Destination Truth (2007) s01e06 Episode Script
Lobizon and Pombero
NARRATOR: On this episode of Destination Truth (DORA SPEAKING SPANISH) It just happened so fast.
She was running after her chicken.
She didn't want them to escape, and then, all of a sudden, it materialized itself right before her.
NARRATOR: Josh travels to South America after documented sightings of a werewolf in Argentina, and he finds that this legend's bite might be worse than its bark.
JOSH: What the hell was that? NARRATOR: Next, the crew searches for a volatile gnome that reportedly lives in the Argentine woods.
Well, what can you tell me about the Pombero? You know, there's stories and there's legends and whatnot, but this is one that really exists.
NARRATOR: Does Josh catch the elusive Pombero or does he come up just short? JOSH: Yeah.
What's up? LINDSAY ON RADIO: I don't know.
I just heard some rustling really, really close to me.
I'm Josh Gates.
My travels have taken me to the most exotic and mysterious places on Earth.
I've seen some unexplainable things which have raised some strange questions.
Now, I've pulled together a crack team armed with the latest technology to search for answers.
(BAT SQUEAKING) I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me, but I know what I'm looking for.
The truth.
JOSH: Anyone who has ever gone on a childhood camping trip or has turned on a cable TV at 3:00 in the morning knows a thing or two about werewolves.
In America, we know them as those legendary beasts, who, triggered by a full moon in the sky, turn from regular humans into manic, snarling, fur-covered beasts.
But unlike here, there are places where the werewolf is not just considered a myth.
I came across a creature called El Lobizon, which is Argentina's adaptation of our homegrown growler.
Their version has had documented sightings all over the country, from farmlands to highly populated cities, with a recent spate of reported sightings in Northern Argentina.
The crew and I packed up our night vision cameras, Bullard, and electromagnetic sensor to assist us in getting first-hand evidence of our creature, and jetted off to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
What sets the Lobizon apart from the classic werewolf is that rather than transmogrifying into a wolf, it commutes into an oversized, ferocious dog.
Also, the Lobizon can't just be any schlub bitten by another werewolf.
It is said that the creature can only be the seventh son in a family of just boys.
The belief in the Lobizon is so strong in Argentina that the president of the country to this day has every reported seventh son baptized to try to stop any transformations.
But just like it's lupine counterpart, the Lobizon is victim to the lunar cycle.
And with a bad moon rising in just a couple of days, this was perfect timing for our investigation in Argentina.
(LATIN MUSIC PLAYING) To learn more about the Lobizon, we set up a meeting with Ramon Farias, author and expert on Argentine folklore.
The story of the Lobizon is very complicated to me.
(STAMMERS) lt, uh In some ways, it sounds similar to this European idea of a werewolf.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) But it has characteristics which are unique to this part of the world.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) (STAMMERING) Absolutely right.
The What is European about it is the fact that this This all began right after the conquest of America, I guess.
Tuesdays and Fridays, full moon (SPEAKING SPANISH) man suffers this transformation.
People here seem to believe that it is the seventh son in a family, correct? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Exactly.
That's exactly what they believe.
They've got to be It's gotta be a family of all boys.
So, these are some drawings of the Lobizon.
Almost cartoony kind of image of a wolf up on its hind legs, howling at the moon.
This is Lobizon.
And here we have a much more stylish werewolf and a very fancy belt buckle.
Maybe some Diesel jeans.
Very fancy jeans.
Yeah, he appears to have turned into a wolf, but still enjoys a tight pair of jeans.
Like most men in Argentina.
You know what I mean? JOSH: We wanted to make our way to the area where the sightings had occurred, but first I had to stop at the zoo to meet with a man that had an alternate explanation for the Lobizon.
Uh, all right.
So, we're here at the zoo.
Uh, home, of course, to the very dangerous giant twin squirrels of Buenos Aires.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Which one of these animals attacked your son? (SPEAKING SPANISH) No? Your son was attacked by an animal? It's a shame.
This zoo is very, very dangerous.
JOSH: I caught up with zoologist Fernando Peralta to see if any of Argentina's indigenous animals could be linked to the Lobizon sightings.
There is a similar animal, however.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Yes.
Right here in the zoo.
It's called (SPEAKING SPANISH) It's a similar animal to a werewolf in your zoo? You have the greatest zoo of all time.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) It's called aguara guazu.
And it is a werewolf? (ALL SPEAKING SPANISH) Yeah.
It's derived from that animal.
I would like to see this animal.
(BOTH SPEAKING SPANISH) Let's go.
This is the Argentine Lobizon? It's the closest they have to a wolf.
The closest counterpart.
Exactly.
JOSH: People People sometimes say that they've seen El Lobizon.
Do you think maybe they've seen this animal? (SPEAKING SPANISH) JOSH: As fascinating as his theory of the Lobizon was, I wanted to hear directly from someone who actually claimed to have seen the mysterious creature.
And for that, we needed to travel to San Ignacio, the hub of the recent sightings.
But since it didn't have an airport, we first had to fly to Iguazú, in northern Argentina, which also happens to be the home of the beautiful Iguazú Falls, where several famous American movies were shot, including The Mission, Miami Vice, and most notably, Leslie Nielsen's critically acclaimed performance in Mr.
Magoo.
We left the falls and drove to the nearby San Ignacio to meet with our first witness, Ramon Gimenez, a police officer sporting the official uniform of short-shorts and an old adidas T-shirt.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) This animal appeared at his home.
It was a Lobizon.
Describe what it looked like.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Like a big, black dog with some eyes that Kind of brilliant eyes.
Are you sure it wasn't just a dog? (SPEAKING SPANISH) No, no.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) JOSH: But how do you know? You know a dog when you know a dog.
And this wasn't a dog.
And what happened when you saw the Lobizon? Lobizon began to howl.
Yes? Two long howls.
What did the howl sound like? (SPEAKING SPANISH) They were scary.
JOSH: Ramon led us to a local barmaid that had a similar experience, only she had seen the Lobizon in both its dog and human form.
I understand you had an experience with a Lobizon.
It's 4:00 in the morning.
She works at a bar, yes? (DORA SPEAKING SPANISH) And that's when the chicken started making a ton of sound, no? Lots of noise.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) It just happened so fast.
She was running after her chicken.
She didn't want them to escape.
And then, all of a sudden, there was this dog.
The next day, she was having a seat there, and a man came up.
With these A horrible-looking man.
And he told her (SPEAKING SPANISH) He said, "Did you see what I did to you last night?" So, he was the Lobizon? (SPEAKING SPANISH) That was him.
JOSH: The woman was shaken by her experience and said that she never saw the man again, but she told me about another man nearby who claimed to be a Lobizon.
She was too terrified to see the man herself, but for me, it was a meeting I couldn't pass up.
JOSH: We are monitoring the area around a seventh son's house to see if there are any signs of a Lobizon.
What is that, right there? Where is that camera? JOSH: Our first two Lobizon eyewitnesses intrigued me, and I was really excited about our next one because we were told that he could actually turn into the Lobizon right before our eyes.
But it being daytime and him not being a seventh son, I was a little skeptical.
Once you turn into the Lobizon, do you become dangerous? (SPEAKING SPANISH) He says, "Yeah.
" So I should be very careful once you transform? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Okay.
Yeah.
(GROANS) (BREATHING DEEPLY) (CARLOS GASPING) (GROANING) (HOWLING) (EXHALING) And scene! (CARLOS SPEAKING SPANISH) It was very good.
I like how he turned into the Lobizon, and then turned back, and he'd lost a lot of time.
JOSH: This Lobizon transformation was more fit for dinner theater than howling at the moon.
It might have something to do with the fact that he's the only son in a family of all girls.
But I wanted to find out why seventh sons needed to be baptized to prevent the Lobizon curse.
