Strange Evidence (2017–…): Season 7, Episode 7 - Mystery of Humanoid Road - full transcript

[narrator] Worldwide,
45 billion cameras
record our daily lives.

In our hands,
in our cars,
and in our homes.

-[cat screeching]
-They capture things
that defy explanation.

[man] Really made me ask,
"What the heck's goin'
on here?"

[man 2] Check this out.

[narrator] Experts carry
out forensic analysis
of the unusual events.

[man 3] Wow! Now
that's a cracker.

[man 4] Oh!

[Gottlieb] This doesn't
make any sense.

There has to be another
explanation.

So what could it be?



[narrator] Coming up,
a close encounter
of the jaywalking kind.

There's a...
what is that?

It just doesn't look
like a human being.

[narrator] In the American
heartland, a hellish harvest

This isn't a slow,
ordinary fire,
this is violent and sudden.

What if this is the start
of a series of attacks
right across the country?

[narrator] And first
they buzzed
our aircraft carriers,

[pilots speaking]

now, are U.F.O.'s
turning their sites
on our cruise liners?

[Hovland] There's something
really unusual going on her

for the captain
to be intrigued.

And if it's weird enough
for the captain, it's weird
enough for me, too.

[narrator] Bizarre phenomeno

[gasps] Oh, my God!



[narrator] Mysteries
caught on camera.

This is just mind boggling!

[narrator] What's
the truth behind this
Strange Evidence?

Now, the town of Ichinda
in Jharkhand, eastern India

April 27th, 2021,

cruising down Highway 75,

a motorcyclist is filming
the journey on his phone.

[Tomlinson] These motorcycle
are going over a bridge

on a highway
in the dead of night.

There's no light except
for what's coming
from their headlights.

[narrator] Suddenly,
he spots something strange
by the side of the road.

I don't see anything,
but wait, there's a...
what is that?

[narrator] Caught
in the headlights is what
looks like a human figure.

Wait! Are they naked?
This is seriously creepy.

Is this thing even human?

[McMahon] Keep
looking at the figure.

The gait, the way
that this figure walks

is really quite
of mannered, really very
strange, very ethereal.

[narrator] Suddenly,
the humanoid figure turns
to stare back at its audienc

its face, lost in the shadow

If I was on my bike,
and I saw this

I'd be speeding up,
not slowing down
to film it.

[narrator] The men stay
on their motorcycles,
unsure whether to approach.

It just doesn't look
like a human being.

[narrator] The gangly
biped seems to ignore
everything going on around i

and simply walks away
into the gloom.

This would be a very
creepy site to come upon
on the road late at night.

And you can hear
the people filming it
are quite concerned.

[speaking indistinctly]

Scared of what they've
just come up against.

[narrator]
Data scientist
Liberty Vittert,

studies local reports
on the eerie encounter.

The reports all say
the same thing.

The people of Jharkhand,
India think that they
have seen an alien.

When you first see the figure,
it looks like it could
just be a rather thin person.

But as the camera gets close
you notice that the figure'
all out of proportion.

It's very tall, very thin,
and the arms are quite
long in comparison.

The body's not only
naked-looking,

it actually looks like
there's zero hair on it.

Like it's kind
of a modeled, smooth skin
of a very strange color,

maybe gray or cream.

A lot of people draw
the connection

between this figure,
and the kind
of classic gray alien

that sort of took
over in pop culture
after the Roswell incident.

This idea that aliens
are humanoid,
but not quite human.

They have large heads,
large eyes, elongated
arms, and fingers,

and are kinda this same color.

I mean, we tend
to have the assumption

that aliens
will be humanoid
in appearance.

There's no reason
to assume
that intelligent life

from other planets
would be humanoid.

It could be very different.
It could even be artificial
intelligence.

There is a theory
that these gray aliens
are actually us in the future.

That what we're
seeing is a kind
of a history tourism

by human beings
in thousands, maybe
even millions of years' time,

coming back to our time,
really just to gawk at us.

In the same way that
we might look at people

from the Neolithic,
or the Tudor ages.

Do jaywalking laws
apply to extraterrestrials?

