Recent Ropen Sightings
What ropen encounter has been more thoroughly investigated than the Lakewood,
California, sighting of June 19, 2012? For a little over one year, a game camera set up
in that backyard recorded 14,333 photos, images triggered by movements. Although
no obvious ropen was photographed, eyewitnesses were interviewed.
Cables on which the ropen was perched
Eyewitness sketch of the end of the tail
Cryptozoologist looks into storm channel
Lakewood Pterosaur
The lady was sitting under her gazebo, playing with her computer, when the family dog
began barking wildly. Possums and rats had been common in the neighborhood, for a
storm channel gives many creatures access to fruit trees and garbage cans. But Rex would
not stop barking. The lady also heard strange burping noises and at first assumed that Rex
was responsible. As she realized the dog was not simultaneously making both noises, she
stood up and walked out from under the gazebo.
That’s when she saw the “dragon-pterodactyl.” It was sitting on a phone line, just above
her, but faced away from her. When she yelled, it flew away, diving into the canopy of a
tree in the next block.
The creature had no feathers. The wingspan was about six feet and the long tail ended in
a diamond-shaped structure, clearly visible, for it had been only about eighteen feet from
the end of the lady’s nose. The cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb set up a game
camera near where the ropen had been perched, for a dilapidated fence was thought to
be an entrance to a secluded area where the creature could have been nesting.
Too bad that one year’s worth of game camera photos revealed nothing more wild than
common wildlife: rats, maybe a possum, and birds. Oh, and most notable: Rex. The next-
door neighbor tore down the potential nesting area and the game camera turned out to
have a weakness, a delay trigger which prevented it from capturing images of anything
that could have been flying quickly past that area.
Griffith Park Dragons
According to the nonfiction book Searching for Ropens and Finding God, two sightings in Los
Angeles County occurred ten weeks apart, in March and May of 2013. Both encounters
were just east of Griffith Park, with the first sighting being of three “dragons” and the second
one of just one flying creature.
