“The Little Yellow House”

So glad to have found this site. Truly fascinating stuff here!

I wanted to post my experience on here as well.

I am 36 years old. My encounter happened in the early 70s when I was around 4 or 5 years old. My parents and I were living on the south side of town in San Antonio, Texas when this happened. It was a small, yellow house that we all still playfully refer to as “the little yellow house.”

Late one night, it was me and my mother in the living room. My dad worked nightshifts alot back then. I remember my mom was sitting on the couch holding me with my head on her left shoulder. I guess she was waiting for me to fall asleep. Whether I had fallen asleep or was still awake when it happened, I’m not sure of, but I know, I KNOW I was awake when I saw it. The couch we were on was positioned up against a wall right next to the walkway into the kitchen. I was facing that walkway. I remember there was a lamp on somewhere in the livingroom because there was more light in there than just the TV being on, and the kitchen light was off.

From the darkened kitchen walkway, it moved very slowly into view and stopped, maybe two or three feet away from us, as we were pretty much sitting right by the arm of the couch. The thing about this is that in contrast to the shadowy silhouettes that most people have been reporting, I honest to God remember this figure being a solid real figure; nothing ghostly about it other than the fact that it did not move like it was walking, it moved like it was floating on some sort of fixed track on the floor! It was a tall figure, completely cloaked all the way from its head, not from its shoulders, the head was countersunk into the black cloak it wore. I didn’t see arms, its shoulders were somewhat narrow, the cloak flowed completely around its body. Without being able to see any head, it wore a wide-brimmed hat. I remember later trying to explain to my parents that it had a “flat hat,” I just kept saying, “it had a flat hat!” The hat was tilted down, low enough to where I couldn’t see its face at all. It was as if it purposely was trying to hide its face by hanging its head down, hat tilted. But strangely enough like I stated before, the black cloak was over its head. (Almost like the thing had no neck.) As it stood there for only a few seconds, the “head” or hat, began nodding up and down very slowly.
Meanwhile, I was completely frozen laying on my mother, never made a move or a sound! Mom just continued watching TV. And then it was gone. I continued to just lay there, and I cannot remember anything for the rest of that night. I think I remember just shutting my eyes.

Here’s the rest of my story…

There was another encounter with it in my bedroom. It was morning as sunlight was coming through my windows, but the room was still somewhat gloomy. I was just waking up still laying in my bed when I saw the cloaked, “flat hat” figure standing in the middle of my room, just as solid and real as the first night I saw it. I remember clutching this very tattered, beige stuffed animal I slept with, and I tried to sink further into the covers. I so distinctly remember the house was so quiet, my parents were still asleep, and I tried SO DAMN HARD to yell out for my mom, but my throat was seized frozen, the scream just would not come out. I just mouthed the word “mom.” I made a couple of attempts to yell out, but I was too paralyzed with fear. And then it disappeared.
To this day I’ve always thought that I heard the thing make a sound on that encounter. I could swear it made an inhuman shrilling sound, like it was laughing at me that it saw just how paralyzed I was and couldn’t shout out. I can’t remember much else after that.

I remember repeatedly trying to explain to my parents that I saw this thing with the “flat hat”, but they insisted that I was just bad dreams.

It was more than 30 years later that I stumbled upon a website by Art Bell that spoke about ghosts, UFOs, and creature sightings that I discovered what was being referred to as “shadow men.” When I saw the pictures of what others had seen, I was absolutely stunned and freaked-the-hell-out!!! I had no idea that so many other people had seen this thing! I was all over the internet looking up other people’s encounters with this “shadow man” or “hat man.” I brought it back up to my mother again, pointing out that what I had seen all those years ago had to have happened, that it was all real! Mom didn’t quite know what to think. She thinks I was simply way to little back then to remember something like that. But it is still so vivid in my memory, and I’ve held onto it for so long. It still freaks me out to think I actually experienced something like this.

Throughout the years, there had been a couple of occasions that I drove by that old house on the south side of San Antonio. It’s a little street called Peabody Avenue. It was still yellow on the times I’d seen it, “the little yellow house,” just very faded. And each time I’ve passed by, I’ve always remembered the man with the “flat hat.”

— Robert E. Sanchez, Sr.