Optical illusion or...?

Hello everyone,

I had a weird experience last evening that I had to post, just to get input, because it was seriously weird. I wasn't sure what forum to post this in, so I chose this one as it's kind of weird, but general.

The date was yesterday, 12/26/12. The time was around 4:30pm +/- 15 mins. The location was at a 4 way intersection with traffic lights. I was driving in my Expedition, stopped at the stoplight. Traffic was normal. I live in a small city so early evening traffic isn't too heavy. The roads were slightly snowy/icy from Christmas day snow. The traffic across from me had the green light and I watched as they were driving through. Saw a nice looking, maroon SUV. I was looking directly at it because I like the color of it, and was thinking "I wish my husband had gotten that color instead of boring white." While watching the SUV, something appeared to fall off or out of the back end of the maroon SUV. It fell flattened to the ground and at first it looked like a bundle of clothes might have fallen out the back somehow. Then the weird part happened... those clothes stood up, and it happened too quickly for me to actually visualize this... but those flat clothes were actually a 10 yr old (approximately) boy!

He was unhurt. There were no cars behind the SUV. He stood up and just walked across the street to a house like NOTHING happened. He had reddish/blonde hair. The angle that he walked I couldn't see his face but just the back of his head. He was wearing a camo jacket. No limping, nothing. I know he wasn't crossing the street and fell down. I would have seen him before the maroon SUV had driven across. There was also no ice to slip on at that part of the road. My light turned green and I creeped across the intersection, looking at the back of his head the whole time checking to see if he was ok. I had to keep going through the intersection due to my green light.

What creeped me out is how flat those clothes were on the ground, and how quickly the figure stood up and "filled out" the clothes. My eyesight is normal. My 20 yr old son and friend were with me, they saw the boy walking towards the house, but they were talking to each other at the time he "fell off" the back of the SUV, so they didn't witness the creepy part.

My guesses are this.

1) He was "hitching" a rid by riding on the back of the SUV and chose that moment, just before going through the intersection, to drop off, and it was an optical illusion. I'm a bit doubtful of that, as there doesn't seem to be enough room for a kid to ride on that part without the driver knowing. And the driver didn't seem to know anything. No slowing down or speeding up. Just normal speed. The back window to the SUV was closed, as I glanced as it passed by.

2) Maybe I really didn't see him on the sidewalk crossing the road before that point. But that sidewalk is next to a grassy field. Possible optical illusion, again. He would have stood out next to it due to the dark coloring of his clothes and the grass had snow on it, though.

3) Someone or something chose that spot and time to materialize and I was just able to catch it. Still have my doubts on that one, but the flattened out spread of clothes, then in a millisecond he's standing there... weird. Add to the fact that he just strolled over to the house casually... weird again.

So... does anyone have any ideas, or have ever seen anything like that before? One thing I'll say about myself. I'm a fairly cynical person. I don't believe in ghosts, or spooky stuff in general. I'm a fairly level headed person, until last night



Thanks, everyone!

My Guess is) He could have been running to get somewhere and as you slightly looked away he could have just ran behind the SUV then fall over by mistake then got up.

Very strange

Definitely odd! Is it possible that you saw just his feet or something, and got the impression that was all of the "object" that came out of the vehicle? Not saying that is the case, just trying to figure out at what angle you could see him, compared to vehicle positions, etc. A rough sketch, using Paint, might be a help here.

I know I would want to think it was an optical illusion....but.....I won't write off the possibility that it was something else, either. I still remember something odd my oldest and I saw one night. We had driven to wait for her husband to get off work, and were sitting in the parking lot. We were watching people come and go at a restaurant in the same lot, a bit away from the place we were waiting, when we saw something very weird. Near a light pole, we saw two or three people suddenly. They moved around the pole, in an odd, sinuous fashion, then sort of "thinned out", and finally vanished, as if into the pole. Neither one of us knew what to make of the whole thing.

I can't imagine what kind of optical illusion would cause that effect, honestly. But I don't have a rational explanation for an event like that either. It seems awfully strange and I think I would have pooed myself if I has seen something similar. All I may be able to think is the snow was thick on the road and the person kind of sunk into the snow, but you would surely not be able to drive down a road that thick with snow?

There is no way one could drive that fast in such snow. Driving at all over it, if not plowed, is an iffy proposition at best, as anyone knows that lives in areas that get snow!

I think this sighting fits in nicely with my "pole people"!! It really doesn't sound like there is any way that was some optical illusion. Did you happen to see where the boy went? If you did, and feel gutsy, maybe some excuse to knock on that door would reveal something. I don't think I could do it, though!