The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word cryptid as “An animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the yeti.” For the following witnesses to living cryptids, there is no dispute. In this series of National Cryptid Society’s case files, you will read what the witnesses have experienced in their own words. Not everyone has the same perspective or experience, so eyewitness accounts may vary in length and detail.
Keep an open mind when reading these accounts, and also remember one’s perception and memory of an event can be influenced by the emotions felt at the time of the occurrence. The contributors to this series of articles are doing the best they can to recount what are in some cases very shocking and traumatic experiences.
If you have a personal cryptid sighting story you would like to tell us, our contact information is at the bottom of this article.
NCS Case File #21: Unusually Large Spider Observed in Hotel Room in the Dominican Republic
Submitted by Kittypie75
“We don’t know what we saw.
We were in the Dominican Republic staying at a locally owned hotel. It was a nice hotel but nothing lux, and very open air sort of place.
We had gone out for dinner and enjoyed a bottle of wine but weren’t drunk or anything. I’m reading in bed and my husband comes out from the bathroom completely white faced in shock.
“Um, Kittypie75, there’s a spider in the bathroom”
I look at him and laugh. Spiders in DR are big, but nothing to freak over. He looked like he has seen Satan himself by his expression. So I go to the bathroom.
All I see are 4 thick, hairy, orange and black legs coming out of by the sink basin. They were at least 10 inches long and at least as thick as pencils. Very hairy, from about 5 feet away I could see the separate orange and black hairs. I’m short, so I couldn’t see the whole thing over the sink from the distance i was at (there was a towel blocking direct view plus the sink basin), but just by the legs I saw I knew I was looking at almost a 2 foot long spider.
I calmly walk back to my husband.
“Did you see it? DID YOU SEE IT?” I nod and we leave the room to get help from the front desk.
Our broken Spanish had the staffers in hysterical laughter not to mention what they took as overreacting to tourists scared of a little spider. One staffer, Jose, came to look and it is gone. Jose tells us he has at least 3 in his home which is when I realize that these people either don’t believe me or don’t understand what I’m saying. I’ve lived in tropical climates before. There’s no way in hell you’d share a home with the spider we saw.
A day later and we have a normal spider infestation. I go to the desk and ask for bug spray. The staffers are still having a laugh at our expense but the same guy Jose comes up with me with the spray. We are cleaning up the spiders (which are about 5 inches or so daddy long legs types) he is surprised that I’m suddenly not scared by these spiders. He asks why and I inform him that these spiders aren’t what we saw the other night. And I use my hands to show him the size of what we saw.
His mouth dropped.
“I’ve never heard of anything like that in my entire life in the DR. But who knows what comes out of the jungle”
It wasn’t until a little while later that my husband, while discussing Harry (our pet name for this spider), realized that I had only seen half of it. My estimate of 10 inch leg + 10 inch leg for a total of about 20 inches -2 feet was severely off. He saw the whole body, and the body, minus the legs, was as wide as entire hand; a grown man’s hand. So it likely was way bigger than 2 foot diameter. He also said there were multiple big black eyes.
I have since gone on numerous arachnid websites and have even contacted arachnologists to try to identify what we saw. Most came back suggesting a Mexican spider (the spider that was recommended to us was the Mexican Red Knee spider. The colors are right as is the texture of the “fur”, but I mean, there’s no way what we saw could fit on a man’s hand) that might have somehow have gotten to the Dominican Republic in someone’s luggage. But that spider is NOT what we saw. What we saw was basically a spidersaurus Rex. The only way I can describe it was not unlike a furry snow crab.”
Note: There have been several accounts of large, aggressive spiders in the Dominican Republic. The video below demonstrates just how large and aggressive some species can be.
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