A snippet from the CCTV footage of a United States resident has gone viral on social media for showing what appears to be an unknown creature walking by her house.

The CCTV camera, installed outside Vivian Gomez’s house, recorded the video of an elf-like creature with thin legs and what looked like floppy ears. According to Gomez, the time of the recording was 8.59 pm.

In the comments on her Facebook post, Gomez mentioned that the other two cameras in her CCTV network “didn’t pick it [the image] up for some reason”. She also denied allegations of doctoring the video for the internet.

While there is certain to be an explanation, it has not surfaced yet.

The video has sparked furious speculation, with some suggesting that it is Dobby the house elf from the Harry Potter series, while others told Gomez that she “needs Jesus”. It has also inspired some hilarious – and a few concerned – responses on Twitter.

One Twitter user went a step further and created the handle @Jakedalien, claiming to be the creature in the video.