FIELD FILE · FRESNO-NIGHTCRAWLERSHUMANOIDLOCAL LEGEND

Fresno Nightcrawlers

Also known as Fresno Nightcrawler, Nightcrawlers, Walking pants

Fresno and the Yosemite area, CaliforniaFIRST REPORTED: 2007HUMANOIDS & STRANGE BEINGS

Small white beings that look like walking pairs of pants, seen in a 2007 Fresno security video and a 2011 Yosemite clip – now a beloved internet cryptid.

The Fresno Nightcrawlers are the internet age’s own cryptid: a pair of small, pale, legs-only figures that seem to stroll across a dark front yard in a grainy security-camera clip. They have no arms, no obvious torso and no face – just a little rounded top on two long legs – and have often been compared to a pair of trousers walking by themselves.

The story starts in November 2007 in southeast Fresno, California. A homeowner who gave his name only as Jose had set up a camera outside his garage to find out why his dogs kept barking at night. According to skeptic Brian Dunning’s research, Jose took his tape to the local Univision office; paranormal radio host Victor Camacho of Los Desvelados met him, visited the yard in early 2008 and later described the case at a UFO conference. In the roughly 20-second footage, one white figure walks across the frame, followed by a second.

The clip reached a national audience in 2010, when the Syfy series Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files examined it, coined the name “Nightcrawlers” and failed to prove it was a hoax. In April 2011 a YouTuber posted a second video, which he said had been recorded the month before by friends’ home security camera in the Yosemite area (accounts differ on whether it was inside Yosemite National Park or in the nearby Yosemite Lakes Park community); it shows two similar figures, one taller than the other, walking along a path.

No one has ever produced more than video. Yet the Nightcrawlers became wildly popular: they appear on T-shirts, stickers, and plush toys, have been featured on History Channel and PBS programs, and are embraced as a quirky emblem of Fresno – especially in the city’s Tower District, where local artists and makers have adopted them as a cheerful, “creepy-cute” mascot.

Type: Humanoid
Status: Local legend
First reported: 2007
Best-known location: Fresno and the Yosemite area, California
Also called: Fresno Nightcrawler, Nightcrawlers, Walking pants
Reported in: California

What witnesses describe

Pale white, roughly knee-high to waist-high figures made of two long, thin legs topped by a small rounded body or head, with no visible arms. They walk with a stiff, swaying gait and are usually seen in pairs.

Where and when it’s seen

Front yards and paths at night, as captured by home security cameras in southeast Fresno and the foothills near Yosemite.

Notable sightings

November 2007Jose’s security camera Southeast Fresno, California
A homeowner’s garage camera recorded two small white figures walking across his yard at night. He took the tape to the local Univision station and a Spanish-language paranormal radio host.
2010Named on television Syfy television
The show’s team tried to recreate the clip, gave the figures the name “Nightcrawlers” and declared the result inconclusive, launching the creature’s fame.
March 2011The Yosemite footage Yosemite area, California
A second security-camera clip, posted to YouTube in April 2011, showed two similar figures walking along a path. The uploader said it came from friends’ home camera, but its origin has never been independently confirmed.

What could explain it?

Most investigators consider the videos hoaxes; the figures could be puppets or legs-only props moved on strings or rods, or simple digital edits, and no physical evidence has ever been found.
Some suggest real animals distorted by low-resolution night-vision cameras and interlacing artifacts, though no animal fits the shape well.
The original clip was never independently authenticated, the first videographer gave only his first name, and the 2011 video came from a single uploader who said it was filmed by friends.
Skeptic Brian Dunning treats the Nightcrawlers as an urban legend that few people sincerely believe in but many enjoy – part of a wider trend of cryptids becoming fun mascots.

Legend, culture and tourism

The Nightcrawlers are one of the most merchandised cryptids in America, from glow-in-the-dark T-shirts to plushies, and have been covered by the Fresno Bee, Skeptoid and PBS’s Monstrum. In Fresno they are a point of local pride, and they are also popular in LGBTQ+ fan art, where misunderstood monsters have become symbols of belonging.