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Photographs purportedly showing a gliding, wraith-like, humanoid-shaped figure reminiscent of the Dementors from the popular Harry Potter series of books and films were circulated on social media in March 2017: The photographs were published by the website Zambian Observer in an article reporting that this strange figure had been spotted in the skies above a shopping mall in Zambia. The article asserted that some locals ran away in fear, believing the figure was a manifestation of God, while others stayed to worship it. An alleged eye-witness was even quoted in the account account: Tabloid publications such as the UK's Sun and Daily Mail aggregated the story, adding some appeal by stating that the figure resembled a Dementor from the Harry Potter literary franchise: Despite an eye witness account and two (unconvincing) photographs, there was no truth to this story. The Dementor figure in the images appears to be a kite that digitally was added into an otherwise uneventful photograph of a cloudy day at a shopping mall. An photograph of this kite has been circulating online since at least 8 February 2017, nearly a month before it was spotted over a mall in Zambia. Although difficult to see, kite strings are visible in the original photograph: We have not been able to locate the definitive source of the kite photograph, but it appears to be a Spirit Man kite designed by Martin Lester: The news article also stated that this Dementor hung in the sky over a shopping mall for nearly 30 minutes. If this were true, we would expect to find additional photographs or videos documenting the sighting, yet only two images purportedly captured the ghostly figure.
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