What The Cryptid? — Witness File
WITNESS INTERVIEW — FILE #0512
INTERNAL — NOT FOR RELEASE
Location: Moonlight Diner, rear parking lot, Harlan’s Creek, WV
Witness: Junior Polk, 47 — Overnight Cook, Moonlight Diner (Harlan’s Creek, WV)
Interviewer: Mara Vane
DCA Case Reference: DCA-HC-2026-0512
Witness: Junior Polk, 47 — Overnight Cook, Moonlight Diner (Harlan’s Creek, WV)
Interviewer: Mara Vane
DCA Case Reference: DCA-HC-2026-0512
[DCA NOTE: Sixth documented interview with this witness. Witness has never confirmed a sighting, named an entity, or filed a report. DCA confidence rating remains Moderate pending first verifiable disclosure. Interview conducted at witness request — first time in eleven years of contact. Reason given: unspecified.]
INTERVIEWER: For the record, today is July 17th, 2026. I’m speaking with Junior Polk outside the Moonlight Diner, Harlan’s Creek, approximately 4:50 in the morning. Mr. Polk, you contacted the network. That’s new.
WITNESS: Didn’t say I had anything to report.
INTERVIEWER: You left a voicemail at 2:17 a.m. asking me to come down.
WITNESS: I know what I did.
[Witness gestures toward the dumpster enclosure at the south end of the parking lot. Does not speak for approximately eight seconds.]
WITNESS: You want some coffee.
INTERVIEWER: I’m fine. What did you want to show me, Junior?
WITNESS: I didn’t say I wanted to show you anything.
INTERVIEWER: All right. What did you want to tell me?
WITNESS: I don’t know that I want to tell you anything either.
[Pause, 14 seconds.]
WITNESS: Something’s been taking the pie.
INTERVIEWER: Pie.
WITNESS: I put the cooling racks on the back sill. Same as I always do. Two in the morning, sometimes three, when the overnight bake is done. Been doing it since Cheryl retired. That’s four years.
INTERVIEWER: And something has been taking pie from the cooling racks.
WITNESS: Not the whole pie. One slice. Every time. Clean cut, like it used the server. I don’t leave the server out there.
[DCA NOTE: Witness specifies ‘clean cut.’ This will require follow-up regarding tool use or analogous physical capability.]
INTERVIEWER: When did this start?
WITNESS: March. The 4th. I remember because it was a coconut cream and I’d been looking forward to it.
INTERVIEWER: How many times since March 4th?
WITNESS: Nineteen.
[Witness says this without hesitation.]
[DCA NOTE: Witness has been counting.]
INTERVIEWER: Has it taken the same kind of pie every time?
WITNESS: No. That’s the thing. It takes whatever’s out. Coconut cream, peach, pecan twice. Cherry. Didn’t take the sugar-free blueberry. Left that one alone.
INTERVIEWER: The sugar-free blueberry was left untouched.
WITNESS: Correct.
INTERVIEWER: Have you seen it?
[Pause, 11 seconds.]
WITNESS: I’ve seen something.
INTERVIEWER: Can you describe it?
WITNESS: Large. Upright. I don’t know what it is and I’ve been in this town forty-seven years so that’s saying something.
[DCA NOTE: First physical description offered by this witness across six interviews. Upright. Large. No further parameters provided.]
INTERVIEWER: Did it see you?
WITNESS: I think so. It didn’t seem bothered. Ate the slice standing at the sill. Took maybe two minutes. Walked back toward the tree line.
[Witness points toward the eastern tree line bordering the diner’s rear lot. Approximately 60 feet from the back window.]
INTERVIEWER: And it’s been coming back.
WITNESS: Nineteen times.
INTERVIEWER: Junior. Why did you call me tonight specifically?
WITNESS: I’m out of pecan.
INTERVIEWER: I’m sorry?
WITNESS: The third time it came, I put out pecan instead of whatever was scheduled. It took the pecan. I’ve been putting out pecan on purpose since then. Ordering extra. I’m out as of tonight and I’ve got a strawberry rhubarb cooling on the sill right now and I don’t know what’s going to happen.
[DCA NOTE: Witness has been deliberately accommodating the entity’s apparent preference for four months. This has not previously been disclosed to DCA or WTC field staff.]
INTERVIEWER: You’ve been leaving its preferred pie out for it.
WITNESS: I’m not going to have something that size be disappointed.
[Audio briefly cuts out.]
INTERVIEWER: Junior, do you want me to stay until it arrives?
WITNESS: I want you to stand over there and not make a lot of noise. And don’t look at it direct. It doesn’t seem to like that.
INTERVIEWER: Noted. One more question. You said you’ve seen things in this town for forty-seven years and haven’t reported any of them. Why this?
[Pause, 19 seconds.]
WITNESS: Because it’s been coming back. Nineteen times. And whatever it is, it likes my pie.
[Witness returns inside. Interview suspended at 5:09 a.m. pending potential visual confirmation. Investigator remained on site.]
[DCA NOTE: No visual confirmation recorded. One slice of strawberry rhubarb was absent from the cooling rack when investigator checked at 5:44 a.m. Cut was clean. Server was not present at the scene.]
CASE STATUS: OPEN — ACTIVE MONITORING
DCA SUMMARY: Witness reports ongoing nightly removal of single pie slice by unknown upright entity; nineteen incidents since March 4th; witness has been accommodating entity’s apparent preference for four months without prior disclosure.
DISPOSITION: OPEN
DCA SUMMARY: Witness reports ongoing nightly removal of single pie slice by unknown upright entity; nineteen incidents since March 4th; witness has been accommodating entity’s apparent preference for four months without prior disclosure.
DISPOSITION: OPEN
◆ Share This Report
