Men In Black But Not As You now Them

For the past couple of days I've been reading reports from the U.S about a stretch of Iowa Highway 22 just west of Muscatine, where sightings of men dressed in black trench coats or robes have been reported by the side of the road.

The earliest confirmed sighting I have been able to uncover so far was from June 13th, when a man named R.J Strong from Port Louisa reported seeing:

 "some weirdo walking down the paved road in a black trench coat"

 This was around 2am on Monday 13 June as he was driving Ogilvie and F Avenues Muscatine County. His mother posted on facebook that the experience had frightened him and that it has also happened to other people she knows. The question needs to be asked how does a man in a black trench coat frighten some by just walking down the road, I must admit the first thing that popped in to my head was the stories of Black Eyed Children and their ability to frighten witnesses by their very presence, like some sort of psychic vampire feeding off of their fear. Ok so I have to admit that is wild speculation and to me so far it just sounds like a guy in a black trench coat walking down the road, nothing really strange or paranormal in that, apart from one might assume he may be upto no good dressed in black walking around at that time of night.

But there have been other reports, so many in fact that the local sheriffs office has launched an investigation to get to the bottom of it all. Not only have these figures been seen by many witnesses walking along side the road but they have also been spotted in peoples gardens and yards.
One poster on facebook  Named Onrea Mawby has said:

"They are jumping out of ditches as you are driving past them and then they have more people up the road waiting and they'll jump out as you are driving by and watch you"

The most likely explanations so far for me would be some sort of prank or even an urban myth that is quickly gathering momentum,there does at the time of writing seem to be a lack of detailed descriptions of these men and to be honest nothing I have read indicates what sex they may or may not actually be. But I have contacted several witnesses and I hope to be able to bring you more details on this very soon.