Have you ever come across a man in a rabbit costume with an axe? Beware the Bunny Man! This urban legend was born from two incidents in Fairfax County, Virginia in 1970, but the legend has spread across the Maryland and Washington DC areas. Most of the Bunny Man stories take place near a railway overpass called Colchester Overpass, and nicknamed Bunny Man Bridge.
The first Bunny Man incident was reported on October 19th, 1970. A couple parked their car across the street from a relative's house whom they were visiting.
From Wikipedia:
As they sat in the front seat with the motor running, they noticed something moving outside the rear window. Moments later, the front passenger window was smashed, and there was a white-clad figure standing near the broken window. Bennett turned the car around while the man screamed at them about trespassing, including: "You're on private property, and I have your tag number." As they drove down the road, the couple discovered a hatchet on the car floor. When the police requested a description of the man, Bennett insisted he was wearing a white suit with long bunny ears. However, Bennett's fiancée contested that their assailant did not have bunny ears on his head, but was wearing a white capirote of some sort.
The Fairfax Police opened an investigation into this incident and a similar one involving a man in a rabbit suit with an axe who threatened to kill the security guard of an unfinished home if he came any closer. Both cases lacked enough evidence for the police to move forward with an investigation, and were closed. Over the next few weeks over 50 people contacted the police to report Bunny Man sightings.
Learning about the legend of the Bunny Man made me think of the creepy rabbit-suit person in the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko, and makes me wonder if that was inspired by the Bunny Man urban legend. I already know that I'm going to be nervously looking over my shoulder the next time I have to walk through a tunnel.
The real hatchet from the first Bunny Man incident in 1970
