Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Strange lights in the sky

Gary was a Kansas City Police officer in 1960. He and his partner Richard were working the “dog watch” from midnight to 8 a.m. one Saturday when they saw something strange in the sky.

“About 2 a.m., we drove to St. John and Hardesty and were sitting at the northeast corner of Budd Park,” he said. While they were filling out reports, a bright light appeared and hovered above their car.

“There was no engine noise at all,” he said. “Just as suddenly as it appeared, it shot away into the western sky from a dead stop to gone in the count of three.

“Dick and I just sat there and stared at each other and then I said, ‘should we put this in our log report?’ His response was, ‘well, I guess that depends on how much you like psychiatrists.’”

They had seen a UFO. And, no, they didn’t report it.

Twenty-one Missouri UFO cases were reported this year to the Mutual UFO Network, an international investigation group. The cases range from witnesses reporting glowing spheres to seeing unidentified craft. On rare occasions, a case will include contact, or telepathic communication.

“I was about four and a half years old. I was sitting on the front steps to my house,” Fred of Kansas City wrote in his MUFON report. “I saw, suddenly from the east, a UFO come into view. … I kept mentally asking for a ride. I suddenly got a reply, ‘no. Not now. Not yet.’ Being a kid I got angry and shot three rolls of single-shot caps at it. A few minutes later, it flew back east.”

This was in 1950.

Most reports don’t include contact. Jim Johnson, director of the Kansas City chapter of MUFON, said the group’s objective is to apply scientific methods to the investigation of UFOs. But simply seeing a strange light or reporting mental contact isn’t enough to attract MUFON’s attention. The group needs physical proof, or at least corroboration in order to make the investigation worthwhile.

“It’s hardly credible if only one person saw it,” he said.

But, one-person reports make up the majority of UFO sightings, so the Kansas City area only has “one or two” UFO cases a year MUFON considers worthy of an investigation.

Gary’s second encounter in 1979 might fit into that category.

Gary and another officer, Paul, decided at 11 p.m. to drive to Bennett Spring for trout fishing. Gary stopped at his house to pick up his son, fishing equipment, and coffee.

They stopped in Cole Camp to use the outdoor restroom at a closed gas station.

“When we walked outside we were enveloped in light,” he said. “We looked up and just like the first time, hovering right above us was a UFO.”

The three of them rushed into the car and the UFO “left in a blink.” They continued to Bennett Spring, but didn’t sleep much that night.

“I occasionally see a show on the History Channel about UFO sightings and find myself thinking how incredible some of those stories are,” Gary said. “If I find them hard to believe, how can I expect those who have not seen to believe?”

Copyright 2006 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason Offutt is a syndicated columnist, author and fan of all things Fortean. His book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri,” will soon be available at www.jasonoffutt.com and all major bookstores.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

My nephew and I saw UFO's in the sky one very cold October night about 4 years ago. We were out watching the northern lights here in North Dakota, and noticed a light going across the sky in the north thru the northern lights, then it suddenly stopped and shot staight down to the north below the horizon. Then another light appeared and weaved thru the sky back and forth again, thru the northern lights, then there were two, maybe it was three? For some reason this part is a littel unclear. But they eventually all went out of sight, zig zagging across the northern sky. And we just sat there a little "flabergasted" and we were looking around in the sky for more lights, when my nephew was like " holy S#%T Aunt Tammy , Look !" and I look straight up where he is looking and there , above us, is a very large diamond shaped light, very very bright, it hurt my eyes to look at it. It was very large to, much bigger then a star, but not as large as the moon. WOW. we just sat there staring up at this thing, and really marveling over the whole experience, maybe 2 minutes in all , and then all of the sudden I got a rush of fear run thru me, and as soon as I felt that fear the light started to move away from us, to the north, zig zagging very slowly across the sky. But what's really wierd, is I don't remember how it disapeared after that or how long after that we could watch it, the last thing I remember is watching it zig zag its way to the North. Weird, HUH ! The next day I had conjuntivitous ( i am sure i spelt that wrong !)in my eyes. Does that have something to do with the intense bright white light perhaps? But my nephew did not have it. I have other stories to , but this is one of the more interesting, and closest encounters I have had, & my nephew for that matter. So, there is no one on Gods Green Earth that can tell me that we are alone . Unless it is some kind of goverment technology that we don't know about, but the other weird thing about this whole experience is I just suddenly got a strong urge to be outside, in the bitter cold , very restless feeling, like I needed to be outside right now, kind of feeling, so I went out, and brought my kids and nephew with, but I will tell you what, at the first sight of an unusual light out in the sky, my two daughters bolted for the house, while my nephew and I sat out and wathched, and as a result recieved quite a show, we did not sleep much that night. We stayed up and talked about the whole thing until the wee hours of the morning.

Anonymous said...