So, we went to an old Spanish mission to speak with a priest who over the years has performed hundreds of seventh son baptisms.
What is the story of the Lobizon? The story is that the seventh son was, of course, baptized by the President of Argentina, um To protect him.
NAOMl: It's to protect him, uh, from apparently becoming a Lobizon.
Do people in Argentina still believe in this legend? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Not everybody, but many.
JOSH: To help us out in our investigation, Father Smoli told us that there had been many seventh sons that had been baptized in his church, and he gave us an idea on where to find them.
He also led us to a local farmer that said he had actual Lobizon DNA evidence.
So, you had this experience with the Lobizon.
What time of day was it? (BOTH SPEAKING SPANISH) 1:00.
In the day or in the night? In the morning.
He heard some (STAMMERS) The children were out there playing and they said, "Uncle! Uncle! Come get Come!" (SPEAKING SPANISH) So, take us to where that accident happened.
Let's go look.
So, basically, you see these bricks here? Uh-huh.
Actually, the children grabbed at the bricks and started hitting with the bricks.
They were hitting the Lobizon with the bricks? Hitting the Lobizon with the bricks.
The Lobizon actually went running up this way, jumped up on top of that cart, and came down, ran up around the house, and actually went inside the house.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Okay.
So, he came into this room.
Okay.
Here's where the Lobizon came and he managed to lasso it here.
You lassoed it in this room.
So, he dragged it out of the room.
NAOMl: Dragged it out.
Show me where you took it.
This This is the lasso he used.
That's where he started to hit it.
And he started to Three big old hits.
He hit it three times with a big stick.
NAOMl: That's when he actually tied him up to the tree.
He said to let him go.
Let him go.
So then they just kind of eased up the rope and They let the Lobizon go, and it ran off.
It sounds a lot to me like you beat the hell out of a dog.
I mean, it's just such a long encounter in so many different areas, you know.
I mean, it's like he took this Lobizon through a Double Dare course.
He said that the whip was covered in blood.
Mmm-hmm.
Is that true? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Yeah, it was covered in blood.
It was covered in blood? Ask him if he'd be willing to sell us this whip.
How about 50 pesos? (BOTH SPEAKING SPANISH) (CHUCKLING) Okay.
Look at that.
And we have a deal.
JOSH: With the rope now in our possession, we'd be able to send it back to the U.
S.
To have it tested.
If it was indeed covered in the animal's blood, we should be able to determine what animal or human it belonged to.
The day now ending and the full moon rising, we needed to meet with a seventh son right away to see if we could witness a transformation into a Lobizon.
And of your nine boys, this is the seventh? (BOTH SPEAKING SPANISH) When President Menem was in office, uh, he came here.
We baptized him.
It's a custom from long ago.
The seventh son's always baptized by the president.
Why does the custom exist? They said if he wasn't baptized, then the Lobizon would come out.
JOSH: Everything was going along fine until the father saw how late it was getting.
Baptized or not, we could tell that he did not want his son outside that night.
Which was fine.
We had an appointment to get to with another seventh son that lives in an area that has had multiple reported sightings of Lobizons.
With this kid being treated as a pariah for not being baptized by the president, in an area being known for its large amount of Lobizon activity, this was the perfect place to set up our investigation and maybe, just maybe, catch ourselves a werewolf.
Are you picking anything up on Camera 4? LINDSAY ON RADIO: Not right now.
I thought I saw something on the edge of the road.
What the hell was that? So, we are here in a small village where we are going to conduct our investigation for the Lobizon.
This town area has been known for its reported sightings of the Lobizon, so our first priority is to investigate throughout this village for signs of our creature.
Witnesses claim that the Lobizon is a snarling wolf-man with sharp claws and a deep growl.
This house behind us, where we're setting up our base camp tonight, is the home of a seventh son.
With any luck, maybe, maybe this kid will transform before our eyes.
We also know that the Lobizon likes to eat raw meat, so we have a big side of beef which we're gonna hang up, as well, and focus one of our cameras on that.
Certainly, if we're gonna find a Lobizon, this is the time and the place to do it.
So, we're gonna set up our gear, get to work.
JOSH: What we're gonna do is take our seventh son, sit him down and monitor him throughout the night to see if he transforms into a Lobizon.
Since there's been a lot of reported activity in the area, we're gonna use our surveillance equipment to try to capture any evidence of an unusual creature.
Tracking for footprints is out because it's way too dry and dense around the area, but we are gonna use our thermal imager to see if we can pick up heat signals from anything warm-blooded around the camp.
Also, we'll have our four night vision cameras that feed directly into our laptop, where Lindsay will be monitoring them.
One of the cameras will be fixed on this point, another one of the cameras will face out here, towards the edge of this property.
There's some animal pens out here.
We've heard a lot of stories about the Lobizon coming and attacking animals.
Another one of our cameras is gonna be trained on our seventh son, and the final camera will just sort of be a general one, which will sweep out over the edge of the property and give us a nice, broad view if anybody or anything walks into the yard.
Meat hook, check.
Sketchy warm beef.
Check.
Okay, let's get the kid out here.
Okay.
Chair's going right out here.
I want this kid isolated in case he turns into a freakish werewolf.
In some areas the child's supposed to be named "Benito.
" It's a benediction, a protective name which keeps the curse at bay.
In this case, this child wasn't, in fact, baptized by the President of Argentina and was not given the benedictive name.
So in many circles, people would believe that he is susceptible to the curse.
So, you never know.
At any moment, this kid could start howling at the moon and rip me to pieces.
JOSH: Not really much going on with the night vision cameras.
You guys keep an eye on the kid.
I'm gonna go investigate the town area.
No problem.
I'll hold down the fort.
(WHISPERING) I haven't seen a single person in this town.
It's like I'm in a George Romero movie right now.
This place is completely abandoned.
What's really weird is that I haven't seen or heard any dogs or animals around here at all.
We have to remember that even though we are monitoring the seventh son in our camp, there are other seventh sons in this area, so I still have to keep my eye out for anything.
(RADIO BEEPS) We just did a survey through the town.
Didn't find anything.
It's almost totally abandoned, though.
All right.
We're headed back to you now.
(RADIO BEEPS) (BREATHING DEEPLY) All right.
Well, I went through the whole town.
There's no sign of life out there.
There's no dogs.
There's no people.
It's weird, actually.
I went block after block after block, and it just feels abandoned.
Um, no sign of life at all.
Yeah.
Well, there's nothing much back here either.
We're watching the cameras.
The kid hasn't moved in a long time.
He hasn't turned into a werewolf yet? Not yet.
I'm watching, though.
Yeah.
So what's the plan of attack? We're gonna continue to monitor this kid.
Monitor the kid.
Just look at the cameras for a little bit, I think.
And that's it.
That's all we can do for now.
JOSH: It's been pretty quiet around here so far.
Not much going on with the night vision cameras.
What is that right there on Camera 2? It went that way.
I'm going after it.
Where'd the kid go? (WHISPERING) Come here.
Come here.
Come here.
Come here.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
There it goes! What is that right there on Camera 2? Where'd the kid go? I just saw it run this way.
It darted into the bushes.
Whatever it was, it was large and fast.
Not seeing anything.
What we're looking for is something larger than a dog.
Something with bigger eyes.
Something Something much more terrifying-looking.
It definitely came right through this area.
I'm just looking for any signs of tracks.
The ground is really hard and dry, so it may not have left any tracks here.
I'm barely leaving any tracks, but it came right through here.
(RADIO BEEPS) ERIC: Hey, Josh.
We found our seventh son.
He must have ran into his house.
Did he wolf out on you? No, but he does seem a little cranky.
I'm just gonna walk down the road and see if I can see what was down here.
(RADIO BEEPS) I'm using the thermal imager to see if I can pick up any heat signatures on the ground or in the heavy brush.
