On March 14, 2006, NBC affiliate WPMI-TV was alerted to crowds gathering in Crichton, a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama, and dispatched reporter Brian Johnson to investigate. Johnson had previously received numerous calls about possible leprechaun sightings and questions about it from friends at a barbershop and his church. "Things sort of snowballed" when the crew arrived, anchor Scott Walker later recalled, with multiple people claiming to have seen a leprechaun in a tree.
If you listen to my show, you know I was born in Mobile, which makes this video even more humorous to me. The story quickly went viral and more than 25-million views to date. Real or not? I'll let you decide about the Mobile Leprechaun.
What really happened that fateful night in Alabama so many years ago? Here’s a quote from Scott Walker, the anchorman in the studio who bookends the clip:
“It was covered as a real news story… at first. We heard reports of large crowds gathering in the Crichton community and police were being called out. We didn't know WHY they were gathering. The way I remember it, we weren't going out there to cover a Leprechaun sighting (that would have been a questionable decision). We were going out there to see why such large crowds were causing problems in the neighborhood. When our crew arrived, things sort of snowballed. People were looking up at a tree and saying there was a Leprechaun in it. We started shooting video and that's when the people of Crichton took over and turned this story into an Internet sensation.”