Rutgers Rarities and Unexplained Phenomena

Battack - Aggressive Attack Bats of the GSE

By Ray Brennan

The first day of Rutgers Rarities investigations turned out to be one of the best so far. The team was supposed to be exploring one of the hot spots for Rutgers Rarities acitivity, the Graduate School of Education, which is home to the foaming bats, albino rats, the stick-throwing lunatic, and the top floor mysterious sounds, later that evening, but a phone call came from correspondant Brent that we should get there immediately. It turned out that there was a bat that was trapped on the second floor and was wreaking havoc that night, a rare opportunity for Rutgers Rarities to catch it in action. Based on the foaming bat story, the team knew that there was a danger involved, but they were more excited than anything else.

When we arrived, Brent gave us the lowdown and accompanied us to the second floor, where we located the bat, hanging from the vents around the perimeter of the hallway, just below the ceiling. After getting the bat's attention, the excitement was about to begin. We ducked into the sanctity of the stairwell, which had doors that we closed and windows that we could look through. Jessica went to the other side of the L-shaped hallway with the camcorder in an attempt to record it in flight, and the bat was once again excited. As the bat wildly flapped toward Jessica she ducked into the stairwell, but the footage was captured. At this point, the bat seemed to be out for blood. We stood on the other side of the stairwell windows, armed with a camcorder and a camera, and were able to further record that bat in flight. At one point, the bat took a sharp turn and made a B-line straight for my head. Despite the protection of the window, I flinched a bit, but got the shot. The bat was captured at the point of its full wingspan. A video of the attack and some additional images are shown on the Investigations page. This was only the first day of investigations, only just the beginning of Rutgers Rarities, and it was an incredible experience. The GSE continues to be a hot bed and a Rutgers Rarities favorite spot.