LINDSAY ON RADIO: I'm here.
Are you picking anything up on Camera 4? Not right now.
I thought I saw something on the edge of the road.
What the hell was that? (WHISPERING) Come here, come here, come here, come here.
I just saw it go in there.
Right there.
That thing was definitely bigger than a dog.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
(RUSTLING) Nothing here.
This is really frustrating.
It's been a couple hours since I lost track of whatever the hell that was.
Better go head back to camp.
So what happened? Well, I tried to chase whatever it was on the camera.
I caught something on the imager a few times.
It looked like it was on four legs, whatever it was.
Uh, if it was a dog, it was a pretty good-sized dog.
I just saw it tearing through the bushes on the imager.
I went into the bushes (SIGHS) Couldn't get up close to it.
That's it.
Don't know.
Could be a dog.
Could be a Lobizon.
In terms of this kid, I mean, the moon is full and the moon is up.
If he hasn't turned into a Lobizon by now, I don't think he's going to.
I think we should let him go to bed.
All right, guys.
So, here's where we stand.
We got nothing going on in town.
We definitely have some dog-like figures skulking around this area that we've seen on the cameras and on the imager, uh, but nothing that we can get to up close.
Kid has not turned into a Lobizon, and the sun's gonna be up soon.
And the Lobizon is not on good terms with sunlight.
So I think we've done the best we could do here, and we need to pack it up.
JOSH: The next morning I packed up the rope with the purported DNA evidence and sent it to Dr.
Teri Kun, forensic specialist at UC Davis, for analysis.
Truthfully, it should be canine blood because it sounds like this guy just beat the crap out of a dog.
But if any human DNA is found, that may prove his Lobizon encounter.
Also, we plan to take our thermal imager and night vision camera footage to the curator of the L.
A.
Zoo, to see if he can identify what creature we encountered on our investigation.
It would take a few days to get the rope results back from the lab, so in the meantime, we left San Ignacio and high-tailed it to Corrientes to investigate documented eyewitness accounts of another creature, El Pombero, that has been terrorizing this region of Argentina.
What we're looking for is something pigmy-like, covered in hair, with extremely unusual powers.
Reportedly, the creature has the ability to impregnate women simply by touching their stomachs.
Local witnesses have described the Pombero as a short, hairy, and grotesquely ugly creature that will pay you a late-night visit if you leave rum, cigarettes and honey on your doorstep.
It's sort of like trick or treating in Las Vegas.
But before our search began, there was significantly more important business at hand.
(LATIN MUSIC PLAYING) I am in a wacky sea of women.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) After a myriad of failed attempts to lure one of the Carnival dancers to join our crew, we set out the next morning to meet with a local schoolteacher who actually teaches the subject of El Pombero in his classroom.
Well, what can you tell me about the Pombero? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Uh, he said that there's a very strong belief system here about the Pombero.
He said, "I believe in the Pombero.
"But I've never had an experience with him per se.
" It's just, this is a belief that has been conserved within their culture.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) It's within their education here.
You know, there's stories and there's legends and whatnot, but this is one that really exists.
And where do you believe that the Pombero lives? Um, we don't know.
Nobody knows where he lives.
But, you know, he's been seen by lots of people.
JOSH: The teacher then led us to a witness that said she'd come in direct contact with the Pombero.
She was sleeping and she woke up I mean, how could she not heard it? She felt this cold wind.
And how did you know that the Pombero was in your room? Because he makes this whistle.
Can she imitate the whistle? (SPEAKING SPANISH) But she's not willing to do that.
If you were to imitate him, he would come after you.
JOSH: Since Dora was too terrified of the Pombero to whistle in her own house, we might just have to go whistle in his.
You want me to try and whistle? Go for it.
(WHISTLING) (FAINT GROANING) What was that? Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Move it! Let's go! JOSH: On our quest to find the small, devilish creature known as El Pombero, we were led to the Waranee Indian reservation where many sightings have been reported.
The Waranee sect has had the most recent run-ins with the Pombero and I was anxious to hear their accounts.
Unfortunately, our car had other plans.
(HISSING) It's about 150,000 degrees here.
We're in beautiful somewhere Argentina.
Middle of nowhere.
JOSH: Eric tried his own solution, but nobody would pick him up, probably due to his abundance of outlaw facial hair.
Yet another reason why we needed one of those Carnival dancers.
No AC.
It's 100 degrees out.
I have to drive around with the heat on.
Assuming our car troubles were behind us, we finally got to our destination.
JOSH: So we're here in JardÃn América.
There's a very large Waranee Indian population in this area of northern Argentina.
We found our first Waranee witness and local bar manager.
Sort of a combination of Rosie O'Donnell and Meat Loaf.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) He saw a guy.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) He looked like he was, like, you know, seven years old.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Completely naked.
So here he came walking, and he stopped right in front of him.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) And he stopped and just stared at him.
He was calling him.
The Pombero was calling him.
When you saw the Pombero, how did you know that it was a Pombero and not just a man? (SPEAKING SPANISH) He was like a black doll.
JOSH: Raul then referred us to a customer of his that had just recently had an encounter with the Pombero.
But we had to go deep into the village to find this witness.
But, you know, there's no more truthful person than an old Argentine mountain man.
I understand that you had an experience with the Pombero, yes? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Yeah.
It was on the mountain.
He was there, like, at this hole in the mountain.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) He doesn't have any clothes.
Just a little something, you know, covering him here.
He has a cane.
Do you believe that there are many Pombero, or only this one? (SPEAKING SPANISH) No, there's a lot.
All over the mountains here.
But it is possible that I could see the Pombero? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Yes, of course.
JOSH: He told us of a house on the edge of the village that we had to check out because it had so many reported Pombero visits.
So I set out looking for it, and after searching for a few hours and just as the sun was setting, we finally found the abandoned house on the village lakeshore.
As the family that vacated the premises claimed that the Pombero would take gifts right off their porch at night, this was an ideal place to set up our investigation.
It's extremely dense out here in the forest, and there's a house here which was recently abandoned by a Waranee family.
But they swear that when they lived here, when they would put out food, honey, tobacco, rum, for the Pombero, every night it would come and take these things.
There's nobody around here.
We're completely alone out here.
We're gonna set up here and see if we can't sight this Pombero.
We're looking to capture any evidence of this short, hairy, ugly, gnome-like figure with a whistle that many eyewitnesses claim to have heard before sighting him.
We have four cameras set up here.
Four night vision cameras.
One of which is fixed on the food that we've set out.
The other three are positioned in various spots looking out at the edge of the tree line.
If anything comes out of the forest to take this food, we're gonna be able to image it.
We're also using what's called a DolphinEAR.
Developed primarily for listening to sounds in the ocean and also to be buried in the ground.
And it's an extremely sensitive microphone.
We should be able to pick up the sounds of anything moving around on the perimeter of the camp.
While Lindsay is monitoring everything on the laptop, I'll be walking around the camp with the thermal imager, that will help me see through this brush.
This is gonna help me pick up anything giving off heat that may look like a small goblin.
How's it going with the cameras? Nothing came to disturb the food yet? No, not yet.
Well, they say that it whistles, or if you whistle, you will make it come out of the forest.
Okay.
So, we're all gonna take a crack at it.
How's your whistling? (LAUGHING) I'm a top-notch whistler.
All right.
Well, that's good.
So, we're gonna just go lights out for a bit.
We'll all take a crack at whistling and see what comes out and tries to kill us.
Okay.
Perfect.
(RADIO BEEPS) Eric, how's it going over there? No, nothing yet.
Want me to try and whistle? Read my mind.
Go for it.
(WHISTLING) (CONTINUES WHISTLING) Good whistling, Eric.
Solid whistling.
I'm out making a quick sweep around the perimeter to see if I can pick up anything moving through the brush with the thermal imager.
