- Two groups of witnesses reported sighting
a UFO in Toms River, New Jersey (population 7,524) on Thursday, February
19, 1998. And one group also reported an episode of "missing time."
Toms River is located on the Garden State Parkway, a.k.a. New Jersey Route
9, approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of New York City and
52 miles (83 kilometers) east of Philadelphia. On February 19, at 10 p.m.,
firefighter Bob M. and his friend, George P., "drove off the Garden
State Parkway heading west on Route 37 when they entered an area of large
pine trees.
They decided to make a U-turn to return to the Parkway." "As
they swung the car off the road, George suddenly stepped on the brakes
to avoid hitting a large object. Just off the road in a small clearing
was a saucer-shaped vehicle with three legs extended. It was only 25 feet
away as they skidded to a stop. They were both staring at the object for
maybe a minute." Bob said, "Do you see what I see?" George
replied, "If you see a flying saucer, that's what I see." Then
they exclaimed in unison, "Let's get the hell out of here!" George
stepped down hard on the gas pedal. Tires spitting sand and gravel, their
car fishtailed back onto the asphalt and roared away. "Bob wanted
to go back, but George refused. They drove directly home 'in about an
hour' but could not believe that the sun was rising (that it was 6:15 a.m.--J.T.)
They thought it was no later than midnight." The men's "last
clear detailed memory" was of "the saucer with its legs extended
and a small staircase that led to the ground.
There were no markings on the saucer and it appeared to be made of dull
aluminum." However, Bob and George have no memory of what transpired
between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Those six hours are a complete blank. (See
Filer's Files #8 for 1998. Many thanks to George A. Filer of MUFON for
this report.) Earlier that day, at 4:30 p.m., Ellis Smith, his nine-year-
old son and his five-year-old daughter watched a UFO perform aerobatics
over Toms River. "We were driving home from the theater in Toms River,"
Smith reported, "when I noticed about 20 miles to the southwest, 40-45
degrees (above the horizon) what appeared to be an instant contrail"
behind "a very bright white light. The sky was clear and I couldn't
see where this thing came from." At first the Smith family thought
it was a private plane, but while watching it, they "started thinking
it looked more like an incoming missile, but then it stopped and very,
very slowly began to level out." "It took about three minutes
for it to complete what appeared to be a J, then glowed very brightly,
changing sizes, and then appeared to change into a very large, bright,
solid object with a mist-like substance surrounding it." The UFO repeated
the maneuvers six times. Each formation of the J took about four minutes,
Smith reported. "The first event...lasted nearly two minutes. whereas
toward the last one, it was barely 30 seconds." At the end, "it
looked to us like the saucer slowed down, then turned into a ball, then
hazed up" before vanishing. (Email Interview)
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