Speaker 1: Today in March seventh, twenty twenty six, is the Frogman
Festival in Loveland, Ohio. They help celebrate the Encryptid. Today,
we hope you enjoy a replay of our episode The
Loveland Frogman, which originally aired on the micro Terrors podcast
in September of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Welcome to micro Terrors, scary stories for kids where it's
always the spooky season, full of chills, thrills, and spine
tingling spooks. Micro Terrors are family friendly frights for those
ages eight and up, and while our stories are for
younger years, we are still talking about things that go
bump in the night, and some children may not be
able to handle what others can. Parental consent is recommended
now Forts of Knights micro Terror The Loveland Frogman written
by Scott Donnelly narrated by Darren Marler. They were first
seen in nineteen fifty five. A man driving alongside the
Little Miami River late at night spotted three strange figures
standing by the side of the road. He described them
as standing upright on two legs, roughly four feet tall,
with leathery skin and having the faces of frogs. One
of them, he claimed held a small stick or wand
even that seemed to shoot sparks from its top. Then,
in the early nineteen seventies, a police officer described seeing
a similar creature crouched by the side of the road.
When he put his lights on the mystery being, it
popped up, popped the guardrail, and scurried down the hill
into the river and out of sight. The small town
of Loveland, Ohio was on edge. What was it the
officer saw. Two weeks later, a second Loveland police officer
patrolling the area at night, saw what he described as
the same type of uncanny creature. It was also crouched
by the side of the road. Only this time the
officer allowed the town wide panic to consume his mind
and he decided to take immediate action. He shot the
creature and shoved it into the trunk of his police car.
When he brought it back to the station to prove
the creature's existence, it was only then in a light
that he saw what it was. That he truly shot
and killed a large iguana, more than likely someone's escaped pet.
Things were quiet after that in Loveland. That was until
twenty sixteen, when some kids playing an interactive mobile game
were walking by a lake in town and spotted two
lowing yellow eyes crusting the surface of the water. They
snapped a photo and it quickly went viral. This was
the last alleged sighting of the Loveland Frogmen until now,
and it all started with a present that Keaton Frank
opened for his tenth birthday earlier in the day, a
remote controlled speedboat with a flashy, sleek modern design and
bright green LED lights on its keel. Not only did
he want to try out the boat, but he wanted
to try it out at night to see the led
lights in action. This prompted Keaton to arrange to meet
his best friend Lance on the banks of the Little
Miami River around nine pm, when the sun would be
gone and the speedboat lights would be sure to impress.
They expected to be elated by the boat. They didn't expect, however,
for a local legend to surface and instill fear into
their night. We joined Keaton and Lance as they arrived
at the river banks. The river was a little choppier
than expected. When Keaton and Lance pushed their way through
the reeds and tall grass with their flashlights in hand,
they both stopped inches away from the dark water and
aimed their lights out. There weren't any boats that the
boys could see or hear, so they chalked up the
choppy current to the wind, even if it was on
the lighter side. Crickets chirped from the reeds around them.
As Keaton was quick to place his boat in the
water turned on the lights. Lance excitedly instructed, I will
that's the whole reason we're here at nighttime. Keaton responded.
As the boat bobbed up and down over the small,
slapping waves that tickled the rocky bank they stood on.
Keaton turned on the remote With a single press of
a button. The keel of the speedboat lit up. A bright,
glowing green light illuminated the water beneath it. The glow
was strong enough to shine out and tend Keaton and
Lance's faces green as well. The boys looked at the
glowing toy in the water in awe, their jaws a gape,
an eyes wide glistening with its green radiance. Do it,
Lance said, make it go. Keaton excitedly swirled his tongue
around in his cheek as he began to absolutely dominate
the remote control. The boat took off like a shot
speeding away from the boys and out onto the river.
Once it was too far away for Lance's flashlight to see,
Keaton relied solely on the rapidly moving green smolder that
zoomed across the dark water. They watched it go back
and forth, zigzag and spin and circles. Kid, I try,
Lance begged.
Speaker 1: Keaton's seemingly permanent smile vanished from his face as he
let go of the joystick. A glow out in the
water came to a stop. He wasn't ready to give
up his turn just yet, but then he remembered how
his friend went out of his way to join him
at night to set sail for the first time. Keaton
reluctantly handed Lance the remote control. Don't break it, bro,
Heaton said. Dude, was Lance's only response as he accepted
the control roller and immediately continued the first sail. The
green blow continued back and forth, zigzagging across the river.
Lance controlled it well, too well for Keaton's liking. All right,
give it back now, Heaton said, houlding out his hands.
Old on Lance said, watch this trick. What no, no,
no tricks, bro Keaton said, as he glanced out into
the dark the green glow was zooming closer to them.
It was coming closer and closer, louder and louder, and
then it was gone. What the heck, where is it?
You broke it, Heaton said, though I didn't. I didn't
even do my trick yet. The lights must have got out.
Lights just don't go out, Brow, Yeah, they do, sometimes
they go out. They don't. Then the green below appeared again.
It wasn't on the river's surface, though, it was underneath
the water. Within the glow. The boys could have sworn
there was something holding it, like it was either wrapped
up and discarded trash or tangled in some underwater weeds.
