- On Tuesday, August 7, Ohio MUFON State Director Bill
Jones received word of a sighting that occurred in Franklin, Ohio on Friday,
August 3.
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- Bill, of Columbus, Ohio took the report from Scott Arnette,
a MUFON State Section Director in Louisiana who has an 800 number intended
for receipt of Louisiana UFO sightings.
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- The UFO witness, Mr. Greg Banks of Morland Drive in Franklin,
Ohio, reported that he was awakened early in the morning, perhaps around
2 a.m., when a bright light flashed through his window. He then heard a
"thunder like" sound.
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- Scott Arnette said that Mr. Banks claimed that no thunderstorms
were in the area. The hair on his arm seemed to stand up.
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- Jones reports: "He (Mr. Banks) went outside on the
porch and saw a bright white light in the sky. He called it a sphere. He
said, in response to a question from Scott, that an aspirin tablet held
at arms length would not cover this light. It was traveling slowly. Then
it stopped over a wood line to the east north east. He thought it was about
2 miles distant in the direction of Springboro. The light bobbed up and
down for awhile. Then a smaller white light came out from underneath it
and bobbed around like a cork in the water. It also moved around the parent
object for a time, but mostly stayed underneath it. He told Scott that
the moon was visible to the south. He tried to take a picture of the light
with his parents camera. He did not have access to a video camera."
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- Banks had called Arnette at the 1-800 number while this
event was still going on and they talked about what was happening. Banks
had watched the light for about an hour before he made the call. When the
call with Scott was terminated the sighting was still going on.
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- Scott Arnette said he then made a call to the Springboro
police to see if he could get confirmation of the sighting. He asked the
police to call him back, but they never did.
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- Bank's mother, who lives in the same house, apparently
saw the light also.
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- INVESTIGATION
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- After acquiring details of the report from BILL JONES,
I placed a call to the claimant. He sounded alert and explained that he
had never seen anything like this before and was not medicated and had
been sober during the event. He asserted his inability to explain the sighting.
His mother, who he said is extremely religious, also saw the object after
he awakened her and she was unable to account for it, also saying it was
"something very unusual" from her perspective.
-
- The witness recounted basically the same details as Bill
Jones advised of above, but also added that the object seemed localized
above the area of Springboro. He thinks that Scott from Louisiana had called
the Springboro police department but is unsure of any response from that
department. He has not heard any news since but suspects that others should
have seen the object, perhaps motorists driving along I-75.
-
- Interestingly, Greg informs that the sound of helicopters
were heard several minutes into the event while he was standing in the
yard and talking on the phone with Scott in Louisiana. Greg states that
he could not visually see helicopters or ascertain the source of the helicopter
noise.
-
- He was not familiar with any recent UFO sightings and
not familiar with the recent police/UFO event in Waynesville, Ohio, near
his location by a few miles. Interestingly, his sighting has similarities
to the recent police/UFO sighting in that the object first appeared near
to the witness and then receded into the distance over a brief period of
time. This location is also south of Wright Patterson Air Force Base by
around 25-miles.
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- The Springboro Police Department was contacted at 513-748-0611
and the female dispatcher who took the call checked the record book and
advised that there's the nothing relevant to a UFO sighting listed on August
3rd. I left my telephone number with her and requested that she leave my
number posted if anyone had information about a UFO sighting to call me.
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- Banks was a friendly and cooperative witness and did
not mind having his name released with the report. A very special thanks
to Scott Arnette and Bill Jones for this information.
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- Filed Thursday, August 7, 2001 KENNY YOUNG U F O R e
s e a r c h http://home.fuse.net/ufo/
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