Australia Lake Community Residents Wake Up to Something Right Out of a Horror Flick – but It's Where the Spooky Figure Was Spotted That Has Some Upset

Residents near a lake in Australia were spooked Saturday morning by something you might otherwise expect to see in a horror film.

Several people who live by Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, Australia, said they saw a man dressed as an undertaker paddling on an object fashioned after a coffin, topped with bright flowers. The figure was spotted near a medical facility that cares for and treats individuals suffering life-threatening conditions.

A guy dressed as an undertaker is paddling around Lake Burley Griffin on a 'coffin' https://t.co/ENRnpkTRKK #WTF pic.twitter.com/NRIDfPgUSM

— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) July 2, 2015

"In the distance, as we came towards the Carillon we noticed a figure emerge from the thick fog," Jeanne Mclauchlan told the Canberra Times.

Mclaughlan said she asked the man where he was going. He said he was on his way to a cemetery to prepare a grave site.

Yu Jo Chua, who snapped a photo of the eerie sighting, said other kayakers who were out on the lake during the early morning haze: "I wish I could have seen the looks on their faces encountering this in the fog."

As strange as the sighting was to these residents, the image struck some as purely insensitive.

The family members of some patients staying at the Clare Holland House, a medical facility situated along the lake that cares for individuals coping with life-threatening conditions, thought the stunt was inappropriate.

The sight bore a familiar resemblance to another man who has been spotted multiple times on other bodies of water in Australia. That man is believed to be named Tom Simmat.

The Canberra Times reported that it called Simmat to ask if the figure spotted Saturday was him, but he didn't answer.

The paper said it later received an email from "the Lost Undertaker." But the individual behind the email wouldn't confirm the identity of the coffin paddler.

"We all know how less effective Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Zorro and not forgetting Wonderwoman, became, once their true identity became known," one message reportedly read.

(H/T: Canberra Times)

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