Bayside mall incident and it’s Antarctica connection

On January 1, 2024, shortly before 8:30 p.m., Miami police responded to Bayside Marketplace after reports of a large disturbance involving dozens of teenagers. Fireworks were being set off, some witnesses initially believed the explosions were gunshots, fights broke out, businesses were disrupted, and four juveniles were ultimately arrested.

Because officers initially had to deal with what sounded like a potentially much more serious incident, a citywide emergency call brought large numbers of officers downtown. That’s the origin of the remarkable footage showing what appears to be an endless line of police vehicles surrounding Bayside.

But that’s where the paranormal version begins.

The 8-to-10-foot entities

The biggest rumor was that witnesses had encountered very tall humanoid beings, generally described online as roughly 8 to 10 feet tall.

CBS Miami reported that social-media users were describing them as “shadow aliens.” A blurry aerial video was circulated as supposed evidence of a large humanoid walking near the police vehicles.

Descriptions circulating online varied considerably. Depending on the post, the entities were supposedly:

• extremely tall, around 7 to 10 feet
• humanoid
• gray, dark or shadow-like
• difficult to focus on visually
• sometimes described as partially transparent or distorted
• moving through or around the crowd
• responsible for people suddenly fleeing the area

However, there’s an important distinction: those more elaborate descriptions are internet claims, not descriptions documented in police reports or independently verified eyewitness interviews.

The best-documented rumor is simply the claim of an 8-to-10-foot shadowy humanoid.

Miami Police directly addressed the viral video and said the supposed giant creature was actually a person walking whose shadow made the figure appear much larger.

The “portal” story

This is where the legend became considerably stranger.

Social-media posts began claiming that teenagers hadn’t merely been fighting. Instead, some versions said they had somehow opened a portal, after which strange beings appeared.

PolitiFact documented an Instagram claim specifically alleging that kids had opened “a portal for alien creatures to walk through.”

Other versions described a glowing orb or distortion appearing shortly before people began running.

A dramatic video was eventually circulated claiming to show this portal.

That particular piece of evidence can be traced backward, however. The footage predates the Bayside incident. Lead Stories traced it to a paranormal-themed account from May 2023, where it was presented as a supposed portal in China. It was subsequently recycled as footage from Miami.

Similarly, another viral glowing orb/portal video supposedly showing Bayside was online months before January 2024.

So there really was a portal rumor, but the famous portal videos aren’t evidence for it.

The “people disappeared” rumor

Another layer claimed that people who had filmed the creatures had their recordings confiscated or mysteriously disappeared from social media.

I haven’t found credible documentation supporting that.

Likewise, I’ve seen variations claiming that cellphones stopped working, witnesses’ recordings were remotely deleted, or authorities forced people to erase footage. Those claims appear to be part of the developing internet mythology rather than something supported by contemporary reporting.

Power supposedly went out

One popular version claimed electricity around Bayside was intentionally shut down.

Miami Police specifically denied this, stating:

“No aliens, UFOs, or ET’s. No airports were closed. No power outages.”

That denial is interesting because it shows how broad the rumors had become within only a few days.

The airport shutdown rumor

Another major claim said Miami International Airport had been shut down, supposedly because authorities were attempting to contain whatever was happening at Bayside.

Police also explicitly denied that any airports were closed because of the incident.

There’s no credible evidence I’ve found connecting airport operations to the Bayside disturbance.

“Hundreds of police for teenagers?”

This became perhaps the biggest argument keeping the story alive.

The aerial footage really does look extraordinary.

There are police vehicles stretching for blocks.

That caused people online to ask why such an enormous response would be necessary for teenagers fighting and setting off fireworks.

There actually is an explanation for that.

Police said officers initially couldn’t contain the large crowd, and a citywide emergency call brought available officers to Bayside. Reports of possible gunfire also made the initial situation considerably more serious than a routine fight.

That doesn’t prove every detail of the official explanation, but the size of the police response by itself isn’t evidence that something paranormal occurred.

The strange figure in the aerial footage

This is probably the most important piece of imagery associated with the legend.

In one overhead video, something apparently very tall can be seen moving between police cars.

People interpreted it as a giant humanoid.

Police later explained that viewers were actually seeing a normal person combined with a long shadow, creating the illusion of a much taller figure.

And there’s another problem with interpreting the footage as an entity.

If an eight-to-ten-foot creature were walking through an area surrounded by dozens of police officers, you’d expect the officers immediately surrounding it to react dramatically.

In the available footage, that reaction isn’t apparent.

The “witness” posts

There were social-media posts claiming to come from people who said they had been at Bayside.

One widely circulated alleged witness statement essentially claimed that there hadn’t been kids fighting and that people panicked after seeing gray creatures walking around. PolitiFact documented the circulation of that screenshot.

Other posts claimed people saw 7-to-10-foot creatures running around the shopping area.

The problem is establishing provenance.

A screenshot saying “I was there” isn’t the same thing as identifying a witness, confirming that person was actually at Bayside, interviewing them and corroborating their account with another witness.

So far, I haven’t found a strongly authenticated firsthand witness who can independently establish that they saw a nonhuman creature.

And that’s probably the biggest weakness in the alien interpretation.

What makes Bayside interesting

There’s a fascinating progression here:

Real disturbance → enormous police response → dramatic aerial footage → ambiguous shadow → giant humanoid interpretation → alleged witnesses → aliens → portal → government containment → power outage/airport rumors.

And it happened incredibly quickly.

By January 5, only four days after the incident, the alien theory had become big enough that major Miami news stations were covering it and the Miami Police Department felt compelled to publicly say there were “No aliens, UFOs, or ETs.”

Even William Shatner joined the conversation, joking about reports that aliens had visited a Miami mall.

So I’d separate the story into three categories:

Confirmed: huge police response, fireworks mistaken for gunfire, large group of juveniles, fighting, panic, four arrests, streets temporarily closed.

Actually documented as contemporary rumors: 8-to-10-foot shadow beings, gray creatures, aliens, a portal, airport closure and power outages.

Later embellishments with little or no reliable evidence: transparent/glitching beings, electromagnetic interference, phones being disabled, videos being confiscated, witnesses disappearing, multiple portals, government agents, or authorities secretly transporting creatures.

The 8-to-10-foot shadow humanoids and portal claims are therefore genuine pieces of Bayside folklore, even though there’s currently no compelling evidence demonstrating that they actually happened.

And the portal angle has an especially interesting rabbit hole attached to it: the claim that reversing or manipulating Bayside’s coordinates somehow points toward Antarctica. That’s a later conspiracy layer rather than evidence from January 1, but I can trace where that claim originated and determine whether the coordinate math actually works.