In this episode I discuss four different sightings made by police officers. From seeing strange things in the sky to a dogfight between a helicopter and a UFO.
In this episode I discuss four different sightings made by police officers. From seeing strange things in the sky to a dogfight between a helicopter and a UFO.
Ep 39 Sightings by Police
Hello and welcome back to the UFO and Aliens Podcast. I’m your host Rick Black. On this episode, I am going to jump right in and share some cases where the witnesses are trained observers. The police. The first one was in December of 2004 in Huntington Indiana.
An off duty Huntington officer was warming up his car when he saw it first. He radioed for an extra set of eyes; he got two. Two fellow officers looked skyward and saw it, too. All three are Huntington law officers, guys who have seen just about everything. But this time, they didn't know what they were seeing. They're hoping someone else might have been looking toward the sky shortly after 2:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 26, and can at least compare notes, if not provide an explanation. The object, seen from just north of the city Police Station, came out of the northwest to the steeple of a near by Catholic Church, then shot straight back north. It didn't make any noise, and it remained in their sight for less than a minute. But it was big described as the size of a hot air balloon or a backyard trampoline and low enough that one officer thought it was going to get hung up on the steeple of the church.
Normally, such an object passing over the city would have lit up emergency lines. But this one didn't. No one called 911; no one called city or county dispatch; and no one called the State Police. The three officers may have been the only ones to see it. And for a few days, they didn't say anything about it. "We thought people would think we were crazy," one said. But now, curiosity has the best of them. Did anyone else see it? And what was it?
The officer making the original sighting had finished his shift at 2:30 p.m. the day after Christmas and was warming up his car, parked across police station. He was sitting in the car, facing north. "It came from a long ways off," he said, describing the sighting a week later. "First it looked like a parachute that you can steer, black and curved, but there was nobody in it. It started rolling, a slow roll, and turned upside down. Then it looked like a giant set of bird wings. It did more rolls, and turned into an oblong circle that was orange. It wasn't any kind of flying machine that I can think of, and it's not like a '50s flying saucer. It was that big, but it didn't have a hump in the middle."
The second officer who answered the call said his first impression was that it was "a tire" in the sky, but that made no sense. The first officer said the object changed shape three or four times. It moved in a straight line, tumbling as it moved, and made no noise.
The third officer to verify the sighting had just walked out the stations backdoor, heard the radio traffic and looked up. "It was so big, within no time at all I spotted it," he said. "When I first saw it, it was going in a flat plane, hovering, moving slowly right toward the church. It would glide, rotate the wide way around, and stay at one level, then it stopped, began moving in a circular motion, and turned bright orange. It went flat again, and hovered over the steeple".
The officers believe the object turned orange when it reflected the sunlight, like a compact mirror would if you twirled it. It appeared to be moving along at treetop level, no higher than the roof of the church. It disappeared from the first officers view after it went behind the church steeple, but the other two officers who had slightly different vantage points said it went behind the steeple and moved directly north. The second and third officers were 30 to 35 feet apart. They agreed the sighting lasted 30-45 seconds.
Other statements included the object was completely circular, dome shaped. "I can't imagine how it could possibly be anything I could relate to. The object would stop and then spin slowly, a maneuver no known aircraft can accomplish. I was never really afraid, just in total amazement."
The pastor of the Catholic Church, said he didn't see anything unusual that afternoon, and hasn't received any phone calls from anyone who did. "That's the first I've heard of it," he said Friday.
Managers at the Huntington Municipal Airport and Fort Wayne's Smith Field said there were no records of any out-of-the-ordinary craft making either a takeoff or landings.
