Who is the Catman of Greenock?

Most cities are only as good as their legends. Go to any city around the world and there is bound to be talk of some locally rooted story about mysterious creatures or the unexplainable. In some cases, these stories have some truth behind them while others turn out to be a complete fabrication, then there's the Catman of Greenock.

Source: http://www.blumhouse.com/2017/05/29/who-is-the-catman-of-greenock/

Within this Scottish fishing community, locals tell stories of a mysterious "Catman" whose background seems to be a complete mystery. Some say he was a sailor or a fisherman who somehow became stranded in the town and had been forced to live on the streets. Others say that the man had been beaten up by the mob and took to the streets to hide from his enemies. Then there are those who say that the Catman had been a patient who escaped from a nearby mental institution. These stories were largely considered to be nothing more than an urban legend children passed around to their friends in the schoolyard or told around the campfire. It wouldn't be until someone caught the Catman on camera that there was proof this mysterious figure had actually existed.

In this video, a man with soot or motor oil on his face can be seen crawling on the ground before he gathers up a rat to eat. The cameraman approaches the man and speaks to him, but the Catman only gives him a reassuring thumbs up before proceeding to munch on his fresh catch. The footage was shocking enough to alarm social services who attempted to locate the man, to which they had little success. A documentary filmmaker also attempted to track down the mysterious Catman but locals were reluctant to speak about him.

No one is sure how long the Catman had been crawling through the tunnels of Greenock, but locals have said that sightings of the Catman go back as far as the 1970's. No one has ever reported the Catman becoming violent and all of those who have told their stories of their encounters have said that he never speaks, he simply crawls around on the ground in search of rodents. Some locals have taken sympathy on the man and have taken him food and water, which they had left at some of his usual hunting grounds.

Who is the Catman of Greenock? A 2015 report of the Catman being taken to a local hospital offered some promise that the mystery of the man's identity would finally be revealed but to date, no one knows who the man is and those who do aren't saying a word.

You can keep up with the most recent Catman sightings over on his Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/CatmanGreenock2/

Sources:

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/05/the-creepy-case-of-the-catman-of-scotland/
http://weekinweird.com/2015/06/04/tracking-down-the-legendary-greenock-catman-scotlands-glowing-eyed-rat-eating-mystery/
http://www.blumhouse.com/2017/05/29/who-is-the-catman-of-greenock/