(FAINT GROANING) What was that? Yeah.
What's up? LINDSAY ON RADIO: I don't know.
I just heard some rustling really, really close to me.
(FAINT GROANING) What was that? Everybody heard that, right? LINDSAY: Yeah.
ERIC: Mmm-hmm.
(LIGHT CLICKING) Something big just made a noise over there.
So I'm gonna take the thermal imager, I'm gonna walk up this way.
Lindsay, you let me know if you see anything on the cameras.
Just keep in touch with the walkie-talkie.
And I'll keep in touch and let you know if I see anything up there.
Carter, let's go.
(SHUSHING) (CREW MURMURING) (SHUSHING) Nothing yet, but I definitely heard a big, loud noise back here.
There's been numerous sightings of the Pombero in this area and not just on this property.
So, it's our hope that we'll get lucky tonight.
Guys, I found another one of these traps up here.
Be very, very careful if you walk out behind the house on the left-hand side of the path.
(RADIO BEEPS) (WHISPERING) One of the really weird things about this part of the village is that there seem to be these traps everywhere in the ground.
They're They're almost like booby traps.
There are holes that are covered over with sticks and crossbeams sometimes that go fairly deep down.
We've almost stepped into a couple of them while we were setting up equipment earlier.
But I've just come across another one here.
Just be very, very careful with your footing.
There are these strange holes in the ground everywhere.
It's almost as though whoever was living here on this part of the land was trying to trap something.
There's a creepy little ladder over here.
Goes up into a tree.
This whole property is really weird.
How's it going? I'm not getting much.
How about you? Well, I don't know.
I mean, the weird thing about this place are these pits everywhere.
Did you come across the one over here? Yeah, I almost stepped in it.
(STAMMERS) I know.
Like, these big covered pits.
They're very, very strange.
Linds, how's it going over there with the cameras? Not too much.
We definitely heard something rustling around in the trees back there, and they definitely got these pits all over the property for some sort of animal or some sort of creature.
So, there's something roaming around out here for sure.
Yeah.
What's up? LINDSAY ON RADIO: I don't know.
I just heard some rustling really, really close to me.
I can't see anything.
All right.
I'm headed back your way.
JOSH: You heard something over here? Mmm-hmm.
Where? I thought it was you over there.
Well, whatever it is, it's moved away.
I'll tell you one thing, though.
This whole place gives me the creeps.
Well, it's starting to get light in the sky, which means that morning is here.
It's been a long night.
We did a really thorough investigation for El Pombero.
The criteria which we used to try to search for this creature, uh, was that we were hoping either with our thermal imager, with our night vision cameras, or first-hand, to have some sort of visual encounter with this creature.
We left out its favorite foods, rum, tobacco, honey.
And it was our hope to kind of coax it or something else out of the forest to take this food.
But other than a groan caught on tape, no sign of the Pombero.
As I said, it is getting light out and that doesn't make this place any less spooky.
So, we're gonna pack it up and call it a night, which means we're gonna have to drink all that rum and smoke those cigarettes ourselves.
(SNIFFS) Which is fine.
We can certainly do that.
JOSH: We left Argentina and zipped back to Los Angles to visit Michael Dee, the curator of the L.
A.
Zoo.
We wanted him to listen to the groan-like sound we captured on tape to see if he could recognize it as animal or human.
Hey, Mike.
Good to see you again.
Good to see you.
How are you, sir? I'm just fine.
Good.
Just take a listen and tell me if you can identify what you think this sound is.
All right.
(FAINT GRO ANING) Wow.
(FAINT GRO ANING) That is really an odd sound.
Uh, I have no idea what it possibly could be other than some type of flying insect.
So, that noise is not characteristic to you of some creature that you know of? It's certainly not anything that I would be aware of, mammal-wise.
Based on what I'm hearing, I really don't know what it is.
JOSH: Without any substantial evidence to support the existence of a bad-tempered dwarf terrorizing Argentina, it's hard to say that the Pombero isn't anything more than a good excuse to stop people from whistling and to explain missing liquor and cigarettes.
Believe me.
You leave gifts like that lying around in my neighborhood, sooner or later something's gonna walk away with it.
And as for our Lobizon investigation and the giant, fur-covered beast plaguing northern Argentina, well, we also had Michael try to identify the strange creature in the footage we captured on the thermal imager and night vision camera.
So, our night investigation, we have a thermal imager and also a fixed camera, which runs an infrared.
Mmm-hmm.
Right.
Which picks up an image of (SNAPPING FINGERS) An animal running by the camera.
We just want to get your opinion as to Hmm.
Okay.
whether you think you you can identify that animal.
Yeah.
Oh, jeez.
That was fast.
(EXCLAIMS) Hmm.
Interesting.
Now JOSH: That's the second image.
It picks up moving by one of the cameras very quickly.
One of the fixed cameras.
Okay.
Yeah, that looks Oh, that's cool.
That may have been a maned wolf.
And I don't know if maned wolves I know they're found in Brazil, but I don't know how far over they go into Argentina, if they are.
It's obviously a very relatively large canine.
Now, one of the things that the locals talk about is how, you know, they say that this Lobizon is a man who has turned into a dog, and so the natural question is, Mmm-hmm.
"Well, how do you know it's not just a dog?" Yeah.
So, you think that characteristically, this looks different than just an average dog? Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Especially when it walks across the screen because you really have a good outline of it.
And in that outline I see the difference.
That it's not just a regular dog.
Terrific.
All right.
Well, thank you so much, Mike, for your time.
I really appreciate it.
Okay.
JOSH: We then traveled to UC Davis in Northern California to get the DNA results of the blood found on our rope that an Argentinean family claimed they used to capture a Lobizon.
JOSH: Teri? Hi.
Hello.
How are you? Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
We'll get you a lab coat.
So you I get a lab coat? You get a lab coat.
Very impressive.
Is it gonna fit me (EXCLAIMING) Is the real question.
So, what I did was look on the rope, looking for possible points for blood and swabbed that.
Okay.
And so, what we're gonna look for is a color change.
So the greener it gets The better.
the stronger the presence of blood.
Okay.
Right.
So then, what I do is I take the swab that's got the sample on it, press it to the Hemostick.
That's telling me there's blood there.
It's just a small amount.
But as you can see, it's getting greener right now.
All right.
So there's blood on the rope for sure.
That's for sure.
Okay, great.
Okay.
So these are the results.
Right.
Well, this was our machine that we use to do the sequencing on, and what you're seeing is a visualization of the results.
And so, in the case of our sample, did you get any sort of match from the database? Yes, we did.
And what percentage was that match? It was 100%.
Okay.
So, what was it? It was human.
It was human? It was human.
So, 100% the blood on the rope is human blood? That's correct.
What's interesting is that this family that had this experience, that had this rope Mmm-hmm.
they claimed to have this very dramatic, bloody kind of run-in with this creature.
And they lassoed it.
They sort of hung it from a tree.
They almost killed it, and they eventually released it at the end of the encounter, but, you know, the Lobizon is purportedly a sort of hybrid between, a human and a dog really.
And so, we were maybe expecting to find canine blood.
So, whatever this lasso went around had human blood? Right.
Thanks very much for your help.
Thank you.
I really appreciate it.
You're welcome.
And I'm sure there will be more samples coming your way.
All righty.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot.
I appreciate it.
JOSH: I was surprised that human blood, not canine blood was found on the rope.
Does this mean that the farmer had an actual Lobizon encounter? Not necessarily.
But the evidence sure hasn't discounted his claim.
The zoo curator thought that what we saw definitely looks bigger than a dog indigenous to Argentina.
And this certainly opens up some interesting questions.
What exactly did we encounter out there that night? I can't say for sure.
If there's a darker side to this story, I guess we won't know until the next full moon.
