A sheriff's deputy in Erath County, Texas, says he saw one of the unusual objects in the sky captured on a patrol car video camera.
The camera is mounted to tape the view from the dashboard of the patrol car.
According to local radio station news director Angelia Joiner, writing for the recently-launched Web site StephenvilleLights.com, Sgt. Jim Clifton of the Erath County Sheriff's Department and Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan were responding to an alarm at a local restaurant on Feb. 2 when they saw something unusual in the sky.
Joiner reported that the officers observed the object on the "dash cam" in the patrol car and could clearly see it by using the camera's zoom feature.
"To your naked eye it looked like a bright light and I couldn't really tell if it was moving, but I don't think it was," Joiner quoted Clifton as saying.
Clifton explained, "What it looked like is difficult to describe because there is nothing to compare it to," according to Joiner's reporting.
The object was a transparent or translucent appearance, Joiner reported Clifton as saying.
The deputy also noted that the object had "a fog or vapor or cloud around it" and he saw red, white and blue colors.
Gaitan was one of the first of several witnesses to report publicly that he had seen up to ten highly unusual lights in the sky in early January.
Other credible local citizens also reported unusual lights and huge, apparently solid, objects or craft, including some apparently being chased by military aircraft.
Gaitan had said that other local peace officers have also witnessed the unusual happenings in the skies around Stephenville and other areas of Erath County.
MEDIA PAYS ATTENTION?
The Associated Press, CNN, TV networks and a large number of media outlets carried the reports of the unidentified objects in the sky reported by Stephenville area citizens.
Joiner had been a reporter for the local Stephenville newspaper, the Empire-Tribune, until a falling out with management over the paper's coverage of the cluster of UFO sightings in the area that made national and international news.
The newspaper was recently purchased by Macquarie Media of Australia, part of a huge banking, investment and construction conglomerate, reportedly with powerful political connections, that has been in the process of buying up local community newspapers across the U.S.
Now working as news director at Stephenville radio station KCUB-FM, "Mandatory FM," (107.9 in Stephenville and 98.5 in nearby Ranger, Texas), Joiner covers local news of the region.
While mainstream media personalities such as CNN's Larry King and NBC's Today show host Matt Lauer discussed various aspects of the sightings, Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe visited the Stephenville and Erath County area in January to interview witnesses and research the incidents.
Howe's reports on her interview with Gaitan and her research in Stephenville and Earth County can be viewed on her Web site, Earthfiles.com.
Her radio report can be heard on the online radio show "Dreamland" at UnknownCountry.com, the Web site of well-known author Whitley Strieber.
Howe also recently appeared on the radio show "Coast to Coast AM" to update listeners about what she has discovered.
POLICE SEE THE UNUSUAL
Constable Gaitan previously told Howe that another local peace officer had captured one of the UFOs on a patrol car video camera.
"As a matter of fact, it was that Saturday (Jan. 12, 2008). I had the privilege to see this video. I saw what the officer saw on video and this aerial object changed forms three different times," Howe quoted Gaitan as saying.
Howe reported that Gaitan told her, "The first time, I believe he said it was about 2 a.m. when he first saw it. It's a white glow moving very slowly in the sky."
"Then it changes from white to green to blue and red lights. It looks almost like a strobe."
"I watch this thing in the police video and it appears to be some type of aerial object that is round. It changes from white to these different colors," Gaitan said.
"The police officer says, 'Keep watching,' and I watched for approximately another eight minutes."
"And then this thing, right in front of my eyes, changes and it looks almost like a jellyfish. I compare it maybe even to a parachute – and now a very bright white."
"The green and blue and red is no longer flashing. It holds that shape for probably two minutes. And then to my surprise, it changes vertically like a line straight up and down," Gaitan said to Howe.
"It appears to be solid. And it's just white, no longer flashing. Just a bright, white line of light. It stays in that shape for probably a couple more minutes and then it changes back to its original white – and then goes back to the green, red and blue flashing."
"This thing is moving slowly. The officer is having to come into his vehicle and adjust his in-dash camera because the aerial object is moving."
"The police officer tells me he and another officer see another object just like it about a mile behind the one he's been watching. No videotape on the second one, but you can hear them (on in-dash video) talking about it."
Gaitan stated, "While they are videotaping the first object, they are having to zoom in. This camera, I believe, zooms in 600 times, but you are still not able to see any type of craft. I believe I watched the videotape for about 16 minutes, and then it's out of sight."
"I later find out I have a call from another law enforcement agency. He called me on a Saturday morning – I believe it was January 19, 2008."
"He calls me at my residence and tells me, 'Hey, I saw something January 8 to 9, the same night that you saw the lights.'"
"I asked him, 'What did you see?'"
"He said, 'I was working and see this large object traveling at a very low rate of speed approximately 300 to 400 feet up in the air.' He describes it to be approximately two to three football fields long."
"He described it to look something like a cigar with the ends both rounded off. He said he compared it sort of to a wing of a 747, but he said it was huge!"
