Two filmmakers claim to have unexpectedly filmed stunning footage of a mysterious creature known as America’s Loch Ness Monster.
Richard Rossi and Kelly Tabor filmed a children’s movie based on Champ, the mythical, serpent-like beast that for decades has been rumored to lurk in the 125-mile-long Lake Champlain, which straddles upstate New York, Vermont and parts of Quebec.
But it was only when they were editing parts of the footage two years later that they saw something swimming behind their small boat — which they are convinced is proof Champ is real.
“When I saw it, I saw it like a skinny neck, and that the body got larger,” Tabor told the Daily Mail.
“It looked like the skinny neck was oscillating back and forth, as if it was grazing underwater. My eyes were just popping out.”
Rossi said Tabor called him over to review the footage for their movie, “Lucy and the Lake Monster,” which left him stunned.
The video caught the attention of the History Channel’s hit series “The UnXplained,” whose producers told the filmmakers the clip is the strongest visual evidence of Champ since a 1977 photograph.
The video is notable because it allows the long-rumored cryptid to be seen in scale next to the 11-foot boat in frame, Rossi said.
Hundreds of sightings have been reported over the years — with the first notable occurrence all the way back in 1819 when Captain Crum claimed to have encountered a creature 187-feet long with the head of a seahorse.
In 1873, the New York Times published a story that a railroad crew had seen the head of a scaly “enormous serpent” in the lake. Showman PT Barnum subsequently offered a $50,000 reward for the monster that same year to add to his circus.
Sightings continued over the years, and in the 1980s, state legislators in both New York and Vermont passed resolutions protecting Champ — just in case the monster actually exists.
Tabor grew up near Port Henry, New York, which is considered to be Champ’s home, as hundreds of people have reported seeing it there.
She said as a girl she would always scan the lake for Champ and believes she may have encountered the creature while sitting on the porch of her parents’ lakefront cabin.
“There was a big stirring out a little ways from the front porch,” Tabor told the Daily Mail.
“[The wake] wasn’t going from the left or the right. It was bearing up and down. It was a straight way, at least an inch high, coming straight at us,” she continued.
But suddenly, it changed direction.
“It came right towards the cabin and it made a 90-degree turn,” she said, adding that whatever it was never surfaced.
“I like to believe I saw the effects of Champ.”
