The News Tip
Hi Y'all! Upcoming update on the now famous Police UFO sighting report by Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center this Sunday!
this image (which is probably the worst scan of a polaroid I have ever seen in career in graphics) is directly from the Millstadt Police Deptartment web site listed below relating to the UFO sighting seen Jan. 5th and as reported live by Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center on the Art Bell Radio Show Jan. 6th.
With due credit though the officer at least who took this photo captured
these lights and posted it on their police web site under "Aircraft Sighting"
Ha!
The only thing aircraft about it was that it was in the air and it appeared to be a craft.
Come on! Its a UFO!
Yup, Davenport with the police department gave Art Bell listeners the first report on this
sighting -
but its not over yet.
A preliminary report is on NUFORC's website at: www.UFOcenter.com and the interesting thing is that this story is now taking on national attention as ABC News in New York and the TV news show "Extra" have been inquiring the police department about this story. The St. Louis Dispatch and the Scripps Howard News Service have run several stories on this sighting this week in the local South County and Eastside Journals here in Seattle and the National Institute for Discovery Science has sent out their investigators - one a former FBI agent.
Will this receive more attention than the Phoenix lights sighting? Possibly, and if so its nice to see UFO reports getting more of the recognition and attention they deserve. Hopefully this sighting will create a path for more reports by officials and public disclosure.
Did I mention that Peter Davenport along with the police departments first broke the story to the public on Art Bell to 20 million listeners? No doubt his report was picked up upon by many local reporters and the fact that this UFO was seen in at least four cities by at least four police officers.
Me hears the ice of disbelief melting.
And oh, did I mention that Peter Davenport broke the story on Art Bell? :) Hopefully we'll hear more details on this exciting story. See ya Sunday! Charlette LeFevre :)
The Millstadt, Illinois Police Department
Below from Millstadt Police Department: http://millstadtpolice.homepage.com/ and add aircraft.htm to go to the page where Officer Steven's report can be found. The UFO Resource Center thanks the Officer Craig Stevens for this official police report:
On January 5, 2000 at approximately 4:28am 1, Officer Craig A. Stevens was on Patrol in the Village of Millstadt. I was monitoring radio traffic when I heard a report via CENCOM, that the Highland Police Department had a report of a large object flying in the air. CENCOM dispatched Lebanon P.D. to respond. I heard Lebanon state is the guy 10-55. Later I heard Lebanon state that he observed the object, and that it headed in the direction of Shiloh, and to have Shiloh P.D. be on the look out for it. I then heard that Shiloh had spotted the object. I drove to the east end of town to see if I could observe the object. Then I drove to the north end of town, in the Liederkranz Park parking lot. While I was sitting there I observed a very large flying object coming from a southward direction. The object was flying very low from 500 to I 000 ft., and was flying very slowly. The object was making no noise. I could only hear a very low decibel buzzing sound. Then the object began banking to the north cast direction, and continued to cruse away from me toward the area of Dupo. I contacted dispatch, and advised them that I had spotted the object. I exited the patrol car, and took the Polaroid camera from the trunk, and attempted to take a picture. The camera was very cold. The temp was only approximately 18 to 20 degrees outside, and the picture did not seem to exit the camera properly. I heard Dupo P.D. advise CENCOM that they quite possibly observed the object, but I was at a very high altitude. I returned to the station, and drew a rough sketch of the object, typed a report of my observations.
Here is the NUFORC report received from Officer Stevens
This UFO Report was filed with of the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, Washington. UFORC thanks Peter Davenport (Director) for this report:
FROM NUFORC National UFO Reporting Center Case Brief January 5, 2000 NUFORC Home Page
At 0316 and 0351 hrs. (Pacific Standard Time) on January 5, the National UFO Reporting Center received two telephone messages from a police officer, employed by the Lebanon, IL, Police Department, apprising our Center that a UFO sighting had occurred in St. Clair County, Illinois, at approximately 0410 hrs. (Central) earlier that morning. Later the same morning, we were able to talk to the Officer, who reported to us the following: At approximately 0410 hrs. (Central), the officer overheard an announcement by the St. Clair (IL) Emergency Dispatch operator that a citizen had entered the Highland, IL, police station, and requested that an officer go outside and view a very peculiar object in the sky, that the citizen had witnessed while on his way to work. The citizen apparently refused to leave the station until a police officer had viewed the object with him.
