Trucker captures eerie dashcam footage of highway 'ghost' in Arizona

[UM-Bot]

Creepy footage has emerged showing an eerie figure standing at the side of a stretch of open highway in the dark.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/364907/trucker-captures-eerie-dashcam-footage-of-highway-ghost-in-arizona

[moonman]

Obvious glare from that white sign reflecting the headlights. Stupidly obvious. So stupidly obvious that I doubt any trucker would post this video as anything odd unless it was his first day driving. No seasoned driver (truck or otherwise) is going to give that a second glance.

It's like signs designed to reflect light actually reflect light! Who knew.

Edited March 14, 2023 by moonman

[OpenMindedSceptic]

Hmmm, cool video

[Cho Jinn]

Swamp gas, clearly.   I know it’s in the desert, and there aren’t any swamps around, but my small, terrified mind cannot entertain uncomfortable explanations.

[Fraust]

16 hours ago, moonman said:

Obvious glare from that white sign reflecting the headlights. Stupidly obvious. So stupidly obvious that I doubt any trucker would post this video as anything odd unless it was his first day driving. No seasoned driver (truck or otherwise) is going to give that a second glance.

It's like signs designed to reflect light actually reflect light! Who knew.

That is no reflection of any kind that I've ever seen. Road is dry, and it doesn't distort at all as he passes it. 

[Alchopwn]

To me it looks like a jellyfish.  I am far more scared of a jellyfish floating in mid air than any ghost.  Those tentacle stings HURT!

Edited March 15, 2023 by Alchopwn

[moonman]

8 hours ago, Fraust said:

That is no reflection of any kind that I've ever seen. Road is dry, and it doesn't distort at all as he passes it. 

Asphalt/tar doesn't need to be wet to reflect a bright light. The sun melts it and makes it a little shiny, and this is Arizona so that road gets HOT.  Distortion really has nothing to do with it, but if you look carefully it DOES distort right before it goes out of view. Top part of it spreads out and gets bigger for a split second.

You may have not seen anything like this, but I have. Driving at night I see all kinds of reflections from those crazy reflective signs. Sign gets rotated a little and the reflection goes wherever.

Edited March 15, 2023 by moonman

[dragon1440]

Moonman... Say you have never lived in a desert climate, without saying you have never lived in a desert climate. Yes it gets HOT but it RAPIDLY cools off once sun is down. Most rocks and roads don't stay hot. I know this from personal experience of having lived in desert climates.

[papageorge1]

What I find interesting is both a naked eye sighting and a dashcam confirmation. Looked humanoid shaped but misty. A trucker spends a lot of time doing this and knows normal from weird.

Papameter Reading

55% Paranormal   45% Normal

 

Why so conservative Papameter?

[Essan]

Not sure what it is.  But there more evidence it was Prince Harry disguised as a pink rhinoceros, than there is it is a ghost.

(we know that both Prince Harry and rhinoceroses exist   )

[moonman]

1 hour ago, dragon1440 said:

Moonman... Say you have never lived in a desert climate, without saying you have never lived in a desert climate. Yes it gets HOT but it RAPIDLY cools off once sun is down. Most rocks and roads don't stay hot. I know this from personal experience of having lived in desert climates.

So what? Point stands. Tar gets hot, smooths out, and is slightly reflective (until it gets run over/messed up). Whether it stays hot or not makes no difference. I see the same things on roads in cold places in summer. If a road gets freshly recoated it can stay "shiny" for a long time. Not to mention the majority of the reflection is on the shoulder, where cars don't drive much.

Take a bright flashlight and shine it on a fresh or recently heated asphalt road. What do you think happens? Does the road magically absorb the light and reflect nothing? No, no it does not. 

Even if you disagree with all that, who is to say there isn't an oil spill or some kind of liquid on that spot in the road making the reflection in the video? Video quality is crap, road is whizzing by, hard to tell if there's a slightly wet spot in that area.

Edited March 15, 2023 by moonman

[pellinore]

1 hour ago, papageorge1 said:

What I find interesting is both a naked eye sighting and a dashcam confirmation. Looked humanoid shaped but misty. A trucker spends a lot of time doing this and knows normal from weird.

Papameter Reading

55% Paranormal   45% Normal

 

Why so conservative Papameter?

It's pretty convincing. I wonder if it is the ghost of someone who was killed on the highway, or of someone who died centuries ago?

[papageorge1]

2 minutes ago, pellinore said:

It's pretty convincing. I wonder if it is the ghost of someone who was killed on the highway, or of someone who died centuries ago?

I’d more go with car accident victim.

[moonman]

1 hour ago, pellinore said:

It's pretty convincing. I wonder if it is the ghost of someone who was killed on the highway, or of someone who died centuries ago?

It's a convincing reflection from a light on a reflective cockeyed sign, for sure. Lived for about 3 seconds.

How is anyone supposed to take ghosts seriously when the dumbest things like this get called "evidence"? I used to think ghosts might be real, but I see crap like this video every day, day after day with people falling over themselves believing it, questioning nothing - it's made me lose all belief. When lame stuff like this is easily considered evidence by most, how can I take any claim seriously? People prove time and time again they get fooled WAY too easy. I could go to this exact road/sign, demonstrate the effect, explain and film it, and people would STILL believe it was a "ghost" and call me a "hating close-minded skeptic" or some other BS. I've seen similar things happen. How is that open-minded in any way?

I see maybe 1 in 100 videos that have no obvious rational explanation - and that's being generous in an ocean of what is mostly low quality, artifact-filled doorbell/security/dashcam camera videos of "paranormal" that people mindlessly lap up. That doesn't even include the abundant hoaxes and made-for-TV garbage.