[narrator] But biologist
Leslie Samuel finds
eyewitness accounts

that confirm this
bizarre-looking biped
was no extraterrestrial.

[Samuel] Eyewitnesses reported
that they were on their way
home from a funeral

and they saw this thing,
or this being.

Uh, but upon closer
inspection, it turned out
that it was a woman,

and they confirmed with othe
people that were passing by
that saw the same thing.

In that case, we have
to wonder why is this woman
walking alone naked

in the middle of the night
on a busy street?

[narrator]
Biologist, Kelly Price,
believes the woman

could be being used
as bait to ensnare motorists

Well, could this be a trap,
I mean, is she being used
to lure people in

to maybe be attacked
and robbed?

[narrator] India has a histo
of highway robbers,

specifically, a cult
of ritual stranglers

who plagued
the subcontinent
for generations.

This violent cult,
the thuggees,

can actually trace
their origin back
to the 12th century.

Thuggee in ancient Sanskrit
actually means deceiver,

and the English word, thug,
is derived from that word.

[narrator] The thuggees
modus operandi

was to befriend rich
merchants and travelers
on the trade roads.

And then having
gained their trust,
they'd kill and rob them.

Children born into this cult
were trained from an early age

to use the sacred
noose, called a Rumal

to strangle their victims
very quickly and silently.

And each death
was considered a sacrifice
to the dark goddess, Kali.

[McMahon] The thuggees
accounted at one stage

for something like 40,000
deaths a year in India
under the British raj.

[narrator] One member
of the cult known as
Thug Behram

holds the record for being
the world's most prolific
serial killer.

He personally killed
at least 150 people,

and admitted to being
present at the murders
of more than 900.

As India's crime rate soars
locals avoid walking
the roads at night.

With a murder
rate of something
like 30,000 a year,

you might
be forgiven
for thinking

that the thuggee cult
is back and stronger
than ever.

But actually, if you look
at those statistics
a little bit closer,

you'll find most of those
murders are centered
around domestic violence,

domestic arguments or money
between people who
already know each other.

What else is going on here?

[narrator] Coming up,
naked and unafraid.

Is this woman a member
of a fanatical cult said
to eat human corpses?

[Samuel] They get
together at an event

when hundreds
of naked sadhus
leap into a sacred river.

[narrator] And
fear on the farm,

as a mystery explosion
rocks rural Minnesota.

How does a grain
silo just explode?

This is violent and sudden.

Could this be caused
by a bomb?

[narrator] In eastern India
wary motorcycle riders film
a strange, hairless being

walking down the side
of a highway naked.

Reports from people
in Jharkhand say that they
think they've seen an alien.

And at first glance,
you can't really blame them.

[narrator] Historian,
Tony McMahon suspects
this ash gray woman

could instead be a devotee
of a cult, known in India
as sadhuism.

These sadhus
are kind of an extreme
form of Hinduism.

They're ascetics, they
reject all worldly goods,

they live off scraps,
and alms and charity.

They're even believed to hav
the power of prophecy,

the ability to see
into the future.

Most sadhus are male,
but you do get female sadhus.

[narrator] One of the most
extreme sadhu sects

are said to eat the charred
remains of corpses believin
it can make them ageless.

Most sadhus hold
less extreme beliefs,

and the Indian
subcontinent is home
to over five million of them

They get together an event
called the Kumbh-Mela,

when hundreds
of naked sadhus
leap into a sacred river.

[narrator] Some sadhus
shave their entire body,
while some go naked,

and gray their skin by rubbi
it with sandalwood ash.

Many smoke copious
amounts of cannabis,

that's said to aid
their enlightenment.

This description
could help explain
both the appearance

and behavior
of the woman
in the clip.

But Leslie Samuel spots
a problem with this idea.

The thing is female
sadhus don't go naked.

So I don't think what
we're looking at here
is a female sadhu.

[narrator] Female
nudity is frowned
upon in India.

In 2020, a French woman
was told she faced up
to three years in jail

after stripping on a bridge
over the Ganges in Rishikesh

Local police launch
an investigation
into the Jharkhand incident

but the naked
woman's identity
remains a mystery.

