- Apparently something unusual may have taken place near
Youngstown, Ohio (Mahoning County) around 11:00 p.m. on Sunday evening,
August 25, 2002. The event lasted for over an hour and concluded somewhere
around 12:50 a.m. early Monday morning, August 26.
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- At around 11:15 p.m. Sunday evening, I was alerted to
the situation by a resident of Youngstown, Ohio who left a telephone message
on my voice mail. The caller, name and telephone number on file, said that
a UFO sighting was 'in progress' in his neighborhood and that the police
and media were on the scene.
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- "You wouldn't believe what all is going on,"
he said.
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- Around the 11:00 p.m. time frame, an unusual object was
reportedly viewed to the west behind a home on Truesdale Avenue in Youngstown,
Ohio.
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- I did not receive the message until midnight, at which
point I placed a return phone call and spoke for a few minutes with the
wife of the person making the initial report. She said her husband had
left with the police to pursue the UFO and also advised that it was her
husband who had first called the police regarding the object. He sought
to alert them, she said, so "someone could come out and verify this
thing we are seeing."
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- At some point, she informed that someone in the news
media must have been tipped off to the event because a lead anchor with
Channel 21 News in Youngstown, Ohio was seen in the neighborhood.
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- "We had the actual anchor-man with Channel 21 on
the scene here," she said. "The place is like a zoo, all the
neighbors are out and watching this thing."
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- She said that after her husband had placed the call to
the Youngstown police department (time of notification not yet available),
an officer responding also saw the object and stood outside watching it
for about 20-minutes.
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- While I spoke with the woman, her husband called in as
per 'call waiting' and she put me on hold to change lines to speak with
him. After their conversation, she came back on the line to say that her
husband was still in the company of a Youngstown, Ohio police officer -
in separate vehicles - pursuing the UFO. Its position, formerly in a western
direction from their first point of observation, is now viewed in a northeastern
direction from their vantage point at Bruce and Sheehigh Avenues.
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- "My husband said they are standing out there looking
at it now," she said, "and they can see something yellow around
it. It has red and green lights and it's definitely nothing anyone has
seen before."
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- She reported that the event was still underway as of
12:12 p.m. We discontinued the call as I asked that she have her husband
call me direct from the scene.
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- CONTACT WITH PRIMARY WITNESS
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- Around 12:34 a.m. I made contact with the primary witness,
an associate minister at a Youngstown, Ohio church, by his cell-phone he
informed that he was presently parked in a parking lot behind a grade school
where it was 'pitch black' and where he had an excellent view of the object
which, as of around 12:34 a.m., was still under his observation.
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- He said that he had been watching the object in comparison
with other stars and notes that the movement is different. He said the
object had 'moved to the left' at one point and occupied several places
in the sky during the past hour.
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- "It was in the southwestern sky, then it moved over
to the northeastern part of the sky," he said. "When the policeman
and news person got there, the object was in the west. An hour later it
was in the north sky, now it is in the east sky."
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- He described the object as having a green and red light
with a yellow 'rotating' light.
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- He also informed that the Youngstown policeman is also
observing the object.
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- UNUSUAL SPECTACLE
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- The primary witness informs that earlier, something sensational
happened. "While were all looking at this thing, 4, 5, 6 or 7 white
lights could be seen 'going to it.' This was absolutely amazing."
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- The witness was asked for greater clarification of this
and he said that the white lights appeared, from his vantage point, to
appear in a 'V' shaped pattern above the main object, then the white lights
'went downward and into' the main object.
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- "At first they were blinking around it," he
said, "coming from various portions of the sky in this V-shape. Whatever
these things were, they 'went to it' and disappeared.
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- The witness informs that others in the neighborhood,
including the police officer, saw the unusual object attract and absorb
the white lights.
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- When asked of the officer's comment, the witness said:
"He did comment on the smaller lights, saying that he wanted to see
those white lights go into it again."
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- When asked again about for a better description of the
white lights, the witness said: "It was almost like a "V"
being pointed at the object and the white lights were going straight down
at an angle into the object."
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- He said the smaller white lights first came to his attention
when a neighbor across the street had asked "what are those lights?"
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- "At first we thought they might have been airplanes
because they seemed to be blinking," he said. "But there were
too many and it seemed like if they were, they would have all crashed when
they came together like that."
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- The witness said the appearance of this event was difficult
to describe and that there was some dispute among witnesses present. "Everybody
could get something out of this," he said, "but I'm absolutely
certain that the white lights went 'into' the first light."
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- He said that one of his neighbors commented that the
white lights were 'baby ships' going into the mother ship.
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- The witness informed that the reporter on the scene is
Anchorman Glenn Stephens of WFMJ Channel 21 News in Youngstown, Ohio (who,
at the time of my call, had left the area to pick up a cameraman). The
witness also informed the name of the Youngstown police officer (withheld
at the moment) and the telephone number he used to dial the police station.
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- He then said that after leaving the neighborhood minutes
earlier, he and the officer drove around and met up again at another location
where the object was then in the northern part of the sky.
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- He said the sky conditions were clear and there were
no airplanes visible anywhere. He also said that he did not hear any airplanes.
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- The witness said that he knows stars will twinkle and
appear to change colors, and also said that he is aware that stars will
seem to move across the nighttime sky. He again emphasized that this object
was not a star. He reported that all of his neighbors, the reporter and
the police officer were impressed by this object.
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- The witness then broke in as we spoke: "The object
is moving up as we speak," he said, "it just went up a bit."
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- I asked if he had made any attempt to signal the object
and he said that he had not, the object was simply too high.
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- I then told the primary witness to stand by and continue
to observe the object while I disconnected with him and placed a phone
call to the Youngstown, Ohio police department.
