Police have launched an urgent manhunt after a nude man was seen prowling the streets of Lancashire in a gimp mask.
The odd sighting was captured on doorbell cameras as the man passed houses in the town of Lytham just before 1am on Friday, July 18.
The unnerving footage was later shown to Lancashire Police, with the force now issuing a desperate public appeal for information.
Officers have also requested that any individuals with similar CCTV footage get in touch.
Describing the bizarre incident as ‘concerning’, a spokesperson for the force said: ‘We are aware of a concerning video circulating on social media of a naked male wearing a face covering walking around Lytham in the early hours of the morning.
‘This occurred in the area of Westby Street, Cleveland Road and Bannister Street.
‘We can confirm this incident occurred on the 18th July 2025 at approximately 00.50am.
‘This incident was not initially reported to police and has only been brought to our attention after it has been viewed on Facebook.’
The spokesperson confirmed that Fylde Rural Task Force are currently in the process of conducting both CCTV and house enquiries.
They also added that the public should be ‘reassured’ that officers are ‘taking this matter seriously’.
The shocking incident is just the latest in a run of gimp men sighted across the UK, with the country in the grips of an ongoing crisis.
In 2019, residents of the sleepy Somerset village of Claverham spotted a man clad head to toe in latex, skulking around a quiet cul-de-sac.
On his mask, he had crudely etched a face with bright red crosses for eyes and a snarling cut mouth wrenched into a permanent smile.
Dubbed the ‘Somerset Gimp’, Joshua Hunt, from Claverham, was found guilty in late 2023 after he scared female drivers while dressed in a black gimp suit and mask.
While he avoided jail, Hunt was banned for five years from wearing masks, dressing in all-in-one-black outfits at night and ‘crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground’ in public.
During a hearing at Bristol Magistrates’ Court in 2023, he was convicted of two offences under the Public Order Act of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress.
Lawrence Wilcox, representing Avon and Somerset Police, told the hearing that Hunt had been linked to 25 incidents in total.
He had previously been arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance over a series of other ‘gimp’ incidents in the Cleeve, Claverham and Yatton areas last year.
Many of these also saw a man rolling around the floor and making threatening noises towards people he appeared in front of late at night.
But police said insufficient evidence meant no further action was taken in relation to those offences.
The court heard that during a search of Hunt’s home in Claverham, officers found a journal in which he had written a story about someone called Jack who purchases a black rubber suit and mask with white paint on the mask.
‘The face was looking like something out of a horror film – a face that would scare the life out of anyone,’ Hunt wrote.
In October 2023, a gimp sighting was recorded by trick-or-treaters in Gloucester, who spotted a figure clad head-to-toe in black as they celebrated Halloween.
The unknown gimp man was described by locals as ‘scrawny’ and ‘menacing’ as it briefly antagonised the residents of Twigworth on October 31.
The mystery figure was spotted late at night heading toward the Bloor Homes development on Tewkesbury Road before disappearing into the night.
James Patterson, who spotted the gimp, said: ‘I was just taking my son out ‘Trick or Treating’ when I saw a black, scrawny, somewhat menacing looking figure darting and dodging down the roads in the Bloor housing estate.’
Meanwhile, in Colchester, Essex, a gimp went viral during the Covid-19 pandemic after he documented himself shopping in Tesco dressed in a full gimp suit.
Dubbed the ‘Gimp Man of Essex’, evidence of his strange behaviour dates back to 2014.
However, unlike other gimps, who seem to want to spread terror, the Essex Gimp has in the past suggested alternative motives.
In July 2022, he suggested he wanted to raise £1,000 for the charity Mind in mid and north-east Essex.
He said: ‘I’m a normal guy who just likes wearing the suit. It’s a bit of an escape for me.’
In late October 2022, a teenager reported a ‘freaky’ encounter with a man dressed in a gimp suit in Cleeve, North Somerset, at around 12.25am.
A man in his 30s was later arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and was released on bail.
Theatre-goers at London’s iconic Shakespeare Globe were also left shocked after a man dressed in a gimp suit attended a showing of The Comedy of Errors in May 2023.
One audience member told The Daily Telegraph how the outfit ‘extremely inappropriate’ and that it made others feel uncomfortable.
The concerned woman said: ‘Even if a child doesn’t know what a latex suit is or the sexual connotations, it’s still a very scary sight and puts parents in a very uncomfortable position when it comes to explaining to their children what is going on.
‘I found the whole thing extremely inappropriate and I wasn’t the only one – a lot of people were obviously uncomfortable with his presence.’
In March last year, two alleged sightings of so-called ‘gimp men’ were recorded across both Sussex and Suffolk.
A dog walker, who chose to not be identified, reported encountering someone wearing ‘very see-through tights’ and a ‘balaclava’, while in Suffolk, women and girls were left fearing for their safety after alleging being followed by a masked man in a picturesque market town in Suffolk.
