Woman Found in California Claims to Be a Mermaid

A woman found in California claims she's a mermaid.

The woman was found wet and almost totally naked near Table Mountain in Fresno County at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. She told officers she had been in a nearby lake, and claimed to be a mermaid named Joanna.

Police fingerprinted the woman, but it revealed no identity.

They describe her as 16-30 years old, White or Hispanic, five-foot-four, 150-pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.

Oh, and she has two webbed toes on each foot.

The Fresno Police Department has turned the case over to the Fresno Sheriff's Office.

Michael Banti, publisher of WeirdFresno.com, isn't surprised by the story.

"Fresno is a strange place, hard to describe if you've never been here," he said. "Strange creatures and ghosts seem to be the most common. Though some people claim UFO sightings, since geographically we are maybe 300 miles from Area 51. The western part of the county has had some weird sightings over the years."

Banti even once covered a case of two fisherman who say they saw something strange crawl out of the water near where the woman was found.

"It was dark and they could only see something crawl out of the water, get up on two legs and look around, before getting back on its belly and sliding into the water," he said.

Banti said that's not the only weird thing to happen in the immediate area.

"The area where she was found is super weird," he said. "It's supposed to be haunted by a cop who died there, and now he pulls over people who were speeding to save them. The lake has had large fish sightings. Plus there's an old town at the bottom of it. And the park with the story is maybe a mile away."