That is, unless there's a different explanation for men turning into big, uncontrollable, salivating dogs.
She was running after her chicken.
She didn't want them to escape, and then, all of a sudden, it materialized itself right before her.
NARRATOR: Josh travels to South America after documented sightings of a werewolf in Argentina, and he finds that this legend's bite might be worse than its bark.
JOSH: What the hell was that? NARRATOR: Next, the crew searches for a volatile gnome that reportedly lives in the Argentine woods.
Well, what can you tell me about the Pombero? You know, there's stories and there's legends and whatnot, but this is one that really exists.
NARRATOR: Does Josh catch the elusive Pombero or does he come up just short? JOSH: Yeah.
What's up? LINDSAY ON RADIO: I don't know.
I just heard some rustling really, really close to me.
I'm Josh Gates.
My travels have taken me to the most exotic and mysterious places on Earth.
I've seen some unexplainable things which have raised some strange questions.
Now, I've pulled together a crack team armed with the latest technology to search for answers.
(BAT SQUEAKING) I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me, but I know what I'm looking for.
The truth.
JOSH: Anyone who has ever gone on a childhood camping trip or has turned on a cable TV at 3:00 in the morning knows a thing or two about werewolves.
In America, we know them as those legendary beasts, who, triggered by a full moon in the sky, turn from regular humans into manic, snarling, fur-covered beasts.
But unlike here, there are places where the werewolf is not just considered a myth.
I came across a creature called El Lobizon, which is Argentina's adaptation of our homegrown growler.
Their version has had documented sightings all over the country, from farmlands to highly populated cities, with a recent spate of reported sightings in Northern Argentina.
The crew and I packed up our night vision cameras, Bullard, and electromagnetic sensor to assist us in getting first-hand evidence of our creature, and jetted off to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
What sets the Lobizon apart from the classic werewolf is that rather than transmogrifying into a wolf, it commutes into an oversized, ferocious dog.
Also, the Lobizon can't just be any schlub bitten by another werewolf.
It is said that the creature can only be the seventh son in a family of just boys.
The belief in the Lobizon is so strong in Argentina that the president of the country to this day has every reported seventh son baptized to try to stop any transformations.
But just like it's lupine counterpart, the Lobizon is victim to the lunar cycle.
And with a bad moon rising in just a couple of days, this was perfect timing for our investigation in Argentina.
(LATIN MUSIC PLAYING) To learn more about the Lobizon, we set up a meeting with Ramon Farias, author and expert on Argentine folklore.
The story of the Lobizon is very complicated to me.
(STAMMERS) lt, uh In some ways, it sounds similar to this European idea of a werewolf.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) But it has characteristics which are unique to this part of the world.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) (STAMMERING) Absolutely right.
The What is European about it is the fact that this This all began right after the conquest of America, I guess.
Tuesdays and Fridays, full moon (SPEAKING SPANISH) man suffers this transformation.
People here seem to believe that it is the seventh son in a family, correct? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Exactly.
That's exactly what they believe.
They've got to be It's gotta be a family of all boys.
So, these are some drawings of the Lobizon.
Almost cartoony kind of image of a wolf up on its hind legs, howling at the moon.
This is Lobizon.
And here we have a much more stylish werewolf and a very fancy belt buckle.
Maybe some Diesel jeans.
Very fancy jeans.
Yeah, he appears to have turned into a wolf, but still enjoys a tight pair of jeans.
Like most men in Argentina.
You know what I mean? JOSH: We wanted to make our way to the area where the sightings had occurred, but first I had to stop at the zoo to meet with a man that had an alternate explanation for the Lobizon.
Uh, all right.
So, we're here at the zoo.
Uh, home, of course, to the very dangerous giant twin squirrels of Buenos Aires.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Which one of these animals attacked your son? (SPEAKING SPANISH) No? Your son was attacked by an animal? It's a shame.
This zoo is very, very dangerous.
JOSH: I caught up with zoologist Fernando Peralta to see if any of Argentina's indigenous animals could be linked to the Lobizon sightings.
There is a similar animal, however.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Yes.
Right here in the zoo.
It's called (SPEAKING SPANISH) It's a similar animal to a werewolf in your zoo? You have the greatest zoo of all time.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) It's called aguara guazu.
And it is a werewolf? (ALL SPEAKING SPANISH) Yeah.
It's derived from that animal.
I would like to see this animal.
(BOTH SPEAKING SPANISH) Let's go.
This is the Argentine Lobizon? It's the closest they have to a wolf.
The closest counterpart.
Exactly.
JOSH: People People sometimes say that they've seen El Lobizon.
Do you think maybe they've seen this animal? (SPEAKING SPANISH) JOSH: As fascinating as his theory of the Lobizon was, I wanted to hear directly from someone who actually claimed to have seen the mysterious creature.
And for that, we needed to travel to San Ignacio, the hub of the recent sightings.
But since it didn't have an airport, we first had to fly to Iguazú, in northern Argentina, which also happens to be the home of the beautiful Iguazú Falls, where several famous American movies were shot, including The Mission, Miami Vice, and most notably, Leslie Nielsen's critically acclaimed performance in Mr.
Magoo.
We left the falls and drove to the nearby San Ignacio to meet with our first witness, Ramon Gimenez, a police officer sporting the official uniform of short-shorts and an old adidas T-shirt.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) This animal appeared at his home.
It was a Lobizon.
Describe what it looked like.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Like a big, black dog with some eyes that Kind of brilliant eyes.
Are you sure it wasn't just a dog? (SPEAKING SPANISH) No, no.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) JOSH: But how do you know? You know a dog when you know a dog.
And this wasn't a dog.
And what happened when you saw the Lobizon? Lobizon began to howl.
Yes? Two long howls.
What did the howl sound like? (SPEAKING SPANISH) They were scary.
JOSH: Ramon led us to a local barmaid that had a similar experience, only she had seen the Lobizon in both its dog and human form.
I understand you had an experience with a Lobizon.
It's 4:00 in the morning.
She works at a bar, yes? (DORA SPEAKING SPANISH) And that's when the chicken started making a ton of sound, no? Lots of noise.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) It just happened so fast.
She was running after her chicken.
She didn't want them to escape.
And then, all of a sudden, there was this dog.
The next day, she was having a seat there, and a man came up.
With these A horrible-looking man.
And he told her (SPEAKING SPANISH) He said, "Did you see what I did to you last night?" So, he was the Lobizon? (SPEAKING SPANISH) That was him.
JOSH: The woman was shaken by her experience and said that she never saw the man again, but she told me about another man nearby who claimed to be a Lobizon.
She was too terrified to see the man herself, but for me, it was a meeting I couldn't pass up.
JOSH: We are monitoring the area around a seventh son's house to see if there are any signs of a Lobizon.
What is that, right there? Where is that camera? JOSH: Our first two Lobizon eyewitnesses intrigued me, and I was really excited about our next one because we were told that he could actually turn into the Lobizon right before our eyes.
But it being daytime and him not being a seventh son, I was a little skeptical.
Once you turn into the Lobizon, do you become dangerous? (SPEAKING SPANISH) He says, "Yeah.
" So I should be very careful once you transform? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Okay.
Yeah.
(GROANS) (BREATHING DEEPLY) (CARLOS GASPING) (GROANING) (HOWLING) (EXHALING) And scene! (CARLOS SPEAKING SPANISH) It was very good.
I like how he turned into the Lobizon, and then turned back, and he'd lost a lot of time.
JOSH: This Lobizon transformation was more fit for dinner theater than howling at the moon.
It might have something to do with the fact that he's the only son in a family of all girls.
But I wanted to find out why seventh sons needed to be baptized to prevent the Lobizon curse.
So, we went to an old Spanish mission to speak with a priest who over the years has performed hundreds of seventh son baptisms.