But then whatever it was wrapped up in moved. It
now appeared to be a shadowy, humanoid like figure. What
is that? Lance asked out loud. Keaton wasn't sure. He
remained silent. The two of them just stared out into
the water, where they watched someone or something examined the
boat underneath the water. He hit the joystick again, Keaton said,
Lance complied and pushed the joystick forward. They couldn't hear
the boat, but they could see that their action upset
whatever it was that was holding onto the boat. The
shadowy underwater entered. They thrashed back and forth and let
go of it. It surfaced about ten feet away from
the bank, capsized, and his green lights flickered a couple
of times before they went out for good. Aim the light,
Keaton demanded. Lance dropped the controller and pulled his flashlight
back out. He aimed it at the boat and then
watched his Keaton jumped into the water and waded out
as far as he could before having to swim for it.
Lance was nervous. Keaton was thinking about the boat, but
Lance was thinking about whatever was underneath the water. Whatever
it was had to still be there. Keath did be careful.
Lance shouted out, but Keaton didn't hear him. He swam
the rest of the way to the boat, where he
tucked it under his arm as if he were saving
a drowning victim. Just then, something grabbed Keaton's leg. It
was a slimy hand. He felt all of its fingers
wrap around his ankle one at a time and grip
him tightly. Keaton panicked, Unable to stay afloat with just
one hand. He let go of his boat and screamed
out for Lance, bro help me. Keaton shouted as a
second slimy hand grabbed his other ankle and pulled him under.
Lance just watched in horror as his friend disappeared in
the dark river. He held his flashlight on the area,
trying to look for any sign of Keaton. Then a
surge of bubbles exploded from the surface, followed by Keaton's
flash out of the water. He screamed again, help Keeton,
then swam with every ounce of strength he had. Once
he was in a shallow enough spot, he stood up
and Lance stepped in to help him out the rest
of the way. What happened? Lance panicked, who was that?
Keeton collapsed on the rocky bank and tried to catch
his breath, but the terror wasn't over yet. A loud
splash in the river drew both of the boy's attention.
Lance aimed as flashlight, and together they watched the local
Loveland legend emerge from the river. It stood upright, just
as tall as the boys were, and awkwardly marched toward them,
slightly hunched forward. It was dark green, with black spots
scattered about its body. Its fingers and toes were webbed.
Its head and face resembled that of a mutated frog.
The flashlight reflected off its eyes, giving them an eerie
yellow glow. The frogman continued to encroach on them with
unknown intent, emitting a haunting croaking sound. Keeton and Lance
were shaking in fear. Never had they seen anything like
this in their lives. This is what nightmares were made of.
Then the frogman reached behind its back. It pulled out
a small black stick or wand the boys, thinking it
was a weapon, scrambled to their feet. That's what A
fiery display of sparks began to shoot out the top
of the object. Keith had pulled his flashlight from his
pocket and pelted it at the creature. Stay back. Keithon shouted,
but the frogman continued to methodically encroach on the boys,
unfazed by the shouting and pelting. Suddenly, something else moved
in the bushes at their backs. The boys spun around,
expecting to see another frogman popping out to attack them
from behind, but instead of a second amphibious monster, it
was a grown man in a tactical police uniform, holding
out a flashlight in one hand and his service weapon
in another. The bright beam of the flashlight startled the frogman.
The police officer fired two shots from this weapon, but
the frogman quickly dodged the shots, turned around, and scurried
back into the water, disappearing within seconds. It's haunting croke
fading away. The police officer helped Keaton and Lance through
the brush and to the top of the embankment, to
where his police cruiser sat. It's blue lights spinning on top.
Are you boys okay? He asked. Keaton and Lance only nodded,
still stunned by what they had just witnessed down by
the river. What was that thing? Keaton managed to ask.
The officer just sighed, uh, something that's been around Loveland
for decades, He said, something my grandfather saw once, and
now I have too. The officer looked down at the boys,
and I'm sure it won't be the last time someone
sees it or them. The officer's final words of them
stuck with Keaton and Lance the rest of the night.
It heavily implied that there might have been even more
of those frog men lurking around owned the Little Miami
River in Loveland, Ohio. Coming up next week on micro
Terrors Scary Stories for Kids, we celebrate Saint Patrick's Day
with a brand new story from Fiona Cosgrove called The
Hunter's Almaneck. Have you ever wondered what a micro Terror's
movie might look like? Guess what micro Terrorist Films has
officially been unleashed. That's right, a short, independently made micro
terrorist film is now in the works for the micro
Terrorist fan Club. Head on over to micro terrors dot
com and click the micro Terrorist Films tab at the
top to follow the production. We're so excited to expand
micro Terrors this year and try something new, and if
it goes well, maybe we can do more down the road.
While you're at micro terrorist dot com, be sure to
check out our merch store and become one of the
Terrified by joining the fan club at Unlocking tons at
cool perks including free access to the monthly newsletter, getting
your very own copy of the fanclub exclusive book Swarm
of Corn, participate in the upcoming live Q and A
with micro Terrors writer and creator Scott Donnelly, and so
much more. I'm Darren Morler, your narrator. Thank you all
for being such dedicated micro Terrors listeners. We'll see you
next week.
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