A cloaked person reportedly dropped raw meat at a playground. Did you see it? Do you have more photos to share? pic.twitter.com/ThNfXYwMvi
? Diane Turbyfill (@GazetteDiane) August 17, 2015If a cloaked figure dropping raw meat on children's playgrounds has been haunting your dreams, you might be able to rest easy tonight.
Ominous, grainy photos of the Grim Reaper look-alike creeping outside a Gastonia, N.C., apartment complex went viral last week. Local residents were (understandably) concerned, but Lance Calhoun, director of operations for Southwood Realty, tells Buzzfeed he's learned there's a simple explanation for all this weirdness: It's a drama project!
"We had a lady come forward today and she did say, ‘That may have been my daughter,'" says Calhoun, noting that the unnamed woman's daughter was dressed up in that costume as part of a college drama studies project.
The student's mom "was concerned that with all the undue attention the photos have now received she would get into trouble at school," says Calhoun.
The director of operations tells Buzzfeed that in his 26-plus years of leasing apartments, he's "seen the good, the bad and the ugly, but this is more of the weird."
Maybe so, but Calhoun's not too concerned about it. "She was dressing up like a TV character," he says of the cloaked young woman. "Completely innocent, completely harmless, but social media does what social media does."
Local reports initially stated that authorities were investigating the identity of the cloaked figure. Now, though, a Gastonia Police Department spokesperson tells Buzzfeed that while they were aware of the reports, an official investigation was never officially opened.
Guess we're just sweeping this one under the rug, huh? We might lock our doors at night just to be safe.