The Montauk Monster Goes Round the World
(8/1/2008) When Rachel Goldberg, Jenna Hewitt, and Courtney Fruin found the decomposing carcass of a small animal on the ocean beach near the Surfside Inn in Montauk on July 13, they never imagined that it would become the hottest story of the summer in the easternmost hamlet on Long Island.
 Russell Drumm
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Since Ms. Hewitt is a daughter of a reporter for The East Hampton Star, the paper had the first crack at the story but turned it down thinking the carcass might have once been a family pet.
The Independent, another East Hampton newspaper, picked up the story, however. It escalated from there and has now made worldwide news.
Several Web and television reports infuriated the three women who found the creature by calling the picture a publicity stunt or a hoax. "It's crazy that they think that. The thing was full of flies and gross," said Ms. Hewitt.
"If it was a hoax it would have been put on a more populated beach," she said. "Let them come and dig it up. We know exactly where it's buried," she added.
Devon Martin, a host at the Surfside Inn, said he was sure the carcass "was a turtle without its shell. The shell fell off. I'm from Jamaica. I know turtles. I saw it, and I saw it on the Internet," he said on Thursday afternoon.
Then, as Mr. Martin headed back into the restaurant to take care of a lunch patron, Mike Sheehan, a reporter with Fox News, collared him for an on-camera interview.
"I was in Brooklyn this morning when we got the call. They told me to go to Montauk. They're hot on this story," said Mr. Sheehan, a former New York City homicide detective and a Fox reporter for the past 16 years. "I'm used to seeing dead bodies in the river," he said.
 Jenna Hewitt
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Reasonable speculation about an image that received wide distribution on Gawker.com earlier this week has been that it is a raccoon or a small dog. Wilder guesses are that it is a mutant from a federal animal disease testing lab on Plum Island, a griffin, a beaked pig, or some other form of "cryptid," a term popularized on the Internet. The story also reached CNN, which aired a tongue-in-cheek news report on its "Situation Room" program with Wolf Blitzer.
Stories have appeared on MSN.com, AOL.com, and USA Today's Web site, and in print publications ranging from a Polish-language New York City newspaper to Newsday. Both Gawker and New York magazine's Web site have run regular updates on the story, most focusing on speculation, and have hosted commentary about reports appearing elsewhere. According to Google Trends, "Montauk Monster" searches were the third most popular yesterday, behind " 'American Woman' lyrics" and "Manny Ramirez Dodgers."
Inquiries were not limited to the Internet, however. Betsy Bambrick, East Hampton Town's top animal control officer, said today that her department was being flooded by inquiries from members of the media seeking comment. A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department's Plum Island laboratory rejected suggestions that the animal could have come from the facility.
The Montauk Chamber of Commerce has received numerous calls from people asking about the creature and wondering if Montauk residents are concerned about it, said Larraine Creegan, the chamber's executive director.
"Everybody should take a deep breath and not get so excited about this. This isn't 'Jaws,' " she said.
BY EAST HAMPTON STAR STAFF