Luckily, the people
who were filming her

seemed to have been too
scared to have bothered her.

[McMahon] No
matter how much
we theorize here,

we can only hope
that this person got
some kind of help.

Whatever it is there's
obviously something wrong.
I just hope she's okay.

[narrator] Now, the city
of New Ulm, Brown
County, Minnesota,

population 13,000.

June 1, 2021,
around 6:15 p.m.,

a security camera films
the quiet farming town.

We're lookin' at a storage
area with storage
tanks and some piping.

Is it industrial?
Is it chemical?
I don't know.

-[narrator] All of a sudden
-[explosion]

Looks like a plume
of smoke and something
flies off the top.

[Wise] Boom.
Oh, my Lord.
Whoa!

[narrator] Then like
rapid machine gun fire.

A lightning quick
blast rips through
the remaining silos.

Okay, that's a hell
of an explosion.

They must have heard
this for miles away.

It looks like everything
happened so fast.

The explosion looked
super violent and I hope
no one was hurt.

The obvious question
is what happened?

[exploding]

[narrator] Minnesota produce
around 40 million tons
of grain every year.

That's as much as the weigh
of 375 Nimitz Class
aircraft carriers.

Brown County alone
boast around 1,000 farms,

and their number one
produce is grain.

[explosion]

[Wise] So
what we're seeing
is a grain elevator.

This is a kind
of agricultural
collection station

where the massive amounts
of grain are being, you know,

funneled in
and stacked up
in these big cylinders.

[Teitel] How
does a grain silo
just explode?

This isn't a slow,
ordinary fire this
is violent and sudden.

Could this be caused
by a bomb?

Grain storage,
small town America,

doesn't sound like
the standard target
for a terrorist attack.

But this is the 21st
century, and everything
is interconnected by the web.

As a result,
nothing is off-limits.

Terrorists will go after
military targets,
civilian targets

cyber targets,
why not agriculture?

Imagine that entire
agricultural system has bee
shut down or disrupted.

Al Qaeda documents discovered
in Afghanistan in 2001

revealed a terrorist plan
to target U.S. agriculture.

The idea?

Disrupt the American
food chain
by contaminating supplies,

destroying distribution
networks,

and making something
as basic as eating
a deadly proposition.

[narrator] Poisoning
the food chain
is a sickening tactic,

but it's worked in the past

[Gottlieb] Just look
at Palestinian terrorists,

and what they did
in the 1970's.

They got the not-so-nice idea
of injecting mercury
into oranges.

[narrator] January, 1978,

The Arab Revolutionary
Army inject liquid mercury

into Israeli oranges on sal
in European fruit markets.

Only 12 people
actually succumb
to mercury poisoning,

but that wasn't the intent.

The point
was the hysteria
that follows.

Well, people got scared,
and stopped eating oranges,

and Israel's exports
of citrus fruit to Europe
dropped by 40 per cent.

[narrator] And
it never recovered.

Today, Israel exports 75%
less citrus fruit than
it did before the attacks.

Agroterrorism doesn't just
effect the food on our table,

it has serious
financial repercussions.

[Teitel] If this was one
attack among many coordinate
attacks on U.S. agriculture

it would be absolutely
devastating for the economy.

Corn exports alone,
account for 7.6 billion
dollars for the United State

And that's not saying anything
of all of the products
that are made with grains.

The United States exports over
140 billion dollars a year
in agricultural exports.

We're talking about global
supply chain issues.

With financial ramification
that could cripple
the economy.

Our food supplies chains
aren't particularly protected.

We don't really see a need
to put armed guards
in front of grain silos.

[narrator] But we depend
on the supply chain.

Disrupting
the food supply

doesn't just mean
financial damage
in the form of exports.

It means we could be facing
food shortages, civil unres
by a bunch a hungry people,

and at the extreme
ends, starvation.

[narrator] But engineer,
Nick Householder doesn't thi

this explosion was caused
by a terrorist bomb.

He thinks it could
have been caused

by an almost invisible
killer that lurks
in all grain.

Now in this case,
grain by itself isn't
particularly combustible,

it's not even that flammable.

