Remember Mobile, Alabama's Legendary Leprechaun Sightings?

Happy St. Patrick's Day. A day where you wear green, attempt to avoid getting pinched and maybe enjoy a green beer or Guinness after work. For me, it's also a day to look back fondly on what might just be one of the greatest news stories I've ever seen.

It's at least the greatest news story about a Leprechaun sighting that I have ever seen. If you somehow haven't seen it before or you are wanting to relive the moment, I have included the video in this story. But first, some history.

What I'm about to tell you next may make you feel old. This week is the 15th anniversary of the story about the Crichton Leprechaun. That's right, 15 years ago this week was when Alabama and the rest of the United States learned about the leprechaun in a tree.

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According to mynbc15, the story was shot in the Crichton neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama near Toulminville. WPMI-TV was alerted to large crowds gathering in the neighborhood, and as the anchor of WPMI at the time said, the story snowballed:

WPMI-TV was alerted to large crowds gathering in Crichton, and reporter Brian Johnson went to to investigate on March 14.
"Things sort of snowballed" when the crew arrived, anchor Scott Walker later recalled later in a blog post. Walker said the original story was about investigating why such a large crowd had gathered in the neighborhood.
Later that day, someone drew a sketch of what many "witnesses" said the Leprechaun looked like.
The sketch was later auctioned off on eBay by WPMI and the proceeds donated to charity. It pulled in close to $1,000.

If you haven't seen the story before or maybe you just want to watch it again for the laughs, here you go:

While no treasure was found in Crichton, the news story became a piece of gold for the early days of social media. The video was posted on YouTube on St. Patrick's Day 2006 and became one of the first viral videos referenced in mainstream media. For even more context, the iPhone would not be released until 2007.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to that elusive leprechaun, and happy anniversary to one of the earliest viral videos.

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