Witness Reports “Werewolf” Sighting on South Lake Shore Drive in Chicago
The Singular Fortean Society received a report recently from Chicago resident Ami Kleminski, who wished to share her sighting of a “werewolf” on South Lake Shore Drive.
“I don’t want to sound like a nut. I’m sure many, if not most, of the messages you receive begin this way. I’ll just get to it. After watching Unsolved Mysteries [Volume 4, Episode 5], something resonated. This is something I’ve shared with anyone who will listen and that I shared on Facebook when it happened,” she said of her experience.
Kleminski’s sighting took place during the early morning hours of March 8th, 2016, as she was driving to work.
I live on the Northside of Chicago, but I work (since 1996) for a steel mill in Gary, Indiana, with a 4am-2pm work schedule. The toll road system here is too expensive for the everyday traveler so I use a combination of highway and smaller roads to travel back and forth. The way there is pretty quiet from a traffic perspective, especially on South Lake Shore Drive where the event occurred. It is still well lit, though, I’m sure for safety reasons, as it is right next to Lake Michigan, its bicycle and pedestrian path, and public beaches.
On March 8th, 2016, I was traveling from Chicago to Gary on South Lake Shore Drive near 31st street when I had to slow down after catching something out of the corner of my left eye. I’m very careful at that hour to watch for animals and for teenagers who might be hanging around by the lake doing teenager things and then stumbling invincible across the road. I had heightened alert this morning because of the weather. My [Facebook] post when I arrived at work even mentions that the high that day for Chicago was going to be 67 degrees—VERY warm for Chicago on a March 8th—a time of year that still sees blizzard conditions.
What I saw was a naked, adult, fair-haired white male lope across the road from the Lake Michigan side towards the city neighborhoods. When I say lope, I mean on all fours like a dog and bounding away or towards something. This was not, however, a dog, coyote, or fox. It was a naked full-grown man with his body contorted into the gait of a canine and moving at a good clip. At the time I remember saying to myself, “I just saw a fucking werewolf.” I checked the moon trope for werewolves, and it was actually a new moon. I posted it on [Facebook] when I arrived at work. I told a co-worker, and he asked, like many after him, why didn’t I call 911. And say what? Sorry busy 911 operator, I just saw a possibly transitioning werewolf / naked dog man lope across South [Lake Shore Drive]?
The baffling nature of this experience stuck with Kleminski and inspired her to search for answers, but it wasn’t until she saw investigator Tobias Wayland on Unsolved Mysteries that she decided to contact The Singular Fortean Society.
“Over the years I’ve shared the story. I’ve tried to Google [other sightings or] to find similar stories on Reddit, etc. I’ve never found anything. I do know what I saw and by the time I get up for work, get ready, and get about 20 minutes from my house, I’m fully awake. I wasn’t scared at the time, just confused. One sees weird human stuff in the morning in those overnight hours, but never anything like this,” she said. “Then I’m watching the Mothman episode [of Unsolved Mysteries] and a mother and daughter were talking about a creature with hindlegs crawling out of a canal. What I saw didn’t resemble any Mothman sighting I’ve heard of; what I saw was skin and human-looking but canine. The hindleg part of their story bothered me, though.”
The report referenced by Kleminski is that of Shana Clippert and her mother Barbera, who said they saw a massive, black, winged humanoid and a glowing UFO in Rockford, Illinois, after midnight on June 20th, 2022.
In correspondence with Kleminski, Wayland asked if she was aware of Uner Tan syndrome—a condition which causes those suffering from it to walk using quadrupedal locomotion that is often accompanied by severe learning disabilities.
“I watched some videos on Uner Tan syndrome as what you said made sense. It wasn’t that. They keep their backsides high and legs rather straight. This was like watching a hairless German Shepherd with a man’s head. The back was straight like a dog and legs bent like hind legs. The only thing canine was the gait,” Kleminski said.
She also considered if perhaps some illicit substance might have been involved.
“Bath salts, maybe? I really don’t see how that could allow one to contort one’s body like that, though,” she said. “I can still see it in my head like it was yesterday. We live in a strange and mysterious world with so many unknowns and maybe that is what I witnessed.”
Ultimately, Kleminski just wants to understand what she saw.
“I was really hoping someone else you’ve encountered or you yourself had seen something similar. I’ll be watching for it for the rest of my life,” she told Wayland. “I want to not be the only person in Chicago with this experience. I want to understand what I saw or to have it validated with similar experiences, if possible.”
