The Bizarre & Beyond: The Syracuse Figure, Manhattan's Mole People, and a Bat on the Pillow

There are two kinds of people in late August: those labeling notebooks for the new school year, and those staring at a blurry photograph asking, “What exactly am I looking at?”

Naturally, we prefer both.

Welcome to Edition 5 of The Bizarre & Beyond, our Saturday tour through real news, strange sightings, and the wonderfully unusual corners of everyday life. This week’s unofficial syllabus includes a mysterious figure in an upstate New York pond, headlamp-wearing explorers beneath New York City, and one Virginia bedroom guest who arrived without making a reservation.

Grab your metaphorical hall pass. Class is in session.

1. The Syracuse Figure: Person, Sasquatch, or Pond-Side Mystery?

A hiker in Onondaga County, New York, recently photographed a small, strange figure wading through a remote marshy pond. The images were intriguing enough to be logged by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, or BFRO, as a Class B report.

The official description is wonderfully cautious:

“Human? Sasquatch? Other?”

That is not a conclusion. It is more of a three-option multiple-choice question with no answer key.

The report, listed as an August 2026 New York sighting, describes a hiker, a remote pond, and photographs of a figure that is difficult to identify from a distance. Because Onondaga County includes Syracuse, online discussion has started referring to the sighting as the “Syracuse Figure.” The nickname is informal, but it certainly has a nice mysterious ring to it.

You can read the BFRO report listing for the documented details.

What could it be?

The most reasonable possibilities remain wonderfully ordinary:

1. A person wading in the pond.
   Humans do enjoy entering places where sensible shoes stop being useful.

2. An animal.
   Distance, reeds, ripples, and unusual posture can turn a perfectly normal creature into a blurry legend.

3. A juvenile sasquatch.
   This is the possibility that keeps the cryptid community leaning toward the screen.

4. A visual illusion or photographic artifact.
   Mist and water are talented collaborators when it comes to confusing the eye.

The BFRO’s Class B classification signals that the evidence is ambiguous. It does not establish that a sasquatch was present. It does, however, confirm that someone saw something unusual enough to document.

And that is where the magic begins.

Our brains are prediction machines. We expect trees to look like trees, ponds to contain pond-like things, and hikers to photograph landscapes rather than mysterious silhouettes. When an image violates that expectation, the brain’s curiosity gap opens wide.

Suddenly, the photo is not just a photo. It is a question.

For a back-to-school desk with a little more mystery than a stack of textbooks, explore our curated collection of unusual finds. A Celestial Home Decor Tapestry or a few natural stones can make a study corner feel less like a homework station and more like a portal to somewhere interesting.

No sightings required. Probably.

2. Manhattan’s “Mole People” Are Back Underground

New York City has always had an impressive talent for making the ordinary feel cinematic.

A manhole cover? A functional piece of infrastructure.

A manhole cover at 4:20 in the morning, followed by several headlamp-wearing figures emerging from below? Suddenly, we have a mystery.

Viral videos this summer have shown groups entering and exiting manholes and storm drains in New York City and Long Island. The figures have been dubbed the “mole people” by local media and social media users, although the phrase is more dramatic than the current evidence.

The latest reports describe small crews wearing headlamps, hip waders, overalls, and carrying tools. One widely shared video showed three people emerging near Penn Station and Madison Square Garden before closing the manhole and running away. Another incident reportedly involved five people entering a storm-drain system on Long Island.

The scenes look like the opening moments of a very niche superhero franchise. The sewer system, unfortunately, does not appear to have issued them matching capes.

Background reporting from The Guardian documented earlier incidents in Queens and Brooklyn. More recent coverage has focused on the Long Island sighting and continuing speculation about who these explorers are and what they are doing below the streets.

The leading theory: lost treasure

Authorities have reportedly considered the possibility that these groups are searching for valuables that ended up in the sewer system. New York has thousands of miles of sewer pipes, and over the decades, people have found everything from jewelry to weapons in unlikely places.

There is historical precedent for the idea. In 1936, police reportedly recovered thousands of dollars from a Manhattan sewer. That does not make sewer scavenging a good idea. It merely proves that human beings have been turning plumbing into an adventure setting for a very long time.

Other possibilities include:

• Urban exploration
• Influencers creating viral content
• Treasure hunting
• Illegal scavenging
• Something even stranger

The important part is the safety warning. New York’s Department of Environmental Protection has emphasized that sewer exploration is illegal and extremely dangerous. Toxic gases, unstable surfaces, flooding, sharp debris, and confined spaces are not exactly ideal conditions for a casual field trip.

So, for your back-to-school adventures, stick to the library, the classroom, or perhaps a wonderfully strange corner of your own home.

A glowing candle, a Cosmic B.U.G.S. accent, or a crystal display can provide the atmosphere of an underground expedition without requiring a flashlight, hip waders, or a meeting with a municipal emergency crew. Our B.U.G.S. Enchanted Home Decor collection is a safer place to begin your descent into the unusual.

3. A Bat on the Pillow Is Not a Bedtime Story

Finally, we travel to Richmond, Virginia, where Dr. Krista Edelman woke up to discover that a bat was attempting to get into her mouth.

Yes. You read that correctly.

Edelman, a gastroenterologist, initially thought she was dreaming about a mouse. Then she reached up and grabbed something soft, cool, and hairy. The dream became extremely real, extremely quickly.

She and her husband managed to capture the bat so it could be tested. The result was reassuring: the bat tested negative for rabies.

Even so, Edelman began preventive rabies treatment and shared the experience as a public health warning. Her story is a reminder that bat encounters should be taken seriously, especially when someone may have been asleep and unable to tell whether a bite occurred.

As reported by USA TODAY, bat bites can be tiny and difficult to detect. Anyone who may have had direct contact with a bat should contact a health care provider or local public health officials promptly. The Virginia Department of Health also provides guidance about wildlife exposure.

The bat’s test was negative. The story, however, remains permanently positive for “things you never expect to happen before breakfast.”

If you are fond of bats from a decorative distance, the “Bat” Pine Wood Wall Shelf is a considerably calmer option. It is quirky, practical, and unlikely to flap into your face at dawn. You can view it here.

For an even softer nighttime mood, pair mysterious accents with a warm candle or a small celestial object. The goal is atmosphere. Not emergency treatment.

The Week’s Lesson: Stay Curious, Stay Grounded

This week’s stories have something in common. Each one begins with an ordinary setting:

• A pond
• A city street
• A bedroom

Then something unexpected appears.

That is the power of the unusual. It interrupts routine. It makes us look twice. It gives us a story to share with friends, classmates, coworkers, and anyone who has ever said, “You are not going to believe this.”

Psychologists call one version of this the Von Restorff Effect: unusual things are more memorable because they stand apart from everything around them. A mysterious pond figure is memorable. A group emerging from a manhole is unforgettable. A bat on a pillow is, frankly, difficult to mentally uninstall.

As August winds down and a new school year begins, leave room for that sense of discovery. Ask better questions. Notice the odd detail. Choose the gift, accessory, or home accent that makes someone pause and smile.

The ordinary has its place.

But the unusual is where the stories begin.

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The Bizarre & Beyond is a Saturday series from Beyond Unusual Gift Shop, exploring real reports, unusual history, curious creatures, and the mysteries hiding just beyond the ordinary.