What is the story of the Lobizon? The story is that the seventh son was, of course, baptized by the President of Argentina, um To protect him.
NAOMl: It's to protect him, uh, from apparently becoming a Lobizon.
Do people in Argentina still believe in this legend? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Not everybody, but many.
JOSH: To help us out in our investigation, Father Smoli told us that there had been many seventh sons that had been baptized in his church, and he gave us an idea on where to find them.
He also led us to a local farmer that said he had actual Lobizon DNA evidence.
So, you had this experience with the Lobizon.
What time of day was it? (BOTH SPEAKING SPANISH) 1:00.
In the day or in the night? In the morning.
He heard some (STAMMERS) The children were out there playing and they said, "Uncle! Uncle! Come get Come!" (SPEAKING SPANISH) So, take us to where that accident happened.
Let's go look.
So, basically, you see these bricks here? Uh-huh.
Actually, the children grabbed at the bricks and started hitting with the bricks.
They were hitting the Lobizon with the bricks? Hitting the Lobizon with the bricks.
The Lobizon actually went running up this way, jumped up on top of that cart, and came down, ran up around the house, and actually went inside the house.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Okay.
So, he came into this room.
Okay.
Here's where the Lobizon came and he managed to lasso it here.
You lassoed it in this room.
So, he dragged it out of the room.
NAOMl: Dragged it out.
Show me where you took it.
This This is the lasso he used.
That's where he started to hit it.
And he started to Three big old hits.
He hit it three times with a big stick.
NAOMl: That's when he actually tied him up to the tree.
He said to let him go.
Let him go.
So then they just kind of eased up the rope and They let the Lobizon go, and it ran off.
It sounds a lot to me like you beat the hell out of a dog.
I mean, it's just such a long encounter in so many different areas, you know.
I mean, it's like he took this Lobizon through a Double Dare course.
He said that the whip was covered in blood.
Mmm-hmm.
Is that true? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Yeah, it was covered in blood.
It was covered in blood? Ask him if he'd be willing to sell us this whip.
How about 50 pesos? (BOTH SPEAKING SPANISH) (CHUCKLING) Okay.
Look at that.
And we have a deal.
JOSH: With the rope now in our possession, we'd be able to send it back to the U.
S.
To have it tested.
If it was indeed covered in the animal's blood, we should be able to determine what animal or human it belonged to.
The day now ending and the full moon rising, we needed to meet with a seventh son right away to see if we could witness a transformation into a Lobizon.
And of your nine boys, this is the seventh? (BOTH SPEAKING SPANISH) When President Menem was in office, uh, he came here.
We baptized him.
It's a custom from long ago.
The seventh son's always baptized by the president.
Why does the custom exist? They said if he wasn't baptized, then the Lobizon would come out.
JOSH: Everything was going along fine until the father saw how late it was getting.
Baptized or not, we could tell that he did not want his son outside that night.
Which was fine.
We had an appointment to get to with another seventh son that lives in an area that has had multiple reported sightings of Lobizons.
With this kid being treated as a pariah for not being baptized by the president, in an area being known for its large amount of Lobizon activity, this was the perfect place to set up our investigation and maybe, just maybe, catch ourselves a werewolf.
Are you picking anything up on Camera 4? LINDSAY ON RADIO: Not right now.
I thought I saw something on the edge of the road.
What the hell was that? So, we are here in a small village where we are going to conduct our investigation for the Lobizon.
This town area has been known for its reported sightings of the Lobizon, so our first priority is to investigate throughout this village for signs of our creature.
Witnesses claim that the Lobizon is a snarling wolf-man with sharp claws and a deep growl.
This house behind us, where we're setting up our base camp tonight, is the home of a seventh son.
With any luck, maybe, maybe this kid will transform before our eyes.
We also know that the Lobizon likes to eat raw meat, so we have a big side of beef which we're gonna hang up, as well, and focus one of our cameras on that.
Certainly, if we're gonna find a Lobizon, this is the time and the place to do it.
So, we're gonna set up our gear, get to work.
JOSH: What we're gonna do is take our seventh son, sit him down and monitor him throughout the night to see if he transforms into a Lobizon.
Since there's been a lot of reported activity in the area, we're gonna use our surveillance equipment to try to capture any evidence of an unusual creature.
Tracking for footprints is out because it's way too dry and dense around the area, but we are gonna use our thermal imager to see if we can pick up heat signals from anything warm-blooded around the camp.
Also, we'll have our four night vision cameras that feed directly into our laptop, where Lindsay will be monitoring them.
One of the cameras will be fixed on this point, another one of the cameras will face out here, towards the edge of this property.
There's some animal pens out here.
We've heard a lot of stories about the Lobizon coming and attacking animals.
Another one of our cameras is gonna be trained on our seventh son, and the final camera will just sort of be a general one, which will sweep out over the edge of the property and give us a nice, broad view if anybody or anything walks into the yard.
Meat hook, check.
Sketchy warm beef.
Check.
Okay, let's get the kid out here.
Okay.
Chair's going right out here.
I want this kid isolated in case he turns into a freakish werewolf.
In some areas the child's supposed to be named "Benito.
" It's a benediction, a protective name which keeps the curse at bay.
In this case, this child wasn't, in fact, baptized by the President of Argentina and was not given the benedictive name.
So in many circles, people would believe that he is susceptible to the curse.
So, you never know.
At any moment, this kid could start howling at the moon and rip me to pieces.
JOSH: Not really much going on with the night vision cameras.
You guys keep an eye on the kid.
I'm gonna go investigate the town area.
No problem.
I'll hold down the fort.
(WHISPERING) I haven't seen a single person in this town.
It's like I'm in a George Romero movie right now.
This place is completely abandoned.
What's really weird is that I haven't seen or heard any dogs or animals around here at all.
We have to remember that even though we are monitoring the seventh son in our camp, there are other seventh sons in this area, so I still have to keep my eye out for anything.
(RADIO BEEPS) We just did a survey through the town.
Didn't find anything.
It's almost totally abandoned, though.
All right.
We're headed back to you now.
(RADIO BEEPS) (BREATHING DEEPLY) All right.
Well, I went through the whole town.
There's no sign of life out there.
There's no dogs.
There's no people.
It's weird, actually.
I went block after block after block, and it just feels abandoned.
Um, no sign of life at all.
Yeah.
Well, there's nothing much back here either.
We're watching the cameras.
The kid hasn't moved in a long time.
He hasn't turned into a werewolf yet? Not yet.
I'm watching, though.
Yeah.
So what's the plan of attack? We're gonna continue to monitor this kid.
Monitor the kid.
Just look at the cameras for a little bit, I think.
And that's it.
That's all we can do for now.
JOSH: It's been pretty quiet around here so far.
Not much going on with the night vision cameras.
What is that right there on Camera 2? It went that way.
I'm going after it.
Where'd the kid go? (WHISPERING) Come here.
Come here.
Come here.
Come here.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
There it goes! What is that right there on Camera 2? Where'd the kid go? I just saw it run this way.
It darted into the bushes.
Whatever it was, it was large and fast.
Not seeing anything.
What we're looking for is something larger than a dog.
Something with bigger eyes.
Something Something much more terrifying-looking.
It definitely came right through this area.
I'm just looking for any signs of tracks.
The ground is really hard and dry, so it may not have left any tracks here.
I'm barely leaving any tracks, but it came right through here.
(RADIO BEEPS) ERIC: Hey, Josh.
We found our seventh son.
He must have ran into his house.
Did he wolf out on you? No, but he does seem a little cranky.
I'm just gonna walk down the road and see if I can see what was down here.
(RADIO BEEPS) I'm using the thermal imager to see if I can pick up any heat signatures on the ground or in the heavy brush.
LINDSAY ON RADIO: I'm here.
Are you picking anything up on Camera 4? Not right now.
