Overview:
A quirky 20-second clip from 2007 featuring a strange, white-legged figure has unexpectedly united Fresno and its growing love keeps the legend alive.
Michael Banti has probably watched the original 20-second clip of the Fresno Nightcrawler, an urban cryptid legend, hundreds of times since it first appeared in the early 2000s.
He analyzed the creature’s physical characteristics and made several nighttime trips to the area in southeast Fresno where the footage was believed to have been filmed. He even tried reaching out to the person who originally uploaded the YouTube video but never received a response.
Banti is the blogger behind Weird Fresno, a platform he’s used since 2008 to share supernatural sightings and stories from Fresno and the greater San Joaquin Valley. Even though he’s not as active as he once was, he said the Nightcrawler—a small, white lure—has still stuck with him.
“We all love the mystery,” Banti said. “And the fact that there’s really only one or two videos—that’s what makes it more compelling. And it’s not just a Nightcrawler. It’s the Fresno Nightcrawler. I think it’s something the city could be proud of, like, hey, we have this weird little story. It’s our own local myth or urban legend. Even if it’s not real—who cares? It’s a fun story. And it’s kind of taken over. It’s part of Fresno’s identity now.”
Some call it whimsical, oddly familiar—even cute. Others say it looks like nothing more than a fun pair of pants come to life. But if there’s one thing people agree on, it’s that this isn’t your typical monster— and even after nearly two decades, interest in the Fresno Nightcrawler is still growing.
The Fresno Nightcrawlers recently caught the attention of Dr. Emily Zarka, writer and host of PBS Digital Studios series MONSTRUM, which looks at complex histories and motivations behind some of the world’s most famous legendary creatures.
“The nightcrawlers stand out to me because they seem bizarre, but also so benevolent and not really doing much other than just going on their little nightly jaunt,” said Zarka. “I think that that’s really interesting, since a lot of other cryptids have more nefarious purposes. They can be violent. They can be harbingers of some kind of trouble or death that’s coming. But nightcrawlers are just some little dudes out there walking around.”
Zarka and her team released an eight-minute episode in February as part of the show’s seventh season, exploring how the Fresno Nightcrawlers stand apart from traditional monsters and how the cryptids have sparked a cultural phenomenon.
The Fresno Nightcrawler only gets weirder
The Nightcrawler story began in 2007, when a man named Jose set up a camera outside his garage in southeast Fresno to find out why his dogs kept barking.
While watching the footage, he spotted a short, strange, white, legged figure moving in a human-like but floppy way. He quickly recorded its 20-second appearance and later shared the footage with a Univision station and a paranormal investigator.
Since then, videos of possible sightings have surfaced, but as Fresnans continued to debate and speculate online, the public has scrutinized the footage—often dismissing it as hoaxes or misidentifications. Reportedly debunked examples include a 2011 video showing two white, long-legged figures walking through Yosemite Lakes Park.
Theories about what it could be, cryptid or extraterrestrial, have only fueled the legend. No one has a clear explanation, but that mystery is exactly what keeps people believing it’s real.
Over the years, Banti has researched countless cryptids, humanoids, and monsters. But he says there’s nothing quite like the Nightcrawler—simply because it’s cute. He compares it to the Ningen, a creature from Japanese folklore described as a giant, whale-like being with human features that’s said to dwell in the icy waters of the Antarctic.
These are the types of creatures that pique Zarka’s interest in highlighting quirky, regional supernatural phenomena that often get overshadowed, not just in the U.S., but in other parts of the world as well.
Unlike classic cryptids, Zarka said, the Nightcrawlers “lack a clear purpose” and are more endearing than threatening, with soft, almost cute features instead of claws or fangs.
For the Fresno Nightcrawlers episode, Zarka and her team spent about a week doing research, which included watching the original video repeatedly. She said part of the Nightcrawler’s appeal is how people fixate on its strange details—the more you analyze it, the weirder it gets. And those little details spark discussion from an odd photograph or a strange video clip.
The Nightcrawlers, she said, have become more than just a local legend—they’ve sparked a global fanbase, creating a kind of community and reflecting what’s going on culturally in our world.
“People who are willing to throw out theories, share their little fandoms, and talk about the weird niches they’re into—that’s one of the good things about the internet,” said Zarka. “It’s helped people find each other and build identity around shared interests.”
‘A unifying symbol’
Born and raised in Fresno, Veronika Carrillo and Alexandra Carrillo always had a soft spot for campy horror — the kind that’s more about cheesy fun and over-the-top thrills than actual scares. The Fresno Nightcrawler is right in their wheelhouse.
But the Nightcrawler, for all its goofy fun, has also come to have special symbolic, and deeply personal, meaning for the sisters.
As children, the sisters wrestled with how to align their Mexican cultural identity with their gender and sexuality, often feeling like they didn’t fully belong in the communities they called home.
This feeling was especially pronounced during childhood, when adults shared folktales and monster stories meant to teach moral lessons — tales that often cast difference as something to fear, unintentionally planting seeds of alienation and instability.
But the Fresno Nightcrawler isn’t some scary monster, but something beautifully strange and unapologetically unique — much like how they have come to see themselves.
“Queerness is depicted as monstrous,” said Alexandra, who uses she/her, shi/hir, and xe/xem pronouns. “That’s why we’ve attached ourselves to the Fresno nightcrawlers. They’re a representation of Fresno, and through them, other people can recognize how special Fresno really is.”
Such personal connections are at least part of the reason that Fresno’s unofficial underground mascot has launched a small but dedicated global fanbase that eagerly keeps the myth alive.
Grant Wood, owner of Fulton Factory, sells merchandise that celebrates the Central Valley, and says his Fresno Nightcrawlers gear is one of his top sellers.
Wood had only heard bits and pieces about the Nightcrawler in casual conversations. It wasn’t until a late-night YouTube binge watching a “Top 10 Cryptids” video that he was surprised to discover one of them hailed from Fresno.
Not long after, Wood started designing a glow-in-the-dark Fresno Nightcrawler t-shirt during his day job as a graphic designer. The design caught his coworkers’ attention and made him realize just how much people were drawn to the whimsical creature.
He didn’t just design the t-shirt—he also made a patch that people can stick on hats, which he sells too.
“Some people call the Central Valley the armpit of California, but lots of people think that it’s a beautiful place, super diverse, and there’s a lot of culture here that’s pretty unique,” said Wood. “I wanted to make merchandise that allowed people to represent that and the Fresno nightcrawler brings that pride and cult following.”
Veronika and Alexandra have often heard outsiders label Fresno as “just an agricultural town” or the “laughing butt of a joke,” which is why the Nightcrawlers hold such positive significance for them — they shed a light on Fresno’s unique charm.
In 2022, they decided to start a small business called Craft Coffin featuring ‘creepy cute’ merchandise like Nightcrawler stickers and coffin-shaped bags. After working out the logistics, they officially launched their shop the following year, right when they moved back to Fresno after graduating from college.
Now, they sell at local community events like Bad Girls Market and Arthop, feeling more connected to their city and its people than ever before.
“We especially feel like we’re part of the Tower District community,” said Veronika, who uses she/her pronouns. “It’s a unifying symbol and that’s important because Fresno never leaves you.”
Many reuploads of the Nightcrawler video can be found on Youtube, including the first sighting in 2007 and the 2011 Yosemite sighting.
