The Crichton Leprechaun (also the Mobile Leprechaun, Alabama Leprechaun) is a supposed sighting of a leprechaun in a tree in Crichton, a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama following a 2006 news report filed at local NBC affiliate WPMI-TV. The video was posted to YouTube on St. Patrick's Day 2006 and became one of the first YouTube viral videos and was referenced in mainstream media. As of 2018, the video has over 28 million views. Original WPMI-TV report The video was shot in the Mobile neighborhood of Crichton, located near Toulminville. The community is divided by Spring Hill Avenue into North Crichton and South Crichton, bounded generally by Mobile Street, Dauphin Street and Interstate 65. The leprechaun was purported to be seen in a tree on Le Cren Street near Bay Shore Avenue. On March 14, 2006, local NBC affiliate WPMI-TV was alerted to crowds gathering in Crichton, and dispatched reporter Brian Johnson to investigate. Johnson had previously received numerous calls about possible leprechaun sightings and questions about it from friends at a barbershop and his church. "Things sort of snowballed" when the crew arrived, anchor Scott Walker later recalled, with multiple people claiming to have seen a leprechaun in a tree. Crichton resident Nina Thomas-Brown submitted a crudely-drawn sketch of the supposed leprechaun. Among those who were interviewed was a woman who opined that instead of a leprechaun, "It could be a crackhead." Another interviewee, Demarco Morrissette, claimed Irish ancestry and showed off a "special leprechaun flute," that he claimed was thousands of years old. Morrissette became known as the "Flute Man" due to his appearance in the report. "I actually saw what was sketched on paper," said Johnson at the time. "Some people say it is a shadow from some of the branches being too close and that there is moss on the tree that could explain it. Certainly I don't believe it's a leprechaun!" The piece was aired twice, once on the nightly newscast and again on WPMI's morning newscast. That version, introduced by anchors Scott Walker and Nikole Patrick, was the broadcast that went viral. YouTube The video was posted to YouTube on March 17, 2006 by user botmib and soon became a viral sensation, attracting millions of views. The report received attention from MSNBC, radio personality Howard Stern and received a piece in The New York Times, in which columnist Virginia Heffernan called the clip "a local