But when it's processed,

it produces an immense
amount of a very
combustible material, dust.

[narrator] Householder
wants to discover

if dust can cause an explosi
as ferocious as the one see
in the footage.

I'm gonna need a fuel
source, a little bit of dust,
and a way to light it.

So the classic fire
triangle for combustion
requires three things,

a fuel source,
a heat source,
and oxygen.

This is a stick.
It's flammable.

If I light one end,
it catches fire.

But how do I get it to burn
two times as fast?

Light the other end.

Okay, now I've got a stick
burning two times as fast.

How do I get it to burn
four times as fast?

Well, I can break it in half.

If I light those ends,
I now have a stick that's
burning four times as fast.

[blows out flames]

Every time I'm breaking
the stick, I go to a higher
and higher number.

I can burn it at a faster
and faster rate that's
increasing exponentially.

What I'm really doing
is I'm allowing more
and more of that wood

to be exposed to oxygen,
allowing it to burn.

If it gets smaller and smaller
and smaller, eventually,
I'm left with just dust.

What does it look like
when I get just dust?

Well, you've seen it.

[narrator] By themselves,
the fine particles of dust
create a flash fire,

but not a violent,
explosive force.

The dust needs containment.

Whenever you contain
any kind of fire,
pressure builds.

With pressure,
you get an explosion.

[narrator] Coming up,
can Householder
replicate the silo blast?

Dust explosion
in three, two, one.

[blowing]

[narrator] And a cruise shi
captain films a bizarre blo
buzzing her luxury liner.

[Sidney] Is it under
intelligent control,

or is this something
that's just free-flowing
in the atmosphere?

This is a mystery.

[narrator] A security camer
captures a grain elevator

suddenly exploding
in a small, Minnesota town.

Engineer, Nick Householder,
wants to discover
if grain dust was the cause

So why is dust so much
more combustible?
Surface area.

It has way more surface area
to interact with oxygen,
and therefore combust.

[narrator] Nick wants
to replicate the blast,

and thinks the silo
building itself,
may be a decisive factor.

He uses a plastic tub
to replicate the silo,

and drills a hole
in the side, threading
the hose pipe through it.

Super sophisticated dust
explosion delivery system
at your service.

The difference between
the last experiment and this

is that I'm containing
the dust inside
of a container.

When you confine it,
it increases the intensity
of the explosion.

[narrator] Householder
is an engineering expert,

and has taken
safety precautions.

This experiment should not
be attempted inside
or outside your own home.

[Householder] Now I need
a source of ignition,

so I've filled this small
bowl with wood shavings.

[narrator] In order
to show us the inner
workings of a dust explosion

Householder leaves the lid
off his substitute silo.

Here we go, dust explosion
in three, two, one.

[blowing]

[Householder] Wow!
That is the power
of a dust explosion.

[narrator] As
Householder's lung full
of air shoots the dust out,

it forms
into a contained cloud.

Instantaneously igniting
into a searing hot,
vertical fireball.

A lid would have focused
the blast, and made
it even more destructive.

In a typical grain
dust explosion,

the initial detonation,
and subsequent shock wave

dislodges even more
combustible dust particles
into the sealed atmosphere.

Leading to an even
larger explosion.

Imagine that scaled up
to an industrial size,

and I think that explains
what you saw in the video.

[narrator] There are
an average of eight grain si
explosions a year in America

and they usually kill,
at least, one person.

They're ignited
by discarded cigarettes,

faulty wiring,

and sparks thrown
from steel machinery.

This goes to show that
even the most mundane things,

like dust, can be deadly.

[explosion]

[narrator] No one was kille
in this explosion,

but one worker was taken
to the hospital
for their injuries.

What started
the devastating explosion
remains unknown,

but one thing's for sure,

you'll never look at dust
the same way.

Maybe everyone
who's been taking up
sourdough bread baking

should think twice.

[narrator]
Now, the Caribbean Sea,

June 10th, 2020.

Captain Kate McCue is
on deck of the 1,000-foot
luxury cruise ship

Celebrity Edge.