I've just seen a shadow person just the other night. It started moving from the left side of the foot of my bed to the right side of the foot of my bed. When I saw this being it was darker than the night it was about six feet tall or so. I sat up in my bed and told it I did not give it permission to be in my house. The creator who created my gave me free will and that means you have to abide the same creator who created me also created YOU! So don't come in my house unless I give you permission. It did not appear for the rest of the night.

Unknown said...

When I was about 8 years old, about 20 years ago in Pennsylvania, I saw a light in the sky moving quickly in a zig-zag formation. The light was bigger and brighter than a star, and it continued to move at very high speeds, back and forth across the sky. I saw this on more than one occasion. I never told anyone except my brother. He saw it with me from our back yard, the third and final time I witnessed this phenomenon. He and I still do not know how to talk about what we saw.

Anonymous said...

I was in Kansas city on friday august 24th. at 9:30 I was driving in from Olathe to the KC, above the city I saw 3 or 4 strange lights hovering. These lights were in a cresent moon shape and were disappearing randomly, then appearing again in another area of the sky. They were also moving in ways that a normal aircraft could not, side to side and zig zag, as well as in circular patterns. Did anyone else see these things?

Anonymous said...

Garrett I was reading your comment and that same thing happened yesterday 5/4/2008. I was driving back from Longview lake towards OP and I saw them. It was crazy. I saw three lights and then they disappeared toward the west.

Unknown said...

Independence, MO (just outside Kansas City, MO)
Tonight at around 11pm I saw something that still has me baffled. It started with what I thought was the IIS moving south to north. I ran upstairs to get my binoculars. About 30 seconds later when I returned, I saw 2 lights with one red flashing light. Far, and I mean far, in front were many smaller lights. At first I thought it was a blimp being towed by a plane but the only flashing light was at the end, not where a tow plane should be. The IIS was no where to be seen. Its impossible for me to have missed it since it wasnt even close to being overhead when I ran upstairs. Instead, this thing was in the place where I last saw what I thought was the IIS! As I watched it with my binoculars, I still thought it was a blimp considering the slow speed it was moving. I guessed it was about 2-300 feet up and about 2 miles away moving west southwest. Suddenly the 2 lights went out and 4 came on in a straight line. Like the previous entry, the two middle lights slowly changed position. The 3rd light blinked on and off a few times. Still far in front were a bank of small barely visible lights. The bank of 4 lights started to separate with 2 on each side in a diagonal formation. The distance between the lights made this impossible to have been a blimp. If it was, it had to be larger than the Hindenberg. As a hobby I build and research air craft...I have no idea what this was. Eventually all 4 of the lights separated so far apart a large jumbo jet could've fit between them. It eventually disappeared from sight. As I said before, I have no idea what it was, but I honestly doubt it was a blimp, I know it wasnt a balloon...I just dont know.

adamlp said...

About 20 minutes ago 3 buddies and I were shooting the shit about Aliens and life out "there" and while i was looking up in awe about how many stars there are, then my eye catches something to the north, so immediately i put my full attention to them, at the same time i yell something like- "What the fuck is that". Personally i know what a satellite looks like in the sky and i know what a plane is, and i know what a a star is and what it looks like in the sky, but this thing what we ALL saw, was not any such a thing, this was a free roaming star. It moved any which way it wanted, we even made some comments about how it played in the sky, What my buddies then told me that there were was another "light" right behind it, but by the time i looked to see it it had gone, but i quickly went back to staring down this first light that was now doing almost a perfect triangle pattern, from my point of view it was an inch to each corner of the triangle and did so until it then continued on. It changed directions slowly then moved unexplainably erratic then disappeared. But since we all saw the same thing clearly straight up in the sky we stayed there to observe some more, It then again showed up, almost did the thing and then again: drifted off into the light pollution. But what really struck me was these what seemed to be airplanes streaking across the sky in a speed relative to an airplane with 3 lights, Here we are in the field next to my new apartment- and as we a are wondering what these planes could be? we have never seen any kind of airplane with 3 lights that flashed in unison. No colors just flashing. Anyways guess who walks by! A pilot training for the military - we then told him about the no doubt UFO sightings we just encountered and then we brought up these other planes that kept on flying by. we told him about the 3 lights same color triangular pattern, as in...1 in front 1 on each wing. He then went on to tell us that he has never seen such a thing, he told us that all planes would have red and green or blue flashing. But never the same colors...
He ended up leaving cuz we were too busy looking up at the sky waiting for the ufo or another one to show up and dance for us, Sure ENOUGH there it is, it performs a MAJESTIC dance as i said then. Doing small looped de loops and changing its whole direction entirely. My head has never went numb before, and all the hairs on my body stood up when we ALL encountered these aliens. I dont want to jump to conclusions but alien beings were deffenitly present in the sky over Fredericton New Brunswick Canada Sunday August 16th 2009....


Im pretty freaked out and tomorrow im going out and staring at the stars again...If it happens im going to wish upon a ride....Im not joking, i think im ready...

Unknown said...

Last night and right now there are like blue lights with and orange ring around it hovering in the sky.sometimes move very fast and fade in and out.I live in Clinton,Mo. What am I seeing