Paranormal News This Week: Bigfoot Bounty Fine Print, Pentagon Files and Tehran Lights
The KASE Weekly | 16-22 September 2026
A million-dollar Bigfoot promotion, newly released Pentagon files and unexplained lights over Tehran put three very different kinds of paranormal claim in the headlines this week. Each raises a different question: what is actually being offered, what has newly become public, and what can a short piece of footage tell us?
The clearest answer comes from the least mysterious source: the Bigfoot promotion's small print. The other stories leave more room for investigation, with historical context and missing information both shaping what can reasonably be concluded.
The million-dollar Bigfoot bounty you cannot actually win
On 16 September, Hard Mountain Dew announced its Bigfoot Bounty campaign, inviting people to submit evidence of the creature for an advertised shot at $1 million. The brand's release describes an evidence checklist developed with television investigator Bryce Johnson. The campaign is set out in the brand's launch announcement.
There is, however, a fairly substantial catch. Sections 5 and 7 of the official rules describe the grand prize as satirical and promotional. They explicitly say it is not available to be won. The actual prizes are 100 cash awards of up to $20 each, representing the approximate price of a 12-pack. The promotion is restricted to eligible US residents aged 21 or over and closes on 30 November.
That rather changes the story. Before anyone books a flight and starts negotiating appearance fees with a large woodland resident, the advertised million is not an available reward.
The KASE take
This is a drinks promotion, not a scientific research fund or a newly verified Bigfoot encounter. A campaign checklist cannot establish what an unknown species should look like, and a brand judging an entry is not independent biological verification.
For an actual discovery, we would want documented samples, a clear account of where they came from and independent examination. Here, the useful evidence is the company's own wording. Sometimes investigating a paranormal headline requires a torch. Sometimes it requires scrolling down.
Another Pentagon release, with history still attached
The Pentagon released its sixth batch of UAP material on 18 September under the PURSUE disclosure programme. Anadolu's report confirms the release and quotes the department saying more files will follow.
Among the material is footage connected to the July 1952 Tremonton sighting in Utah. FOX 5's coverage also identifies video from Colorado in October 2023 and military infrared recordings from the Yellow Sea in 2023 and the Middle East in 2025.
Those dates matter. The news is the September release, not a claim that all these encounters happened this week. Nor does placing a recording in a government archive establish the origin of whatever it shows.
The KASE take
Making records available is useful. It gives researchers something more substantial to examine than somebody's description of a document they cannot show us.
But each case still needs its own assessment. A distant light could involve an aircraft, drone or another ordinary source; apparent movement may also depend on the camera and its platform. Those are possibilities to test, not verdicts on every file.
The useful next step is to compare each recording with its accompanying report, sensor information and any independent observations. We have verified the release through contemporaneous reporting, but have not independently analysed the full archive. An unexplained recording deserves attention without being promoted to an alien spacecraft by the filing cabinet it came from.
What was lighting up the sky over Tehran?
Footage circulated on 20 September showing a curved arrangement of coloured lights reportedly filmed near Tehran's Azadegan Expressway. The Indian Express report describes the clips as unverified and says there was no official confirmation of the object's size, altitude, distance or speed.
The UAP Globe case review traces the principal clip to a named social-media account. It also discusses a comparison video of an illuminated kite in Bali. That comparison offers a plausible ordinary explanation to investigate; it does not establish that the Tehran object was the same thing.
The KASE take
An illuminated kite or drone deserves consideration before a spacecraft. Equally, identifying a possible lookalike is only the start of a check, not the end of one.
We would want the original recording, a confirmed filming position and time, and a second independently located viewpoint. Without reliable distance, those bright points tell us much less about size and movement than they seem to. Reposts should not be counted as additional witnesses.
For now, there is an interesting reported sighting and an unresolved identification. There is no need to supply the missing measurements with imagination.
What this week tells us
The Bigfoot story has a clear answer in the promotion's rules. The Pentagon story adds material for further scrutiny. The Tehran clip still needs the context that would let us test competing explanations properly.
Which would you investigate first: the newly released historical files or the Tehran lights? And what single piece of missing evidence would most change your view?
Hero artwork is an editorial illustration, not a photograph of any reported encounter.
Sources and further reading
Bigfoot bounty
Hard Mountain Dew: campaign launch announcement, 16 September 2026. The brand's description of its promotion.
Bigfoot Bounty: official rules. See sections 5 and 7 for the unavailable grand prize and the actual cash awards.
Pentagon UAP files
Anadolu: Pentagon releases sixth batch of UFO files. Reporting on the 18 September release and the department's announcement.
FOX 5 DC: Pentagon releases sixth batch of declassified UFO files. Further detail on the historical sightings and recordings included.
Tehran lights
The Indian Express: reporting on the coloured lights over Tehran. Coverage of the circulating clips and the information still unverified.
UAP Globe: Tehran Azadegan case review. A secondary review of the source chain and illuminated-kite comparison, not confirmation of the object's identity.