15 stories high,

it's the company's
most innovative ship,

complete with two-story
villa cabins

with private plunge pools

and a cantilevered lounge
that can move between decks

Suddenly,
one of her crew members spot
something strange in the sky

McCue immediately turns on
her smartphone.

[Amy Shira Teitel]
You can see this thing
floating in the sky,

and it's unclear
what it's doing,

if it's moving or not.

It's very strange.

[Tim Pickens] Looks like
something's falling
out of the sky,

and it's falling fast.

Don't know what it is.

I can barely see it.

Now wait a minute.
Where did it go?

[narrator]
The mysterious black blob
vanishes

behind the body of the ship

Captain and crew debate
what they have just witnesse

[crew member speaks]

[crew member 2 speaks]

[narrator] Captain McCue rac
along the ship's decks

and finds the black object
still falling,

about 1,000 feet
off the vessel's stern.

[Orelon Sidney] It looks lik
it's moving away,

so is it under
intelligent control,

or is this something
that's just free-flowing
in the atmosphere?

Hmm. This is a mystery.

[narrator] The crew report
a low wind speed,

less than five knots,

and decide it's not a drone

due to its absolute silence

What I find interesting
about this is that the person
who made that video

is actually the captain
of the cruise ship,

and she's surprised
by what she's seeing,
you know.

She's clearly spent
a lot of time on the ocean,

looking up at the sky
free from light pollution,

and she's seen something
that she cannot explain.

There is something
really unusual going on here

for the captain
to be intrigued,

and if it's weird enough
for the captain,

it's weird enough for me too.

[narrator] Despite having
over 20 years' experience
on the world's oceans,

Captain McCue is unsure
of what she's just caught
on camera.

According to her
eyewitness report,

the strange sinking blob
drops into the ocean
and vanishes.

Now what could possibly
do something like that?

Hover in the sky
and then go into the water.

[narrator] Coming up,

could this floating black bl
actually be a vacationer's
terrifying death ride?

A parasailor became untethered
from her boat,

and she sailed off
into the skies
on her parasail.

-[crowd chatting]
-[man] Holy [bleep]!

[narrator] And,
in a high-security
gated community,

a strange shadow
caught on CCTV.

That's very, very large
and monstrous-looking.

What the hell
are we looking at
right here?

[narrator] The captain
of a cruise ship spots
this strange floating blob

above her boat,

12 miles from land
in the Caribbean sea.

The ship's captain,

uh, she pulled out
her cell phone,

and she took a video of it,

because, she says that,
you know,

she's never seen
anything like it.

[narrator]
Journalist Amy Shira Teitel
finds Captain McCue

stated that this looked lik
a kind of living organism.

According to the captain,
it looks like
a black jellyfish

that's floated up
out of the water somehow

and is hovering in the sky
and passes over the ship.

I would say yes,
that could possibly happen.

A waterspout could pick up
something,

loft it into the atmosphere

and depending on its weight

could deposit it somewhere
downwind.

[narrator] No hurricanes
or waterspouts were reporte
on the day of the event.

But Shira Teitel finds
some marine animals can fly
by themselves,

with no help needed
from Mother Nature.

The flying squid
shoots out water
at an extremely high pressure,

enough that it's able
to lift itself
out of the water,

at which point
it can glide down,

opening itself to gain
some kind of gliding ability

before going back
into the water.

Scientists originally thought
the flying squid did this

exclusively to avoid
predators,

but it turns out
they've realized that this is
just the faster way to travel.

[narrator]
But physicist Michio Kaku
has a problem with this idea

Squid do have the ability
to use Newton's third law
of motion like a rocket

to propel themselves
out of the water,

but this thing was hovering

and that does not sound like
the capabilities of a squid.

[narrator] Ex-NYPD
image analyst Conor McCourt
studies the footage.

He agrees that this object
is no animal.

When I analyzed this video

and I looked
at the shape of the object,

it's consistent
with some kind of parachute
or parasailing activity,

to me.

I understand that it's
12 miles offshore,

but this is
the most logical explanation.

[narrator] Meteorologist
Orelon Sidney believes
the captain could've capture

the final moments
of a tragic vacation.

