By Ranjan Bhaduri
FLORIDA, Nov. 18, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Russ Sittloh, a resident of Florida, claims to have seen a water monster swimming up and down the canal behind his house. Russ calls the Madeira Beach Monster, Normandy Nessie and believes that the creature is about 20 feet long. He has even set up a camera, and has recorded videos and pictures of Normandy Nessie six times.

The retired engineer, 78, has alleged that ‘his’ Nessie was first noticed by him in April- leaving him mesmerized and shocked at the same time. He says, “The head will come up and then it will disappear and then the next thing you know, you’ll see a couple rolls behind it”. He also alleges that there are probably two of these creatures, which could even prove to be dangerous. A marine biologist thrashes Russ’s claims saying that the creature sounds like just another manatee (huge sea cows) and both their speed and size seems to be the same. Russ, however does not buy it, since he says he has swum with manatees (sharks and sea snakes) before, and knows what they look like.

Russ also says that the creature could be mistaken for an anaconda, and that the only difference is the monster’s tail, which is not at all similar to that of an anaconda. Along with Russ, another couple have also seen the creature, though they say that its tail was not visible and it turn out to be 15 feet or longer. Early 2009 had also seen reports surface of a “mystery creature”, allegedly killed by a group of Panama teenagers which had come on to them. The experts rubbished the reports saying that the creature was probably nothing more than “hairless sloth”.