The Dino-Bird of Blockbuster

By Jessica Teal

At the Blockbuster Video store in nearby South Plainfield, across from the Middlesex Mall and located next to Staples, a strange animal makes an eerie noise in the wee hours of the night. This noise, which all of the employees and many late night video renters have heard, is nearly indescribable in its weirdness.

Imagine, if you will, the raspy, dying squawk of a very large bird mixed with the lizard-like cries that the raptor dinosaurs make in Jurassic Park. Yet, there is also a metallic sort of sound to it as well. The tone is best phonetically described like this "Skrouaaaaaakk, skrouaaaaaakk, skrouaaaaaakk". As one RU student says, "I close my eyes and picture a large pterodactyl flying over Blockbuster when I hear that scary sound". A former assistant manager of Blockbuster has also stated, "We [all the employees at Blockbuster] all know about it. Believe me it was some creepy sh*t and I could never get used to it. Even after two years of taking out the garbage after closing, I still heard it and it scared me." It is also very odd that this noise only seems to occur after midnight.

Behind the entire Staples, Red Lobster, Blockbuster strip mall and across the street from the Middlesex Mall is a huge parcel of empty land, in which there is some sort of power-plant looking place on the furthest Northern corner. Could this noise be the nocturnal screeching of some exotic night-bird that inhabits that dismal, wet-land plot? Is the "power-plant" really some type of experimental menagerie or undercover prison where the helpless victims shriek into the night? In any case, the numerous accounts beg some further investigation...

©Rutgers Rarities and Unexplained Phenomena, 2005