At approximately 4:35 in the morning today, an elementary school teacher (name withheld by request) in the southwest Houston suburbs emailed a lead to us. She had seen what she thought might be a large, green yard ornament out of the corner of her eye while traveling down a boulevard. After looking again, she spied what she thought was a Christmas Cactus and immediately returned to confirm her suspicion. Upon arriving, our witness tried desperately to snap a photo. Unfortunately, being in the dead of early morning, a local police officer interpreted her activity as suspicious, stopped her, and asked her to leave the area, assuming she was up to no good. She was only able to take one hasty and quick photo before having to leave. We received an email from her phone, and the file was slightly damaged in the process of the transfer, but this is still the greatest breakthrough we've had since 2006:
Seen above is definitely a Christmas Cactus, the classic shape and size of recent descriptions, and likely the same Cactus we saw in the region two years ago. It appears the Noel Cacti are staying in this area. We have a good address that checks out with her testimony, and by later this morning I hope to have clear photos, hard evidence, and a stake out plan in place to nab the Noel Cacti this year.
Our witness's testimony is lucid and clear, and seeing that she is a CCIB fan for a while and is familiar with the legend history, we currently have no reason to believe this lead to be false. Our only concern is that she said the house where this cactus event is alleged to be occurring has other ornaments and decorations. This would be an uncommon act - the Christmas Cactus is usually deployed in yards with no decorations.
I, being the closest field unit van to the location of the sighting, (I see on our Key Map it is near League City, Texas on the southeast side of Houston), will leave immediately after this update to investigate.
Ernie is stationed on the north side of town and I have been staying in the Days Inn on interstate 45 near a town called Dickenson, about 30 minutes away from our alleged event. I have called Ernie to come assist, and Derrick back in Daytona Beach is working on the case in a support role, while I will be the primary ground investigator for this event. I have high hopes that this sighting; mere hours ago will be a great breakthrough. This is the fastest response time we have yet had for any sighting! Our evidence we gather today will be presented as soon as we open a case.
Stay tuned!