I thought I saw something on the edge of the road.
What the hell was that? (WHISPERING) Come here, come here, come here, come here.
I just saw it go in there.
Right there.
That thing was definitely bigger than a dog.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
Right there.
(RUSTLING) Nothing here.
This is really frustrating.
It's been a couple hours since I lost track of whatever the hell that was.
Better go head back to camp.
So what happened? Well, I tried to chase whatever it was on the camera.
I caught something on the imager a few times.
It looked like it was on four legs, whatever it was.
Uh, if it was a dog, it was a pretty good-sized dog.
I just saw it tearing through the bushes on the imager.
I went into the bushes (SIGHS) Couldn't get up close to it.
That's it.
Don't know.
Could be a dog.
Could be a Lobizon.
In terms of this kid, I mean, the moon is full and the moon is up.
If he hasn't turned into a Lobizon by now, I don't think he's going to.
I think we should let him go to bed.
All right, guys.
So, here's where we stand.
We got nothing going on in town.
We definitely have some dog-like figures skulking around this area that we've seen on the cameras and on the imager, uh, but nothing that we can get to up close.
Kid has not turned into a Lobizon, and the sun's gonna be up soon.
And the Lobizon is not on good terms with sunlight.
So I think we've done the best we could do here, and we need to pack it up.
JOSH: The next morning I packed up the rope with the purported DNA evidence and sent it to Dr.
Teri Kun, forensic specialist at UC Davis, for analysis.
Truthfully, it should be canine blood because it sounds like this guy just beat the crap out of a dog.
But if any human DNA is found, that may prove his Lobizon encounter.
Also, we plan to take our thermal imager and night vision camera footage to the curator of the L.
A.
Zoo, to see if he can identify what creature we encountered on our investigation.
It would take a few days to get the rope results back from the lab, so in the meantime, we left San Ignacio and high-tailed it to Corrientes to investigate documented eyewitness accounts of another creature, El Pombero, that has been terrorizing this region of Argentina.
What we're looking for is something pigmy-like, covered in hair, with extremely unusual powers.
Reportedly, the creature has the ability to impregnate women simply by touching their stomachs.
Local witnesses have described the Pombero as a short, hairy, and grotesquely ugly creature that will pay you a late-night visit if you leave rum, cigarettes and honey on your doorstep.
It's sort of like trick or treating in Las Vegas.
But before our search began, there was significantly more important business at hand.
(LATIN MUSIC PLAYING) I am in a wacky sea of women.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) After a myriad of failed attempts to lure one of the Carnival dancers to join our crew, we set out the next morning to meet with a local schoolteacher who actually teaches the subject of El Pombero in his classroom.
Well, what can you tell me about the Pombero? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Uh, he said that there's a very strong belief system here about the Pombero.
He said, "I believe in the Pombero.
"But I've never had an experience with him per se.
" It's just, this is a belief that has been conserved within their culture.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) It's within their education here.
You know, there's stories and there's legends and whatnot, but this is one that really exists.
And where do you believe that the Pombero lives? Um, we don't know.
Nobody knows where he lives.
But, you know, he's been seen by lots of people.
JOSH: The teacher then led us to a witness that said she'd come in direct contact with the Pombero.
She was sleeping and she woke up I mean, how could she not heard it? She felt this cold wind.
And how did you know that the Pombero was in your room? Because he makes this whistle.
Can she imitate the whistle? (SPEAKING SPANISH) But she's not willing to do that.
If you were to imitate him, he would come after you.
JOSH: Since Dora was too terrified of the Pombero to whistle in her own house, we might just have to go whistle in his.
You want me to try and whistle? Go for it.
(WHISTLING) (FAINT GROANING) What was that? Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Move it! Let's go! JOSH: On our quest to find the small, devilish creature known as El Pombero, we were led to the Waranee Indian reservation where many sightings have been reported.
The Waranee sect has had the most recent run-ins with the Pombero and I was anxious to hear their accounts.
Unfortunately, our car had other plans.
(HISSING) It's about 150,000 degrees here.
We're in beautiful somewhere Argentina.
Middle of nowhere.
JOSH: Eric tried his own solution, but nobody would pick him up, probably due to his abundance of outlaw facial hair.
Yet another reason why we needed one of those Carnival dancers.
No AC.
It's 100 degrees out.
I have to drive around with the heat on.
Assuming our car troubles were behind us, we finally got to our destination.
JOSH: So we're here in JardÃn América.
There's a very large Waranee Indian population in this area of northern Argentina.
We found our first Waranee witness and local bar manager.
Sort of a combination of Rosie O'Donnell and Meat Loaf.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) He saw a guy.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) He looked like he was, like, you know, seven years old.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Completely naked.
So here he came walking, and he stopped right in front of him.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) And he stopped and just stared at him.
He was calling him.
The Pombero was calling him.
When you saw the Pombero, how did you know that it was a Pombero and not just a man? (SPEAKING SPANISH) He was like a black doll.
JOSH: Raul then referred us to a customer of his that had just recently had an encounter with the Pombero.
But we had to go deep into the village to find this witness.
But, you know, there's no more truthful person than an old Argentine mountain man.
I understand that you had an experience with the Pombero, yes? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Yeah.
It was on the mountain.
He was there, like, at this hole in the mountain.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) He doesn't have any clothes.
Just a little something, you know, covering him here.
He has a cane.
Do you believe that there are many Pombero, or only this one? (SPEAKING SPANISH) No, there's a lot.
All over the mountains here.
But it is possible that I could see the Pombero? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Yes, of course.
JOSH: He told us of a house on the edge of the village that we had to check out because it had so many reported Pombero visits.
So I set out looking for it, and after searching for a few hours and just as the sun was setting, we finally found the abandoned house on the village lakeshore.
As the family that vacated the premises claimed that the Pombero would take gifts right off their porch at night, this was an ideal place to set up our investigation.
It's extremely dense out here in the forest, and there's a house here which was recently abandoned by a Waranee family.
But they swear that when they lived here, when they would put out food, honey, tobacco, rum, for the Pombero, every night it would come and take these things.
There's nobody around here.
We're completely alone out here.
We're gonna set up here and see if we can't sight this Pombero.
We're looking to capture any evidence of this short, hairy, ugly, gnome-like figure with a whistle that many eyewitnesses claim to have heard before sighting him.
We have four cameras set up here.
Four night vision cameras.
One of which is fixed on the food that we've set out.
The other three are positioned in various spots looking out at the edge of the tree line.
If anything comes out of the forest to take this food, we're gonna be able to image it.
We're also using what's called a DolphinEAR.
Developed primarily for listening to sounds in the ocean and also to be buried in the ground.
And it's an extremely sensitive microphone.
We should be able to pick up the sounds of anything moving around on the perimeter of the camp.
While Lindsay is monitoring everything on the laptop, I'll be walking around the camp with the thermal imager, that will help me see through this brush.
This is gonna help me pick up anything giving off heat that may look like a small goblin.
How's it going with the cameras? Nothing came to disturb the food yet? No, not yet.
Well, they say that it whistles, or if you whistle, you will make it come out of the forest.
Okay.
So, we're all gonna take a crack at it.
How's your whistling? (LAUGHING) I'm a top-notch whistler.
All right.
Well, that's good.
So, we're gonna just go lights out for a bit.
We'll all take a crack at whistling and see what comes out and tries to kill us.
Okay.
Perfect.
(RADIO BEEPS) Eric, how's it going over there? No, nothing yet.
Want me to try and whistle? Read my mind.
Go for it.
(WHISTLING) (CONTINUES WHISTLING) Good whistling, Eric.
Solid whistling.
I'm out making a quick sweep around the perimeter to see if I can pick up anything moving through the brush with the thermal imager.
(FAINT GROANING) What was that? Yeah.
