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Here's What The 'Dobby The Elf' Video Actually Shows

This week, the world tuned in to security camera footage Vivian Gomez posted to her Facebook page. The video shows Gomez's driveway as a shadow appears followed by what looks like an elf, very similar to the Harry Potter character "Dobby," walking away from the house. She captioned the clip, "So I woke up Sunday morning and saw this on my camera and am trying to figure out ā€¦ what the heck?? First I saw the shadow walking from my front door then I saw this thing. ā€¦ has anyone else seen this on their cameras??"

It's since been viewed over 11 million times, and it seems everyone who watched it has a theory of what it is. Well the mythbusters over at Snopes have taken a stab to get to the bottom of the footage and released their results.

The sad news for Harry Potter fans is the creature is not "Dobby," a pretty easy assessment since the house elf is a fictional creature.

So what is it? Without needing to dive too deep in investigative work, Snopes pointed to Gomez's son, who can be seen in many of her Facebook photos. He seems to be about eight years old and likely put something on his head, left the house and did a silly dance as he made his way down the driveway.

It's a theory some of Vivian's friends even suggested when she first posted the video, with comments like, "Viv, I think it's Bobby! Too much Fortnite! I heard your front door open and see the shadow," and "Is Bobby sleep walking? I can see his little chicken walk."

They are probably right. If you watch the video closely, you can see what looks like the shadow of a door opening on the right side of the screen. Also, it is the simplest solution, which often is the right one.

However, there are others out there who think it truly is "Dobby," just an augmented reality version of him. Snopes doesn't think that is the case, but did point out that on June 7, the day after the video was uploaded, a trailer dropped for the location-based augmented reality game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite - an app that lets players interact with creatures from Harry Potter in the real world.

However, it doesn't seem like it is part of a marketing campaign for the game, so while there is no confirmation, the "Dobby" figure is almost definitely a little boy being goofy.

Photo: Facebook/Vivian Gomez


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