What does it sound like to you? To me, it sounds like a giant black garbage bag. Even when they said it turned orange, it could easily be reflecting the sun. It’s a stretch, but it’s plausible. I would be more convinced if it were later or earlier in the day when the sun would be lower. It appearing to be large could be an optical illusion. It could just be closer. The way they described it’s movement could be explained by a giant black plastic bag. The only thing that bothers me is the way it ended. One of the officers lost sight of it when it went behind the church. If he were the only witness, I would ask “did anyone go behind the church and see what possibly landed there?” But, the other witnesses said it turned and went north. Did they watch it until it was out of sight? Did it disappear behind the trees? They never said. I’ve seen plastic bags fly around before. It could happen and they move around in strange ways. It all depends on what the wind is doing. Twisting and seeming to hover are all possibilities. It’s strange that we have no other witnesses coming forward. Other people have to have seen it. Did they see and think, nothing to see here?
We have three police officers witnessing this thing. I have to call this one unexplained.
The next case is really interesting. You’ve heard that police and pilots make good witnesses, well in this case we have both.
On the night of March 4th 1993, in Louisville, Kentucky, two police officers had an encounter with what can only be described as a UFO. There was a story in the Louisville Courier Journal written by Gardiner Harris. It reads:
UFO puts on show
Jefferson police officers describe close encounter
By GARDINER HARRIS Staff Writer
Two Jefferson County air unit police officers — described by their lieutenant as "solid guys" — swear they had a two-minute dogfight with a UFO during a routine helicopter patrol Friday night.
Two officers on the ground said they, too, spotted the object. The UFO — a glowing pear-shaped object about the size of a basketball — literally flew circles around the helicopter, even though the fliers say they were moving at speeds approaching 100 mph.
In one blinding moment when both craft were hurtling toward each other, the UFO shot three baseball-size fireballs out of its middle, all three officers said. The fireballs fizzled into nothing. Officers Kenny Graham and Kenny Downs haven't talked much about their Friday night flight over General Electric Appliance Park because they fear few will believe them. But they are convinced they weren't hallucinating.
"We both go to church every week," Downs said as a way of explaining how normal the two normally are. "In fact, I might start going to church twice a week." Officer Mike Smith, in his squad car below, said he saw the object for only about a minute. But he confirmed the UFO shot three fireballs into the air and then disappeared. Officer Joe Smolenski said he tried for more than a minute to catch up to the object in his squad car. "I've been looking for 'em for 14 years, and I guess this is the closest I've come to something I couldn't explain."
Lt. David Pope, who was roused out of bed at 12:30 Saturday morning by a call from the startled officers, attested to their sanity and sincerity.
"These guys are totally solid guys," Pope said. "There's no doubt in my mind there was something out there."
The night started out like every other night. Graham and Downs got to work around 6 p.m. and were soon in the air flying a routine patrol. Graham, 39 and an 11-year veteran, was the pilot. Downs, 39 and a five-year veteran, was the spotter.
While in the air, they received a call about a possible break-in near Sanford Avenue and Buechel Bank Road. They flew off and quickly reached the area, which is near the northeast corner of Appliance Park, around 11:50 p.m.
As they circled, Graham saw something that looked like a small fire off to his left. Dozens of bonfires had been lit around the county that night by revelers delighting in the new snowfall.
But Graham soon decided it wasn't a fire. Downs shined his 1.3-million-candlepower spotlight on the object, which began to drift back and forth like a balloon as the light washed over it. Then it gradually floated up to the helicopter's elevation about 500 feet above the ground, where it hovered for a few seconds.
"Then it took off at a speed I've never seen before," said Graham: an experienced pilot.
The object made two huge counter-clockwise loops and finally approached the helicopter's rear.
Graham, afraid-the object would ram his tail rotor, pushed his speed above 100 mph. The UFO shot past them and instantly climbed hundreds of feet in the air. It descended again and flew close to the helicopter. Graham tried to close the gap with the object, and it again flew away. As the UFO approached on a parallel course, the three fireballs burst out of its core.
Scared, Graham banked away from the object.
"When we came back around, it was gone," Graham said.
When the two returned to their base, Graham called the control tower at Standiford Field to ask if their radar had spotted anything unusual. It had not.
Downs called the county's radio dispatchers to ask if anyone else had reported sightings. No one had.
But the two did get confirmation from two officers on the ground, one of whom was Smith.