What's up? LINDSAY ON RADIO: I don't know.
I just heard some rustling really, really close to me.
(FAINT GROANING) What was that? Everybody heard that, right? LINDSAY: Yeah.
ERIC: Mmm-hmm.
(LIGHT CLICKING) Something big just made a noise over there.
So I'm gonna take the thermal imager, I'm gonna walk up this way.
Lindsay, you let me know if you see anything on the cameras.
Just keep in touch with the walkie-talkie.
And I'll keep in touch and let you know if I see anything up there.
Carter, let's go.
(SHUSHING) (CREW MURMURING) (SHUSHING) Nothing yet, but I definitely heard a big, loud noise back here.
There's been numerous sightings of the Pombero in this area and not just on this property.
So, it's our hope that we'll get lucky tonight.
Guys, I found another one of these traps up here.
Be very, very careful if you walk out behind the house on the left-hand side of the path.
(RADIO BEEPS) (WHISPERING) One of the really weird things about this part of the village is that there seem to be these traps everywhere in the ground.
They're They're almost like booby traps.
There are holes that are covered over with sticks and crossbeams sometimes that go fairly deep down.
We've almost stepped into a couple of them while we were setting up equipment earlier.
But I've just come across another one here.
Just be very, very careful with your footing.
There are these strange holes in the ground everywhere.
It's almost as though whoever was living here on this part of the land was trying to trap something.
There's a creepy little ladder over here.
Goes up into a tree.
This whole property is really weird.
How's it going? I'm not getting much.
How about you? Well, I don't know.
I mean, the weird thing about this place are these pits everywhere.
Did you come across the one over here? Yeah, I almost stepped in it.
(STAMMERS) I know.
Like, these big covered pits.
They're very, very strange.
Linds, how's it going over there with the cameras? Not too much.
We definitely heard something rustling around in the trees back there, and they definitely got these pits all over the property for some sort of animal or some sort of creature.
So, there's something roaming around out here for sure.
Yeah.
What's up? LINDSAY ON RADIO: I don't know.
I just heard some rustling really, really close to me.
I can't see anything.
All right.
I'm headed back your way.
JOSH: You heard something over here? Mmm-hmm.
Where? I thought it was you over there.
Well, whatever it is, it's moved away.
I'll tell you one thing, though.
This whole place gives me the creeps.
Well, it's starting to get light in the sky, which means that morning is here.
It's been a long night.
We did a really thorough investigation for El Pombero.
The criteria which we used to try to search for this creature, uh, was that we were hoping either with our thermal imager, with our night vision cameras, or first-hand, to have some sort of visual encounter with this creature.
We left out its favorite foods, rum, tobacco, honey.
And it was our hope to kind of coax it or something else out of the forest to take this food.
But other than a groan caught on tape, no sign of the Pombero.
As I said, it is getting light out and that doesn't make this place any less spooky.
So, we're gonna pack it up and call it a night, which means we're gonna have to drink all that rum and smoke those cigarettes ourselves.
(SNIFFS) Which is fine.
We can certainly do that.
JOSH: We left Argentina and zipped back to Los Angles to visit Michael Dee, the curator of the L.
A.
Zoo.
We wanted him to listen to the groan-like sound we captured on tape to see if he could recognize it as animal or human.
Hey, Mike.
Good to see you again.
Good to see you.
How are you, sir? I'm just fine.
Good.
Just take a listen and tell me if you can identify what you think this sound is.
All right.
(FAINT GRO ANING) Wow.
(FAINT GRO ANING) That is really an odd sound.
Uh, I have no idea what it possibly could be other than some type of flying insect.
So, that noise is not characteristic to you of some creature that you know of? It's certainly not anything that I would be aware of, mammal-wise.
Based on what I'm hearing, I really don't know what it is.
JOSH: Without any substantial evidence to support the existence of a bad-tempered dwarf terrorizing Argentina, it's hard to say that the Pombero isn't anything more than a good excuse to stop people from whistling and to explain missing liquor and cigarettes.
Believe me.
You leave gifts like that lying around in my neighborhood, sooner or later something's gonna walk away with it.
And as for our Lobizon investigation and the giant, fur-covered beast plaguing northern Argentina, well, we also had Michael try to identify the strange creature in the footage we captured on the thermal imager and night vision camera.
So, our night investigation, we have a thermal imager and also a fixed camera, which runs an infrared.
Mmm-hmm.
Right.
Which picks up an image of (SNAPPING FINGERS) An animal running by the camera.
We just want to get your opinion as to Hmm.
Okay.
whether you think you you can identify that animal.
Yeah.
Oh, jeez.
That was fast.
(EXCLAIMS) Hmm.
Interesting.
Now JOSH: That's the second image.
It picks up moving by one of the cameras very quickly.
One of the fixed cameras.
Okay.
Yeah, that looks Oh, that's cool.
That may have been a maned wolf.
And I don't know if maned wolves I know they're found in Brazil, but I don't know how far over they go into Argentina, if they are.
It's obviously a very relatively large canine.
Now, one of the things that the locals talk about is how, you know, they say that this Lobizon is a man who has turned into a dog, and so the natural question is, Mmm-hmm.
"Well, how do you know it's not just a dog?" Yeah.
So, you think that characteristically, this looks different than just an average dog? Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Especially when it walks across the screen because you really have a good outline of it.
And in that outline I see the difference.
That it's not just a regular dog.
Terrific.
All right.
Well, thank you so much, Mike, for your time.
I really appreciate it.
Okay.
JOSH: We then traveled to UC Davis in Northern California to get the DNA results of the blood found on our rope that an Argentinean family claimed they used to capture a Lobizon.
JOSH: Teri? Hi.
Hello.
How are you? Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
We'll get you a lab coat.
So you I get a lab coat? You get a lab coat.
Very impressive.
Is it gonna fit me (EXCLAIMING) Is the real question.
So, what I did was look on the rope, looking for possible points for blood and swabbed that.
Okay.
And so, what we're gonna look for is a color change.
So the greener it gets The better.
the stronger the presence of blood.
Okay.
Right.
So then, what I do is I take the swab that's got the sample on it, press it to the Hemostick.
That's telling me there's blood there.
It's just a small amount.
But as you can see, it's getting greener right now.
All right.
So there's blood on the rope for sure.
That's for sure.
Okay, great.
Okay.
So these are the results.
Right.
Well, this was our machine that we use to do the sequencing on, and what you're seeing is a visualization of the results.
And so, in the case of our sample, did you get any sort of match from the database? Yes, we did.
And what percentage was that match? It was 100%.
Okay.
So, what was it? It was human.
It was human? It was human.
So, 100% the blood on the rope is human blood? That's correct.
What's interesting is that this family that had this experience, that had this rope Mmm-hmm.
they claimed to have this very dramatic, bloody kind of run-in with this creature.
And they lassoed it.
They sort of hung it from a tree.
They almost killed it, and they eventually released it at the end of the encounter, but, you know, the Lobizon is purportedly a sort of hybrid between, a human and a dog really.
And so, we were maybe expecting to find canine blood.
So, whatever this lasso went around had human blood? Right.
Thanks very much for your help.
Thank you.
I really appreciate it.
You're welcome.
And I'm sure there will be more samples coming your way.
All righty.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot.
I appreciate it.
JOSH: I was surprised that human blood, not canine blood was found on the rope.
Does this mean that the farmer had an actual Lobizon encounter? Not necessarily.
But the evidence sure hasn't discounted his claim.
The zoo curator thought that what we saw definitely looks bigger than a dog indigenous to Argentina.
And this certainly opens up some interesting questions.
What exactly did we encounter out there that night? I can't say for sure.
If there's a darker side to this story, I guess we won't know until the next full moon.
That is, unless there's a different explanation for men turning into big, uncontrollable, salivating dogs.