Creepy cloaked figure spotted leaving raw meat in children’s playgrounds

It’s official; this is the creepiest thing we’ve ever heard of.

A photograph, which has been shared thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter, apparently shows somebody in a dark cloak dropping raw meat on a children’s playground.

And, unsurprisingly, it has left people terrified,

"I see why it could be easy to make a joke out of it, but this is serious," resident Brooke Conrad told The Gaston Gazette.

"We live in a world today where you don't know what's going on and you don't know people."

"This isn't just teenagers playing a joke in Gastonia a woman also saw someone just like this doing the same thing two hours away in their town as well," Kelsie Cooper, who lives in Gastonia, added on Facebook.

"This is a serious thing that needs to be addressed."

The photo, taken at a playground near an apartment in Gastonia, North Carolina was originally uploaded to a Facebook group earlier this week.

It’s unclear if the pale-skinned figure is a man or a woman.

Several people commenting on the photo have claimed that they have found raw meat around the local area, suggesting that perhaps it might be poisoned, in a bid to sicken or kill dogs.

Police have so far, however, refused to confirm the meat rumour.

"We don't know if this is some bogus prank somebody is playing," Gastonia Police Department spokeswoman Donna Lasher told The Gazette.

Could the caped figure be performing some kind of harmless pagan ritual? Could they be trying to harm pets in the local area?

Or are they simply a merry prankster, with an aim of scaring residents?

No one seems to have the answer - but there’s no denying that the images are chilling.

**What do you make of this mysterious caped figure? **

Let us know via Facebook or Twitter (@CloserOnline) now.