Having heard the announcement about the incident, the Lebanon police officer looked to the southeast from his location in Lebanon, and noticed an object suspended in the sky, which was extremely bright, and which looked like two very bright lights located quite close to one another. The two lights were radiating so much light that the spectacle looked like the Japanese "Rising Sun" symbol on the horizon. The officer began driving south and east in attempt to approach the object. He turned his overhead flashers on, and at times was driving at high speed toward the object, which was still generally to the southeast of his position. After a short period of time, the two lights appeared to merge into one light, and the officer realized that the object appeared to be traveling toward him. He stopped his vehicle, extinguished his overhead flashers, and rolled down the window on the passenger side of his vehicle. The object was approaching his position, and passed, at an estimated altitude of 1,000 to 1,500 feet, within an estimated 100 feet of the officer's location, headed generally to the west, or northwest. The object was distinctly triangular in shape, when viewed from below.
At this point, the object suddenly accelerated quite dramatically, and seemed to "streak" to the west, covering several miles, the officer estimated, in just a few seconds. The officer had been in touch with St. Clair County Emergency Dispatch, apprising them that he had the object in sight, and advising them as to the direction it was moving. He recommended that they contact units to the west of his position, e.g. Millstadt and Dupo, to have the officers there attempt to spot the object.
An officer from the Millstadt Police Department, with whom we also spoke, overheard the broadcast, and moved his cruiser to a dark part of that town to see if he could spot the object in the night sky. He quickly spotted the object to the west, at approximately 45 degrees above the horizontal plane, and gauged its size as "huge." He estimated that it was "one or two stories" tall, and perhaps "three stories long." It had several very bright lights on it. St. Clair Dispatch requested that the officer attempt to get a photograph of the object, which he was able to do with the polaroid-type camera stored in the trunk of his cruiser. Because the outside temperature was low, approximately 18-20 degrees (F), neither the camera, nor the film functioned well, so the resolution of the photograph is not good.
After the Millstadt officer had taken the photograph, the object appeared to move further to the west, moving toward Dupo, IL, and St. Louis, MO. A Dupo police officer may have witnessed the object, as well, and officers from Shiloh, IL, may have seen the object, too.
At one point during the sighting, we estimate, the object was within 2-3 statute miles of Scott Air Force Base. That base apparently has announced that their tower was closed at the time of the sighting, and that none of their personnel was aware of the sighting, and none had seen the object.
We have an unconfirmed report that jet fighters from a nearby Air National Guard unit may have been "scrambled" to take a look at the object. The nearest ANG unit we are aware of is the Missouri Air National Guard, which flies F-15's out of Lambert Field/St. Louis Airport. We have a second hand report that personnel at the airport witnessed a take-off of F-15's at approximately 0420 hrs. that morning. Also, we have received a report from a woman who was driving to work that morning and witnessed the object. We are awaiting her written report.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper published an article about the incident, and several St. Louis television news programs covered the incident, as well, including interviews with at least one of the police officers who had witnessed the object.
If anyone was witness to the object described above, we would be grateful if they would submit a brief written report, preferably using the Online Report Form.
______________________________
RESOURCES:
Seattle Art Bell Chat Club http://www.seattleartbellchatclub.com/ Millstadt Police Department 108 W. White Millstadt, Il. 62260 Office 476-7250 Fax 476-9160 Non-Emergency 476-7250 Emergency 9-1-1 E-MAIL mpdchief01@aol.com
The National UFO Reporting Center
NUFORC WEB SITE http://www.ufocntr.com/
This report prepared by: Peter B. Davenport, Director
Monday, January 10, 2000, at 2300 hrs. (Pacific).
Comments may be directed to him at director@ufocenter.com .