About five million people
go parasailing

in the United States
every year,

but it can be
really dangerous.

The National Transportation
Safety Board found

that there are no requiremen
for certification,

for training
or safety equipment
for parasailing operators.

[narrator]
Over the past 30 years,

around two people
die annually
in parasailing accidents,

and over 60 suffered
serious injuries.

A parasailor
in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

became untethered
from her boat,

and she sailed off
into the skies
on her parasail.

[narrator] 29-year-old
Katie Malone spent
a terrifying 45 minutes

hundreds of feet up
in a storm,

before crashing to earth
in a crocodile-infested
airfield along the coast.

She shattered her pelvis,
her ribs,

and suffered a collapsed lun

A few years later,

exactly the same thing happe
on the same beach
to another tourist.

[man 1] It's so windy
they can't reel him in.

Damn, he's going.

Oh, [bleep]!

Holy [bleep]!

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God!

-Dude.
-[man 2] I know.

[man 1] They just lost
that dude.

[narrator]
But this wasn't a dude,

but another unfortunate woma

who later crashed inland
on some power lines.

Fortunately, she's okay,

but I bet she got
a little bit more
than she bargained for

on that vacation.

[McCourt] When I look
at this object,

I can see here
that it's descending
on its own accord,

just like a parachute.

[narrator] It may look
like a parasailor
floating off into oblivion,

but no vacationers
were reported missing
on the day the film was shot

The strange black blob's
identity remains unknown.

Move over, Nessie.

This object is
yet another mystery
of the world's waters.

[narrator] Now, a quiet subu
in Bangkok, Thailand.

December 30th, 2020.

At just past 1:00 a.m.,

a CCTV camera films
the front driveway
of a family home.

[Dustin Growick] We're looki
at what appears to be
security footage.

Uh, residential area,

couple of gates, trash can,

couple of parked cars.

Nothing too
out of the ordinary.

[narrator] But then...

[Rhonda Glover] Oh, my gosh
it's a shadow.

It is a shadow that is...

Oh, my goodness.

[narrator]
Coming from nowhere,

a huge dark shadow
suddenly looms
across the pavement.

[Deborah Hyde]
That's really strange,

'cause that's really
very, very large
and monstrous-looking.

[narrator] It's unclear who
or what could be casting it

So, I'm looking for something
on the ground floor
that's creating this shadow,

um, but I'm just not seeing
anything.

[narrator]
This strange silhouette seem
to show something or someon

creeping along,
just off-camera.

What the hell
are we looking at right here?

Is that something from above

[Hyde] It looks to me
as though something
is being backlit,

though it might be backlit
from a very low angle,

so the shape is
incredibly distorted.

I wanna know
what that shadow is

or where it's emanating from.

Is there something above
that's casting that down
on the street?

[narrator] Coming up,

is this a high-wire hoodlum

attempting the ultimate
breaking and entering?

It takes a certain kind
of stealth, skill
and fortitude

to be that kind of burglar.

[narrator] And in New Mexico

an insect armed
with a monstrous weapon.

[man] How long is
this thing's stinger?

I mean, it would, like,
reach your bone.

[narrator]
In Bangkok, Thailand,

a stealthy silhouette
is caught on security camera

If I were walking down
an empty street at night

and saw
a black shadow like this
pass in front of me,

I would be a little intrigued,

and I would look around
to see what may have caused
that shadow,

and seeing nothing,

that's maybe when panic
might set in.

[narrator]
Former CIA agent Tracy Walde
analyzes the footage.

She suspects foul play.

What I see is really someone
who is walking overhead,

casting a shadow
down onto the ground.

Thailand has
a rather substantial
cat burglary problem.

In the fourth quarter of 2020
alone,

the country experienced
11,000 property crimes.

[narrator] Sun-drenched
Thailand is no paradise
if you are disadvantaged.

Some Thais earn
as little as $11 a day,

while the rich live
in lavish gated communities
called moo-bahns,

protected by
armed security guards
and CCTV,

like the camera that filmed
this bizarre shadow.

Breaking into
one of these homes is tough

but it can be done.

