The Night the Internet Held Its Breath
February 22, 2017. The air was cold across America, but on 4chan's /x/ board, the digital campfire for the world's strangest stories to be shared, something truly extraordinary was about to unfold. At precisely 11:47 PM EST, an anonymous user with no other posts dropped a single image into a quiet thread. With the single image was: "24489 Taken Aprox 24 miles north west of Luke Air Force Base Phoenix Az. Lab H4C."
There was no meme. No explanation. Just the photograph. The same ID didn't post in the thread again.
Wait, what? This happened? What was the image?
It showed a being unlike anything from movies or drawings. Over seven feet tall, slender yet unnaturally proportioned, skin the color of ash under the golden Arizona sunset. The head was elongated, the black eyes larger than any human's but with faint, visible pupils that seemed to reflect intelligence.
The arms hung long, the fingers were thin but proportional. It seemed like it was stood perfectly still beside twisted Joshua trees, with one arm slightly raised as if acknowledging the camera. The background revealed the unmistakable rugged terrain northwest of Phoenix, the flat desert stretching to distant mountains under a blood-orange sky.
Within seconds, replies flooded in...
"Holy shit this is real. My stomach just dropped."
– First reply, 11:48 PM
"I feel like it's looking right through the screen. Anyone else getting chills?"
– Second reply
"Downloaded it. Now my laptop is making weird noises. What the fuck."
– Third reply
The thread moved at impossible speed. Anonymous users reported physical reactions: nausea, headaches, a sense of dread that lingered after closing the tab. Some claimed their saved copies became corrupted, image colors inverting, files showing 0 bytes but still taking space, or simply vanishing from folders.
"I stared at it for maybe 30 seconds and started crying. I don't know why. I never cry."
– Anonymous poster
"The eyes have detail. You can see reflection. This isn't CGI."
– Anonymous /x/ user
But Then The Sudden Darkness
At 12:01 AM, exactly fourteen minutes after the post, 4chan went black. Every board, every thread simply gone. Users worldwide saw only error messages or blank pages. For nearly two hours, one of the internet's most unkillable sites was silent.
When it returned around 1:45 AM, the original thread had vanished completely. No archive. No trace. Even sites that automatically save 4chan threads showed only broken images and deleted posts.
Screenshots began circulating on Reddit, Discord, and private forums. But something strange followed them: many who said they downloaded the original image reported the same phenomena: corrupted files, unexplained computer behavior, persistent dreams of standing in that same desert under the watchful gaze of the being.
"I've had the same dream every night since. I'm in the desert and it's there, just watching. Not threatening. Just... knowing."
– Reddit user, March 2017
"My girlfriend saw it over my shoulder and started shaking. She said it felt like it was in the room with us."
– Anonymous testimony
The Being in the Photograph
Those who saw the original describe details no hoax could perfectly capture:
- Skin texture like fine leather, subtle veins visible under the surface
- Eyes reflecting the sunset with an inner depth that changed when you blinked
- Posture completely relaxed, as if posing willingly
- No shadow inconsistencies or photoshopping were detected
- Background elements matching exact Luke AFB training areas
"It wasn't scary like horror movie aliens. It was calm. Like it wanted to be seen."
– One of the last posters in the thread
Timeline of the Night
| Time (EST) | Event |
|---|---|
| 11:47 PM | Original anonymous post appears |
| 11:48 PM | First replies: shock, physical reactions |
| 11:52 PM | Thread hits bump limit, reports of nausea begin |
| 11:55 PM | File corruption claims start |
| 12:01 AM Feb 23 | 4chan goes completely offline |
| 1:45 AM | Site returns – thread erased |
| Following weeks | Screenshots spread, dreams and effects reported |
Final Verdict
This is easily one of my favourite 4chan stories of all time. The timing of maintenance just added a nuclear bomb to the fire never mind gasoline. They took down the servers. They scrubbed the threads. They corrupted the files. But thousands of people swear they saw it with their own eyes that night in February 2017. This tall alien standing patiently in the Arizona desert, and the original image was never to be posted again.
Reading through the archive posts from the days after the event it is absolutely astounding to see how many different IDs are talking about the event with such passion. Everyone that saw the photograph states very-matter-of-factly that it was real, and would describe in enourmous detail of what they saw and what happened that night. They state unironically, and probably still do, that the being was 100% real. And somewhere out there, it still is.
I hope it's true, as it's a great story. Even if it's just a shitpost on 4chan that went viral... it's still a great story.