15 years later, in 1988, a Florida man came forward and admitted that his giant penguin footprints were a hoax.

It's also worth noting that Sanderson believed in UFOs and other popular conspiracies, but that's another episode for another time.

Modern sighting.

The most famous Thunderbird sighting of recent years took place where I was born, the great state of the deep dish Illinois, and the story goes like this.

Marlon Lowe, a 10-year-old boy, was playing in his backyard with his friend Travis, real name of his friend, also no relation.

All of a sudden, he heard a piercing shrieking sound, a large mass of shadows passed over them.

The boys looked up and saw two giant vulture-like birds swooping down towards them.

Travis took off running, thinking quickly he jumped into a nearby pool.

And it worked. The birds focused their attention on Marlon, who was kicking and screaming.

In fact, he was making such a racket that his mother Ruth ran out into the backyard and to her horror saw Marlon being hoisted 10 feet into the air.

She watched as Marlon was carried away by two birds, punching at their breasts.

One of his punches must have landed because all at once the bird loosened its grip and let Marlon fall to the ground.

The incident was even written up in that week's issue of the Boston Evening Globe.

10-year-old Marlon Lowe and his mother Mrs. Ruth Lowe claimed that one of the two large black birds with eight foot wingspanes tried to carry Marlon often as claws Monday evening in Laundale, Illinois.

Although several bird experts say that no bird native to Illinois could lift 70 pound Marlon, Mrs. Lowe says that Marlon was carried 20 feet before the bird dropped in when he struck the bird with his hand.

Like a large adult son getting carried off large.

Like a large boy so imagine.

Let's set the scenes.

You're a mother.

Yeah.

Okay.

Your name is Ruth.

...