In 2012, a female cat burglar
went on a robbery spree

that lasted for nine years.

[narrator]
29-year-old Monchanok
was considered by Thai polic

to be one of the country's
best and most elusive
cat burglars.

It takes a certain kind
of stealth, skill
and fortitude

to be that kind of burglar.

She climbed up walls,

she crossed over roofs

to get into rich people's
homes to steal laptops
and jewelry

and any other things
she could get her hands on.

By the time she was
apprehended in 2021,

she had stolen hundreds
of thousands of dollars
in property.

[narrator] But anthropologis
Dustin Growick notices
a detail on the shadow

that rules out its coming
from a human.

[Growick]
If you look carefully
at the footage,

you'll see there's
a line of a shadow

in addition to
the larger, moving shadow,

which leads me to believe
that this may be
a power line above,

and something...
Something is maybe
crawling across it.

It's almost as though
there's a tail

that is hanging down
and following behind
as the shadow moves.

If you look at options
of what kind of animals
live in Bangkok city

that have long tails,

one of the first things
that springs to mind
are the monitor lizards.

Could what we're seeing her
be the shadow
of a monitor lizard

running across a wire
just out of view?

[narrator] Thailand's nativ
water monitor lizards can gr
to over nine feet

and weigh up to 110 lbs.

Teeth, claws and tail
can all be used as weapons

to slash, bite and whip
their victims to death.

We know these creatures
are pretty adept climbers
as well.

In 2021, a video surfaced
of one of these in Thailand

breaking into a 7-Eleven
and climbing up the shelves
to the ceiling.

It's really pretty amazing
that urban Bangkok has
these giant lizards.

They're native,
and they're just living ther

and they seem
to be doing quite well.

[narrator] Too well.

September 2016.

In the heart of Bangkok's
financial district sits
Lumpini Park.

Scared for the safety
of locals and tourists,

officials attempt to deal
with the 400 giant monitors
who call the park "home".

The huge reptiles are said
to be unafraid of people

and considered out-of-contro

[Growick] These lizards beca
such a problem
to Bangkok residents

that they attempted
to round them up

but were only able to capture
about a hundred,

which is a drop in the bucke

compared to
the larger population
in the city.

[narrator] Monitor lizards
aren't normally aggressive
toward humans,

but when they are,
it can be deadly.

Ronald Huff of Newark,
New Jersey

was bitten by one of his sev
pet monitor lizards in 2002

Suspected of succumbing
to blood poisoning,

he collapsed
by his front door.

For the lizards,
it was lunchtime.

Getting eaten by lizards
in your own home

just sounds like
one of the most terrible ways
to die.

[narrator]
Without further footage
or eyewitnesses,

the truth as to what exactl
was caught on camera
remains in the shadows,

but one thing's for sure.

[Growick] If large monitor
lizards have figured out
how to traverse power lines

it might be time to round up
another hundred or so.

[narrator] Now, Taos,
New Mexico, USA.

August 13th, 2021.

Spotting something strange
on the sidewalk,

a pedestrian stops
to investigate.

[Craig Gottlieb]
This guy's filming
with his phone.

It's this massive, big, like
hard and squishy bug
with a massive...

Looks like a stinger,
bigger than any stinger
I've ever seen,

or want to see,
for that matter.

[narrator]
The needle-like spike
in its back

is more than twice as long
as the bug's body.

My biology spidey senses
are telling me,

"Do not touch that."

This is a "no" for me.

This is a "This is a 'no'" no.

[narrator] The massive insec
seems unnatural,

more like something
from a nightmare
than the real world.

[Leslie Samuel] How long is
this thing's stinger?

I mean, can you imagine that
piercing your skin?

It would, like,
reach your bone.

[narrator]
Flashing its brown and orang
carapace,

the bug seems to raise
its nasty needle
towards the camera.

Nothing strikes fear
into the hearts of people

more than
certain types of insects,

and if you were walking
down the sidewalk
and you saw this,

and you're
one of those people,

what would you be doing?

Running away in fear,
screaming.

[narrator] Coming up,

are labs in New Mexico
breeding mutant bugs?