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- CONTACT WITH POLICE
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- I then called the Youngstown Police Department at 330-747-7911.
When the dispatcher answered the call, I introduced myself and asked if
the object had been identified. She said: "No, what is it???"
with great excitement.
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- I then told her that I did not know what this object
was, but wanted to speak directly with the officer in the field who was
presently observing the object, as I was told. She then transferred my
call to the Dispatch Supervisor Mr. Simon.
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- After introductions, Mr. Simon said directly: "We
only received one call about this and did send an officer out. There was
no sign of any object in the sky at the time he arrived there."
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- RETURN COMMENT FROM CLAIMANT
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- After my conversation with the police department, in
which the supervisor denied any officer had observed the object, I then
called the primary witness back and informed him that the officer is not
claiming to have observed the object as he reported to me.
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- "I want to speak with this officer," said the
primary witness, "because he stood right there and watched it with
us."
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- "He stayed out here with us for at least 20-minutes,
maybe 30, watching this thing, even pointing it out the newsman. When he
went on the next street behind us, he was still watching it."
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- CONTACT WITH REPORTER
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- A stroke of luck took place at 1:26 a.m. when the news
reporter was again spotted in the neighborhood. Being on the phone with
the primary witness, I asked if he could get the attention of the news
reporter so I could speak with him over the telephone. He did so and walked
to the porch with the telephone, handing it Mr. Glenn Stephens of WFMJ
Channel 21 in Youngstown, Ohio. I introduced myself to the reporter and
explained that I investigate UFO sighting reports and asked him if he saw
the object in question.
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- "I did see it," Mr. Stephens said. "I
saw it earlier tonight, it's really distant."
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- Stephens said there were 5 or 6 people standing around
when he arrived. He described the object as an 'unusual light.' I asked
if he felt confident the object was not a star and he said "No, I
am not confidant. I have no idea what this is so it could be anything."
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- I asked the reporter if he saw the 5 to 7 'white lights'
drawn to the main object and he informed that he did not see this.
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- I asked the reporter if the police officer had also observed
the object and he said: "Yes, the policeman did see the object."
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- For clarification, I asked Mr. Stephens if he was certain
the police officer saw the object and the reporter said: "Yes, he
told me he did, we were looking at it at the same time."
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- Mr. Stephens said that at the present time the object
was not visible as clouds have obscured it.
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- FOLLOW UP WITH THE PRIMARY WITNESS
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- After our previous discussion a few hours earlier he
went back to the school yard but the object was apparently gone at that
time. He left from there and drove to the police department to speak with
the watch commander (apparently troubled at my reporting to him that the
officer denied seeing the UFO). He was informed that the officer he was
in the field with, observing the UFO with him, had not yet called in to
headquarters to report the sighting. The duty officer further told him
that the officer in question was not likely to file a report, saying: "who
is he going to file it to?"
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- The witness said that he intends to call back later to
try and speak directly with the officer.
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- He also said that at some point there was an emergency
situation that came up locally, perhaps a shooting, as the reporter had
left and ambulances were seen driving through the area.
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- FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF OBJECT
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- Our discussion went back to a description of the object,
which he said was clearly some sort of 'craft.' He said this object had
a red light situated directly underneath it with a green light on its left
side from his perspective at an angle 45 degree angle down. Circling around
the center of the round object, like the equator around a globe, were bright
yellow lights that he said were comparable to mini 'tracer' lights that
blinked in a circle.
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- When asked again for some detail of the smaller white
objects that supposedly drew into the main object, he said the smaller
objects seemed to make contact with the main object by either 'going inside'
the main object or disappearing behind it. He felt that the white objects
made physical contact with the main object and did so one at a time as
opposed to simultaneously.
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- I offered the possibility that this object was a blimp
and the witness said: "I totally rule out a blimp. If it was a blimp
it had unnatural speed. At one point it went from the one place in the
western sky to another place to the north in less than 30 seconds, there's
no way it was a blimp.
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- INQUIRY WITH YOUNGSTOWN AIRPORT
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- I asked the witness if he would call the Youngstown airport
to check and see if the tower controller could confirm that a blimp had
been operational in the area during the past few hours. He agreed to do
so and placed a phone call to the Youngstown Airport at 330-856-1537 at
Extension #9, asking the gentleman taking the call if there had been any
blimps in the area. The man at the airport said "no" there had
not been any blimps in the area.
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- COMMENT
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- The wife of the primary witness said she has recorded
video of the object. She also said that it is 'not coming out good' and
difficult to see. The primary claimant said he doesn't think the 5 or so
'white lights' which supposedly went 'into' the main object was caught
on video, but hasn't checked as of yet.
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- One curious aspect of this story is how the Youngstown
police department soundly informs that their officer did NOT see anything
while at the same time the primary witness AND the reporter affirm that
the officer DID see and observe this same object with them in their company.
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- Also for the record, it should be noted that this primary
claimant is the one who reported the odd event taking place on Rt. 11 in
Trumbull County several weeks ago as per a message by Peter Davenport of
the National UFO Reporting Center posted on the Current Encounters discussion
forum. Mr. Davenport did send me contact info for this person and I did
speak with him at length previously, sending a copy of my report on our
conversation directly to Mr. Davenport. I was impressed by the sincerity
of the witness and his concern for the answer to what he reportedly saw.
Since the event several weeks ago he has apparently been alert for other
curious activity and so was the one to first take note of the object sighted
before midnight.
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- FILED 4:00 a.m. Monday August 26, 2002 KENNY YOUNG
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- ___
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- Note: The NATIONAL UFO CONFERENCE is coming to the Kings
Island Resort & Conference Center in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday,
September 28, 2002, beginning at 2:00 p.m. For more information, check
the website at http://home.fuse.net/ufo or call 513-588-4548
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