Sir I’m trying to gather a better understanding on this issue concerning the hat man. It was only a few nights ago that I came across a paranormal video on tiktok..I dont really believe that any of the vids are true as I am pretty well a skeptic and look to science to explain most if not all curiosities..as I was reading through the comments section I came across a lady that mentioned several commonly known apparitions so to speak like la llarona the 3rd one was the hat man…when I read this I instantly got chills and the memory hit me like a flood..I sent a response asking what did she mean by hat man..but then looked it up on the internet, not knowing that this was even a thing..now I’m a retired vet with a couple tours under my belt, I’ve seen death and yes I believe in angels and demons…but these folklore stories have mostly been bullshit to me..ill go anywhere any time of night because it doesn’t phase me..BUT….YEARS AGO as in about 14 years ago.., there was a female I use to ride bikes with that started out as a friendship during late summer evenings and then went into late summer night fun.. we would leave our home in town and ride to the park and find a spot to do fun things in always late at night when the gates to the park was closed and no one was around..there’s a Dyke that meanders throughout the park that has a bike trail on It that we mostly stuck to because it was paved..on one side you have the park with several ponds gated parking lots gazebos and on the other side of the Dyke there is the river that has park benches and fire pits.. we would randomly pick a spot to play at and it was fun and kept things interesting between us..one night we were down on the picnic table on the river side of the dyke and I happened to notice a figure up on the Dyke walking towards us, I told Emily to get dressed and be quiet that maybe he wouldn’t see us because on the river side there were no lights and a bunch of trees but on the park side of the Dyke there were lights just far and few between but I think that that may be the only reason he was noticeable at all…I pull my pocket knife and tell Emily that if he comes down the steps to start running and I’ll hold him back..we were thinking it was just some random creeper..when he gets just above us on the Dyke he turns and looks down towards us..she asked me what he was doing ..I couldn’t even get a word out..he stood there for what seemed about 10min …I didn’t want to provoke him because the guy looked like he was about 6’5″ and I’m only 5’7″ but thats not it..it was summer like 93°at least and this big ass guy is standing there staring at us wearing a full length trench coat and a big brimmed hat..he turned and walked away..no words were said..didn’t hear his foot steps..we stood there while he continued down the path until he was completely out of site then we sprinted for our bikes and to a more public location….we’re still not sure what we experienced or why I asked friends who live around the park had they ever seen a guy that fit the description..never heard about anything close to it until I came across that remark on that video..if it was just someone in the getup trying to scare people for Halloween I’d say he did a good job of it even though it was only july..