Edited March 15, 2023 by moonman

[moonman]

Took a screenshot where the sign isn't already passed like in the original article. Notice how the sign and reflection are both rectangular and in the same orientation. The shape and distance from the sign stays the same until the truck has nearly passed by, at that point the reflection gets bigger then fades out - and to point out, just because the camera isn't seeing the sign anymore just as it passes doesn't mean it isn't still reflecting onto the road. Headlights project out to the sides as well.

In addition, I believe that light in the distance is another sign reflecting, not an oncoming car. Not 100% sure on that, road might just curve a lot but doesn't look that way to me. It's on the same side of the road and is quickly approaching. That's how much they can reflect. If a forward facing one reflects like that, imagine where and how much they reflect if they get bent or twisted off center. If you look close there's even an extra dot of reflection that travels in front of the main one the whole time - another indicator of a bent/twisted sign corner. Unfortunately the image quality is too poor to see the exact condition of the sign or read it at any point - but that also helps to hide what is actually happening.

I would have taken more screenshots but the site only allows me the one upload, but frankly taking this further with hosting/uploading multiple images isn't worth wasting more time and effort on this.

Edited March 15, 2023 by moonman

[HollyDolly]

Well, it might be a ghost. If the road has had a lot of accidents in the past, why not. Recall years ago driving Bulverde Road north of San Antonio with my sister and late father. In this particle area, there were no road signs or street lights, way out in the country. On the left was of course trees and some shrubs ,also on the other side. By this large shrub, saw a glowing blue light. Didn't say anything to them, because I think it was some trick of the light or something, but I know what I saw. Was driving with my dad one night down Partnership Road, near New Berlin.This was at dusk, and sun was starting to go down. As we drove past this old abandoned stone house from 1800,early 1900s, saw the same kind of bluish light as on Bulverde Road. Should have mentioned it to him, but thought with the sun going down, it might be again some sort of light trick so said nothing. Further up the hill from this stone house, was a newer one, on the same plot of land. Weird.

[Fraust]

On 3/15/2023 at 9:05 AM, moonman said:

Asphalt/tar doesn't need to be wet to reflect a bright light. The sun melts it and makes it a little shiny, and this is Arizona so that road gets HOT.  Distortion really has nothing to do with it, but if you look carefully it DOES distort right before it goes out of view. Top part of it spreads out and gets bigger for a split second.

You may have not seen anything like this, but I have. Driving at night I see all kinds of reflections from those crazy reflective signs. Sign gets rotated a little and the reflection goes wherever.

I am a professional Truck driver and that is not what reflections from tar or asphalt look like

[+and-then]

Imagine losing your life and being unable to move on. Would being stuck on the side of a highway, alone, be hell, or what?

[openozy]

Ball lightning?

[moonman]

8 hours ago, Fraust said:

I am a professional Truck driver and that is not what reflections from tar or asphalt look like

I've been driving or a passenger in cars at night all my life and it can indeed look like that under the right circumstances. Don't really care what you think when I know what I've seen with my own eyes, honestly.

Edited March 17, 2023 by moonman

[csspwns]

Guys...I'm almost certain the video just shows a person standing on the road. Nothing to do with a reflection from the sign nor a ghost. The object is clearly physical as seen in 0:26 where the right mirror obscures the object, furthermore the object can be seen reflected off the hood of the truck. The truck headlights are pointed slightly downwards to illuminate the road which is why we can see more of the person as the truck approaches them, notice how their upper half is lit up around 0:26 right before and after the right mirror obsures the person. The person appears transparent or blurry simply due to the cam's long exposure time in low light conditions. A wider object than a person's legs wouldn't appear transparent. 

[papageorge1]

15 hours ago, csspwns said:

Guys...I'm almost certain the video just shows a person standing on the road. Nothing to do with a reflection from the sign nor a ghost. The object is clearly physical as seen in 0:26 where the right mirror obscures the object, furthermore the object can be seen reflected off the hood of the truck. The truck headlights are pointed slightly downwards to illuminate the road which is why we can see more of the person as the truck approaches them, notice how their upper half is lit up around 0:26 right before and after the right mirror obsures the person. The person appears transparent or blurry simply due to the cam's long exposure time in low light conditions. A wider object than a person's legs wouldn't appear transparent. 

We should not forget the fact that the trucker saw this with his naked eyes too and was startled enough to review the camera later. I doubt a trucker would have been so startled by a regular person under apparently rather normal conditions.

[MissJatti]

It looked abit like a fresno nightcrawler

[csspwns]

4 hours ago, papageorge1 said:

We should not forget the fact that the trucker saw this with his naked eyes too and was startled enough to review the camera later. I doubt a trucker would have been so startled by a regular person under apparently rather normal conditions.

Video footage is often way more reliable than eyewitness testimony, especially in these types of cases where we can deduce what happened from the video. Humans are notorious for misidentifying things, misremebering things, exaggerating, and lying. After reviewing the video we can see that most likely it was just a person standing. 

Edited March 18, 2023 by csspwns

[papageorge1]

4 hours ago, csspwns said:

Video footage is often way more reliable than eyewitness testimony, especially in these types of cases where we can deduce what happened from the video. Humans are notorious for misidentifying things, misremebering things, exaggerating, and lying. After reviewing the video we can see that most likely it was just a person standing. 

Well, I am going to argue that the truck driver noticing something startling along with this camera capture increases the paranormal possibility. The fact that there are two independent events suggesting the paranormal is a factor worthy of inclusion in the consideration.