Imagine swarms of insects with
genetically modified stingers

administering lethal toxins
to huge population centers.

[narrator] In New Mexico,

a bug with what looks like
a grotesquely extended sting
is caught on camera.

[Dr. Carin Bondar] When I se
an unidentified insect
with a huge weapon,

I am going to honor the insect
and walk away.

[narrator]
Historian Craig Gottlieb fin
this bug was filmed

close to one of America's
most secretive military
testing sites.

This footage was shot near
Los Alamos National Laboratory
in New Mexico.

That was the home
of the Manhattan Project
during World War Two,

where American scientists
developed our nukes,

the "Fat Man"
and the "Little Boy",

but Los Alamos has recently
turned its attention

to studying
the field of biodefense.

Normally, when we think
of animals used in war,

we think of horses

or dogs,

elephants,

even dolphins,

but surprisingly, insects
have been used extensively

for hundreds of years.

If you think biblically,
thousands of years.

One professor,
at the University of Wyoming,

believes that
the Ark of the Covenant
was full of deadly insects,

and the Israelites
would open it

and unleash those insects
upon their enemies
on the battlefield.

[insects buzzing]

More recently,
in World War Two,

the Japanese dropped bombs
on China

that were loaded with flies
in one compartment

and a biological slurry
in the other

that coated the insects
on impact.

The contaminated insects
then brought
horrendous disease

to the Chinese citizens
on the ground,

and historians estimate
these devices killed
over 440,000 people.

War is hell, we all know that,

but in the age
of genetic modification,

the idea of insect warfare
offers even more
terrifying possibilities.

Imagine swarms of insects with
genetically modified stingers

administering lethal toxins
to huge population centers.

This bug doesn't look natural.

It could be the result
of bioengineering.

[narrator]
But reviewing the clip,

biologist Steve Potvin
believes

this could instead
be one of nature's
nastiest serial killers.

I think that, most likely,
it's some kind of wasp,
a big one.

Unlike some bee species
that lose their stinger
after one sting,

wasps can sting repeatedly,

and some of them have
incredibly toxic venom.

The most venomous wasp is
the two-inch long
tarantula hawk wasp,

which got its name
because it preys
on tarantulas.

[narrator] The female wasp
paralyzes the tarantula
with her sting

and drags it to her burrow.

Then, like something
from the film Alien,

she lays an egg
on the unlucky spider,

who has now become
a baby wasp's prepacked lunc

The sting paralyzes
an arachnid,

but for humans,

it's described as
the most painful sting
in the world,

being instantaneous,
electrifying
and totally debilitating.

[screams in pain]

[roars]

On average, in the US,

between 40 and 90 people
lose their lives every year
from wasp or hornet stings.

When a wasp stings,

it releases a pheromone,

and this is
an information signal
to other wasps,

who will then come
and join in with the attack

The average human
can tolerate up to ten stings
per lb of body weight,

so if you talk about
the average weight
of a person

and how many stings
they can tolerate,

it's around
a couple of thousand,

but with 10,000
individual wasps in a hive,

I'm not sure
I like those odds.

[narrator] But entomologist
Kevin Kasky discovers

this thing is worse
than a sting.

It's a kind of drill.

The long stinger
on the back of this insect
is not a stinger at all,

it's an ovipositor.

It's essentially
a sort of syringe

used by female ichneumon was

to inject their eggs
deep into the wood of a tree

[narrator] This is a female
ichneumon wasp.

Using two tiny blades
at its tip,

the impressive spike drills
through the bark of the tre

and into insect larvae
hidden beneath.

The unfortunate larvae becom
living incubation chambers
for this wasp's young.

[Kasky] If you come across
a wasp like this

with one of those
amazing-looking ovipositors

you don't have to kill it.

You can take a piece of paper,

and you can put it on a tree,

and it'll find its way
and do what it needs to do.

These wasps might look
like monsters,

but they're actually
harmless to humans.

[Kasky]
Most people see insects

and they, you know, cringe

or give the "ew" reflex.

The insect world is
fascinating,

because of what they're doin

how they're doing it

and why they
perpetuate themselves.

I think they're really cool

[buzzing]