◆ About Rico Valez
Rico Valez has been asked to leave 847 locations in the course of his journalism career. He has complied on eleven of those occasions, and on eight of those he came back.
He studied broadcast journalism at the University of New Mexico, where he was described by a professor as "technically gifted, professionally catastrophic, and genuinely impossible to ignore." He considers this the most accurate assessment of his career anyone has ever offered and has repeated it in three separate job interviews.
He joined What The Cryptid? in 2013 after sending the network a seventeen-minute unsolicited field reel filmed entirely without authorisation inside a supposedly decommissioned government monitoring station in rural Nevada. The reel contained three federal trespass violations, one outstanding noise complaint, and what Rico maintains was clear evidence of ongoing paranormal surveillance activity. The network hired him within the week. The station has since been demolished. Rico does not consider this a coincidence.
His broadcasting style is immediate, confrontational, and frequently conducted at a volume that suggests he believes the camera is further away than it is. He has argued on camera with a sheriff, a park ranger, two federal agents, a man who turned out not to be a federal agent, and a witness who insisted the creature had been very polite about the whole thing, which Rico found suspicious.
He has been pepper-sprayed twice in the line of duty. He filed both times from the scene. He treats caution tape as a journalistic starting point and restricted area signs as a reasonable indicator that something worth knowing is located nearby.
◆ Field Records ◆
Active Files & Unresolved Situations
The following matters are documented in WTCNN field records. Authorities have described each as unrelated to the others. This is noted.
Origin File · Nevada · 2013
The Nevada Station
A supposedly decommissioned government monitoring facility in rural Nevada where Rico filed his first major field reel. The reel contained three federal trespass violations and what Rico maintains was clear evidence of ongoing paranormal surveillance activity. The station was demolished eighteen months after his report. Rico has mentioned the timing in print approximately forty times. He refers to it by coordinates. Never by name.
Not Decommissioned. Demolished.
Active File · 2015 — Present
The Outstanding Answers Notebook
A spiral-bound notebook Rico has carried since 2015, filled with handwritten questions that witnesses, officials, and sources have failed to answer satisfactorily. Currently 214 entries. Three have been resolved. One resolved entry opened two new questions, which Rico considers a net loss. He has not lost the notebook. He is aware this is, statistically, its own kind of story.
214 Questions. 3 Resolved.
Field File · Louisiana · October 2021
The Louisiana Situation
Something happened in Louisiana in 2021 that caused visible damage to The Evidence Vehicle consistent with a large impact at speed. Rico refers to it only as "the Louisiana situation" and files it under experiences that shaped his approach to subterranean infrastructure. No report was filed. Hal has a manila folder labelled Louisiana 2021 in his bottom drawer. It has not been opened in two years.
No Report Filed.
Field File · Gallup, NM · 2019
The Gallup Man
At a 2019 incident near Gallup, New Mexico, a man in a grey jacket identified himself as a federal agent, observed Rico's broadcast setup, photographed it without comment, and left before the scene was secured. No record of his presence appeared in official documentation. Rico has a photograph. It is not clear enough to be useful. He has shown it to Hal twice. Hal has asked him, twice, to let it go.
Photo Exists. Unusable.
Personnel File · Four Operators
The Camera Operators
Rico has lost four camera operators to circumstances that remain officially unexplained. When he discusses this it is always factual, specific, and brief. He mentions there was also a fifth who left for a career change, which he privately suspects was related. He has never elaborated. Hal has asked him not to.
Four. Plus Possibly Five.
Active File · Sheriff Broward · Ongoing
Sheriff Broward, Kern County
Sheriff Dale Broward has attempted to remove Rico from a scene on nineteen separate occasions. Rico considers this a working relationship. Broward has described it as "a recurring nightmare I've apparently earned." Rico has genuine respect for Broward as an opponent. This has not resulted in either party changing their behaviour in any meaningful way.
19 Removal Attempts. Ongoing.
⚠
◆ Editorial Note — Internal Use Only
The Thing He's Wrong About
Rico is absolutely convinced that any official presence at a paranormal scene is evidence of a cover-up in progress. He is correct approximately sixty percent of the time. The other forty percent involves county health inspectors, a retired park ranger who was just hiking, and one memorable incident in which the federal-looking vehicles turned out to belong to a church group. Rico reported the church group as a potential front organisation. He has never revisited this assessment. Mara Vane clocked the misread within four minutes but said nothing, on the grounds that the story Rico filed anyway was one of the network's best performers that quarter. Hal knows. The church group's pastor has Hal's direct line.
