Montauk Monster is Missing
By Russell Drumm
(8/5/2008) The Montauk Monster is missing. The putrescent carcass of the creature whose image has captivated millions around the globe and spawned nearly as many identities was taken from two Montaukers who say they planned to supply the beast's bones to an artist who had already found a buyer for signed monster art.
 montymash.com
|
"Someone came and took the carcass. Now I have to hunt for my damn creature," said Eric Olsen, a Montauk real estate agent and surfer who retrieved the rotting animal from the beach in front of the Surfside Inn and Restaurant on the night of July 13, the day it was first photographed.
"I took the creature off the beach at 11:30 in a bag, and put it in the back of my car. I brought it to Noel Arikian's, and we were going to reduce it to bones," a disappointed Mr. Olsen said on Sunday.
According to the plan, the "monster's" bones were to be given a lucrative artistic touch by Rafael Mazzucco, a fashion photographer and artist who has a house in Montauk. Mr. Olsen said the artist had more than one New York City patron interested.
The Montauk Monster made an appearance on "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central in a joke about Senator John McCain washing up on a beach while Barack Obama visited world leaders abroad.
|
However, at some point over the weekend, the carcass was removed from the woods beside Mr. Arikian's house where it had been left to decompose.
The most recent chapter follows a blizzard of media and Internet attention that would not seem to follow the demise of a raccoon or small dog, two of the more likely guesses as to the true nature of the beast.
"I have a headache," Jenna Hewitt said on Monday, the day before she was to be interviewed by a number of radio and television reporters. Ms. Hewitt snapped the famous photograph of the creature she and her friends Rachel Goldberg and Courtney Fruin found washed up in front of the Surfside Inn.
Courtney Fruin, Jenna Hewitt, and Rachel Goldberg were interviewed for television about the thing they photographed on the ocean beach by Andrew Ehinger of News 12 Long Island.
|
"We've had invites. It's fun, but it's August, and we work in restaurants," Ms. Hewitt said.
The photo of a small animal that looked perhaps like a pig with a beak or a dead dog was first printed in The Independent newspaper, then made its way to the Web site Gawker, whose initial story has been viewed more than 1.2 million times.
The mystery mushroomed on the Internet. In the fertile imagination of the blogosphere, it became a mutant from the animal testing facility on Plum Island, a creature from outer space, or a griffin. Along the way, the Montauk Monster acquired a nickname, Monty, putting it among a rarified class of creatures of dubious authenticity, such as the Lock Ness Monster, which is referred to as Nessie.
People with time on their hands have filled pages upon page of commentary and speculation about it on various Web sites. Others carefully pasted the digital image onto photographs, such as one that showed Barack Obama bumping fists with the Montauk Monster.