Posted: December 13, 2008
Date: November 16, 1999
Time: Approx: 7:00 p.m.
Number of witnesses: At least 7 known to me personally.
Number of objects: 7
Shape of objects: Spherical.
Weather Conditions: Chilly but clear.
Description: The following incident seems to have transpired in less than five minutes, as I arrived home after work and a brief stop at the grocery store. November 16th, 1999 - shortly after 7:00 p.m.: Pulling into my parking space behind my two-story, four-unit apartment building, I was facing west. Above the tree line, slightly left of my center of vision, approximately 5 to 7 miles away, I watched breathlessly as an object my mind could only interpret as a
burning airplane - perhaps a large meteor - fell, at about a 70 degree angle from upper left (southwest) to lower right (northeast), then disappeared from my vision into the nearby valley. I exited my vehicle, anticipating the sound of an object that large crashing to the ground, but heard nothing. I hoped I was mistaken.
I turned to lock my car door (I was now facing north). From the upper left of my peripheral vision I thought I saw a rocket (think 'very large fireworks') heading east from the top of one of the stores in the plaza at the end of my street. I thought 'who on earth is shooting rockets from the plaza?' I froze. The "flaming rocket" was flying horizontally right down the middle of my street. I had no idea where it might land. As I watched, I suddenly realized there was no
'whoosh', 'sparking' or 'whistle' sound. In fact, there was only silence! With the awareness of silence, I focused on the object which was now just above the power lines as it neared the neighboring apartment building, which blocked my view for several seconds. As the object came back into view, what I saw was not a rocket at all, but 1 large iridescent blue sphere - followed by 6 slightly smaller tangerine-colored spheres, perfectly spaced, and moving very slowly,
directly over the center of the street.
The objects seemed only to span the length of the two apartment buildings. At that point, it was as if time stood still. As the objects passed in front of my
building, I paused for a moment, then ran into my second floor apartment, hoping to catch a closer glimpse of the object from one of two bedrooms at the front of my apartment, which faced the street. I was disappointed when I looked out the window and the whole thing was gone. I remember spending just a few minutes trying to convince myself that I must not have really seen what I believed I had seen, and wishing I had run out to the street to see it, rather than going inside.
The next thing I remember is getting a phone call from my youngest daughter from her grandmother's house at around 9:00pm. When I told her what I had experienced, she relayed the story as she had seen it from her grandmother's home at around 7:00. Katie was in the breakfast nook, chatting with her grandma, who was standing at the kitchen sink, looking out over her backyard, facing west. She saw a bright silver white flame coming up the sloped backyard, straight for the strip of property between her home and her neighbor's. She ran toward the front of the house, fully expecting to see an airplane
crashed in her front yard. When she looked out, she saw nothing and chalked it up to her aging vision.
Later, there were reports on the 11:00 pm news (Cleveland, Ohio area) of numerous sightings around the same time. In one of the segments, they interviewed a family with two children: the little girl appeared to be around age 3, her brother about 9 or 10. Each had drawn what they had seen. The older boy had drawn a rocket aimed horizontally across the paper, while the younger child had drawn 1 blue sphere followed by six evenly spaced, smaller orange spheres.
I spoke with a co-worker the next morning, who had been driving with his two small boys when he saw the bright lights in the sky and dismissed them as part of the busy retail holiday displays. Another co-worker overheard and seemed surprised, but anxious to hear more. Her mother had called her the evening before (Nov.16th) to describe what she had seen, and the young woman had doubted her mother's story.
TV/Radio: Several news channels in the Akron-Cleveland area aired segments at 11:00 p.m., Reporting sightings from earlier in the evening.
Thank you to UFOINFO for this report. http://www.ufoinfo.com/