"I have no idea what it was," Smith said, but his confirmation cheered the two fliers.
"It makes me feel better," Downs said, "that there are... grown men out there who are sworn to protect this community and who saw the same thing."
So what could this pear shaped thing be? I’ve got nothin’. It was described as being the size of a basketball and it shot basketball sized fireballs from it’s center. They said that the fireballs fizzled out, did they hit the helicopter? Were they responding to the helicopter shining their light on them? It makes you wonder.
Alright, the next case has me scratching my head. It is from Colfax Wisconsin on April 19th 1978.
Police officer Mark Coltrane was on patrol in the vicinity of Colfax, a small town with a thousands of inhabitants in Wisconsin, USA. At midday, he decided to stop the car to eat something, in a small isolated area. He noted that his radio was emitting crackles.
He then noticed a metallic looking disc raising towards the sky at a short distance from the parking space.
While the object seemed to move towards him, Coltrane picked up his Polaroid camera, came out of the car and snapped some photographs. The object was so close in one of the images that it is possible to notice some details of its lower surface.
In [the second] photograph the object is starting to move away.
The total observation lasted a few minutes, the object being lost from his sight when it accelerated and fled in the distance.
Coltrane, shocked by the sighting, remained in amazement for two hours without saying anything, by fear of being ridiculed when he would have to submit his report to his chiefs.
The pictures that Coltrane took look amazing. They are not grainy like a lot of UFO pictures that you see. The pictures have great detail and are really clear. Now compare this story with the next.
On Wednesday 19 April 1978, Mr. S. (name withheld by specific request) and his girlfriend were driving in the vicinity of Tainter Lake, when they decided to stop and attempt some fishing since most of the ice was already thawed.
They found a spot along the shore where they could do some casting. Mr. S. had also brought along an FM portable radio. They had been at this spot for about a half an hour when the radio began picking up interference. It was then that Mr. S. looked up into the sky, thinking an airplane must be going over-head.
At that point the object “appeared” out of the southwest, moving northeast. He and his girlfriend became very excited and frightened. Remembering that they had a camera with them, (an Instamatic) Mr. S. went and got it to take some pictures. He almost dropped it several times trying to get it out of the case. He finally got it out and started to point it at the object when the object suddenly veered off course in their direction and came towards them. They became even more frightened but Mr. S. was determined to get a photograph of the thing!
At that point, the object began to circle them at a high altitude as Mr. S. began taking pictures. The object flew around the area only once and then disappeared into the sunlight. The whole incident lasted about 3 or 4 minutes.
Mr. S. was hesitant about showing anyone the photos because he was afraid of people thinking the wrong thing. He finally sent a UFO lecturer a copy after attending one of his slide lectures on the UFO subject.
Mr. S. was unable to determine the size of the object for lack of reference, or how fast it was moving. He did say, however, that it gave off a “crackling sound” as it passed around them.
Here is where I am confused. Both stories are similar, they happened on the same date and in the same town and both of them took pictures. One with a polaroid and the other with an instamatic. They are the same picture! They are not different pictures of the same object, they are the same pictures. It seems that there are shenanigans going on here. I don’t know what, but something is going on here. I’m not going to waste anymore time on this when it’s obvious that I’m not going to find the truth here.
Let’s go to September 3rd 1965 in Damon Texas.
About 11:00 p.m. on a Friday night, Deputy Sheriff Bob Goode, 50, was driving his patrol car south out of Damon toward West Columbia on Highway 36. Since he had suffered a bite on his left index finger earlier that day from a baby alligator, he had asked Chief Deputy Billy McCoy, 38, to ride with him in the event the pain flared up and interfered with his driving. Now that’s a story all by itself. What was he doing handling a baby alligator? Sorry. I got distracted by the shiny thing.
