Jennifer Jacobs began hearing strange sounds like footsteps on the roof while alone in her Alma Gorda, New Mexico home. Thinking it was her young neighbor, she called to tell his parents before the boy hurt himself - and was told that he was lying in the floor in his own home watching television...

No precocious youngster, it was in fact a creature of nightmare that launched itself dozens of feet from her roof to a pecan tree before screeching into the air as she and a police officer watched in stunned amazement.