked figure has been solved, the police still can't get over the overwhelming online response to the photos.
"It's getting more credence than it needs to. It's got a life of its own," Lahser said.