Moving forward. It was a sparkling clear moonlit Texas night, and Goode rested his arm in the open window of the door as they drove through the prairie. Suddenly McCoy spotted a bright purple light on the horizon to the southwest which appeared to be about five to six miles distant. At first they thought it might be something in the nearby oil fields, perhaps an oil-drilling rig. But then a blue light, smaller in diameter than the purple light, emerged from it and moved to the right before stopping. Both lights remained in this orientation for a while before beginning to drift upward. This upward floating motion continued until the objects reached an elevation of 5-10 degrees above the horizon.
Goode then studied the lights through a pair of binoculars, but could not make out any additional features. As their curiosity mounted, the officers began to look for back roads that might take them closer to the lights. They stopped again, and this time the lights suddenly swooped toward them, covering the intervening distance in 1-2 seconds, abruptly stopping practically overhead. Their patrol car and the surrounding terrain were brightly illuminated in purple light. They could now see that the purple and blue lights were attached to opposite ends of an enormous object, hovering about 150 feet from them at about a 100-foot altitude.
In his later statement to the Air Force, McCoy described what he saw:
"The bulk of the object was plainly visible at this time and appeared to be triangular shaped with a bright purple light on the left end and the smaller, less bright, blue light on the right end. The bulk of the object appeared to be dark gray in color with no other distinguishing features. It appeared to be about 200 feet wide and 40-50 feet thick in the middle, tapering off toward both ends. There was no noise or any trail. The bright purple light illuminated the ground directly underneath it and the area in front of it, including the highway and the interior of our patrol car. The tall grass under the object did not appear to be disturbed. There was a bright moon out and it cast a shadow of the object on the ground immediately below it in the grass."
To both men, the object seemed to be "as big as a football field." Goode could feel strong heat emanating from the object onto his left arm, through his shirt-sleeve.
After a few seconds, with the strange object hovering almost directly overhead, they fled the scene and headed toward Damon "as fast as we could go," making speeds of up to 110 miles per hour. McCoy kept watching the object out the rear window of the car. For 10 to 15 seconds, the UFO continued to hover above the pasture. Then it abruptly shot back in the direction from which it had come. "After arriving at approximately its original position," McCoy reported, "it went straight up in the air and disappeared at 25-30 degrees above the horizon."
Back at Damon, the shaken officers calmed themselves, and then decided to go back and investigate again. This time they drove down the Damon-West Columbia road, but saw nothing. Finally they returned to the area where they had first seen the lights, and once again spied the purple light on the horizon, and again saw the smaller blue light emerge with a strange two-step motion and float upward. Fearing another close encounter, they again fled the area.
Goode and McCoy continued on their shift until three or four in the morning, then stopped for breakfast at a cafe. Goode noted that his alligator bite was no longer sore, and when he unwrapped the bandage he discovered that the swelling had gone down and that the wound was nearly healed. Next day, the wound showed virtually no scarring.
The deputies reported the sighting to Ellington Air Force Base, and Major Laurence Leach, Jr., arrived on September 8, 1965, to interview McCoy and Goode and take a statement. Leach's report to Project Blue Book headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base reflected his puzzlement. "There is no doubt in my mind," he said, "that they definitely saw some unusual object or phenomenon....Both officers appeared to be intelligent, mature, level-headed persons capable of sound judgment and reasoning."
My favorite part of this story is the alligator bite. And when it was healed by the UFO, it just made it an even better story. What do you think? If it was just one police officer it would be easy to just brush it away and one man’s story. But two police officers? It has a little bit more believability.
So that’s four stories, the first one I think could be something that was misidentified. I think it was something floating in the wind. What it was, I don’t know. The second one with the guys in the helicopter, I have no idea. I’ve heard that story before and no one has come up with a good explanation for it. The third one just reeks of a hoax to me. The picture is great, but maybe too great. I don’t buy it. And the last one, is interesting. I have not idea if it’s true or not. But it is plausible. We have had a bunch of reports of triangle shaped craft. This one is pretty early, 1965. It may be the earliest report of a triangle shaped craft. I’d have to do some more digging to find out if it is. That would give it more credibility I think.
What do you think? Remember believe none of what you hear and half of what you read.