Background Information

In June of 2019, a peculiar sight was found on a home security camera in La Junta, Colorado and uploaded to Facebook. A short, lanky creature is seen marching down the driveway of a family’s home, flailing its arms and stomping its feet. The audio of the video displays muffled talking and the sounds of the creature walking along the concrete. This video of what the internet stated looked like Dobby from the Harry Potter series went viral, and many took it upon themselves to debunk it. Sound and video experts have also tested the video for any edits, but have long since proved its legitimacy as being untampered.

Who Is Behind This Claim?

Vivian Gomez, average Facebook user and mother, was the one to check her security camera one early day. She uploaded the video to the internet, hoping to find some answers, but instead got many confused and shocked viewers. The caption of the 10 second long video reads, “So I woke up Sunday morning and saw this on my camera and am trying to figure out…what the heck?? First I saw the shadow walking from my front door then I saw this thing…has anyone else seen this on their camera?? The other two cameras didn’t pick it up for some reason.” It was theorized that Gomez’s son, Bobby, was behind the video, posing as the Dobby in the video. But both Gomez and her son deny any role in playing as the creature.

What Sources Are Saying

Gomez and her son have sworn this video to be totally authentic, and many others have believed her claims. Professional musician and soundman, Darrin Swanson, tested the audio found in the video and determined it to be coming from inside the house. Fact-checking website Snopes did some digging of their own, and have concluded that it must be Gomez’s son, who left the house with underwear on his head, and strutted down the driveway in a silly manner. Inside Edition, Fox23, and The Sun all say the same thing.

What’s The Evidence?

The web sleuths of Facebook mostly agree that the creature in the video is in fact Bobby Gomez. According to the internet, they are both the same height and build, as we saw Bobby in an interview with Inside Edition. They even had him model some underwear on his head and attempt to recreate the figure in the clip. The resemblance is uncanny. Kenny Brindle of the Skeptical Inquirer tested the underwear theory on his own and maintained the theory regarding the underwear. Swanson’s own conclusions about the audio support these theories. If the talking came from inside the house, along with the sound of the door latch opening, then it can be inferred that someone inside knew about the presence of the figure, and that it likely came from inside the house. Even with all of this evidence, Gomez and her son have an alibi. They were both inside at the time watching TV in the living room. Even with plenty of evidence at our disposal, we can only really take their word for it.

Rating

Despite there being no video editing, all evidence points towards it being fake. But until Gomez comes forward and confirms this, we are only left to believe or disbelieve. Therefore, the video posted by Gomez is mostly not legit, as we have evidence to disprove it, but not enough to gain confirmation from Gomez directly that it is in fact entirely not legit.