Perhaps the most famous sighting of a Grinning Man is reported to have taken place on October 11, 1966 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The entity was sighted by two boys, James Yanchitis and Marvin Munoz, as they were walking home along Fourth Street and New Jersey Street when they reached a corner parallel to the New Jersey Turnpike (40°39’17.43”N, 74°11’29.48”W). The turnpike is elevated and there is an extremely steep incline going down from the busy street above which leads to Fourth Street. A very large, high wire fence runs along the edge of the other street below where the boys were walking, impeding climbers trying to scale the incline to the turnpike above. There are bright street lights in that area, which gave the boys a good glimpse of what they called “the strangest guy we’ve ever seen.” Yanchitis commented later to investigators. “He was standing behind that fence. “I don’t know how he got there. He was the biggest man I ever saw.”

“James nudged me,” Marvin Munoz reported to police, “and said, ‘Who’s that guy standing behind you?’ I looked around and there he was… behind that fence. Just standing there. He pivoted around and looked right at us… then he grinned a big old grin.”

There had been recent reported incidents of violence in the nearby neighborhood, such as a middle-aged resident being chased by a “tall green man” down that same street and on the same night, so the boys proceeded home.