UFO ROUNDUP Volume 5 Number 29
Volume 5
Number 29
July 20, 2000
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
"ALIEN INVASION" RUMORS SWEEP MEXICO CITY
Silver celebration balloons released by a luxury hotel on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City triggered a flurry of UFO reports on Wednesday morning, July 12, 2000.
According to the newspaper La Cronica de Hoy, air traffic controllers at Mexico City's Aeropuerto Internacional "received hundreds of calls" from city residents at 10:30 a.m. in the Polanco and Auzures sections of the city.
Radar operators at the airport "futilely scanned the skies over the city yesterday (July 12) for three UFOs which were allegedly seen by hundreds of onlookers over a downtown area. Proteccion Civil (Mexico's Civil Defense--J.T.) received numerous calls from people who witnessed the passage of the UFOs over the Paseo de la Reforma."
"The 'parade' of shiny objects parading across the capital's skies unleashed popular imagination," Conica reporter Julian Tellez wrote. "Hundreds of persons saw what was described as 'a shiny dot with quick movements and without a defined heading.'"
"'I don't think that it's an airplane, much less a child's lost balloon. Airplanes don't have this color. Helicopters don't have that shape. And a balloon would have burst on account of the gusts,' stated one taxi driver who looked heavenward."
"In the wake of the sightings, spokespersons for the Mexico City Aeropuerto Internacional stated that they had found no sign of "an alleged appearance by UFOs over the Distrito Federal (Federal District, i.e. Mexico City and its suburbs--J.T.)
But world-famous Mexican ufologist Jaime Mauusan "confirmed that at 10:20 a.m. yesterday reports were coming from persons who claimed having seen at least 20 UFOs over the avenues of the Polanco and Auzures districts and over the PEMEX Tower and other neighborhoods."
"According to Maussan's staff, they witnessed how the 'silvery objects' formed geometric shapes in the air without (leaving) a trace. Many persons set aside their activities to watch the 'extraordinary' event."
"'I'm very concerned that SEDENA (Mexico's Department of Defense--J.T.) isn't doing anything. Those things were flying over their building, and that's a restricted flight area,'" said one man who was walking on the Calle Romero.
""The phenomenon soon turned into a possible alien visitation."
"'I've already had a few sightings, the last of them when my wife was starting to get better,' stated a taxi stand watchman in Polanco, scratching his head. 'We're nothing compared with them (aliens--J.T.). They've already reached us, and we haven't even reached them.'"
Mexican authorities "confirmed that the objects were simply balloons sent aloft from an event at" the Marquis Reforma Hotel. (See La Cronica de Hoy for July 13, 2000, "City 'Close Encounter' causes great expectations and and causes commotion in Polanco," by Julian Tellez. Michas gracias a Scott Corrales, auto de los libros Chupacabras and Other Musteries y Forbidden Mexico para eso articulo de diario.)
(Editor's NOte: A UFO flap took place in Mexico City earlier this year, on February 14, 2000. See UFO Roundup volume 5, number 8, "Police mobilized as UFO hovers over Mexico City," page 1.)
TWO UFO CASES REPORTED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Shortly after midnight on Sunday, July 9, 2000, Russell B. and his friends "spotted a black sauvcer- shaped craft" in the Lincolnshire-Nottinghamshire border area. The UFO "was flying from Long Bennington to Belvoir."
"Lights projecting from the source appeared as multiple searchlights, creating fast-moving white spots and highlighting clouds," he reported, "
The saucer, which they kept in view until 3 a.m. "had red lights" all around the rim. (Email Form Report)
The following evening, Monday, July 10, 2000, Ian Kent and two friends were at Spring Hill, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, UK when they saw an unusual object in the night sky.
The UFO, Ian reported, "was a large steel-blue orb which appeared to pulsate and was seen hovering for about 10 minutes at 10 p.m."
"We were travelling by car to Bethwickshaw from Killinghall when we saw the object which stayed motionless for about 20 minutes before swinging from right to left in an arc, then travelled at extreme speed in the direction of Utley."
"We are appealing for any information regarding this. Someone must have seen something," Ian added, "We are all still quite upset by the experience that evening."
There is one curious postscript to this sighting. Iam mentioned that "a pet dog owned by my father-in-law now refuses to come anywhere near us, if we are in the same room."
Harrogate, North Yorks. is located 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Leeds. (Email Interview)
UFO ACTIVITY REPORTED ON THE ISLAND OF SICILY
On Wednesday, June 21, 2000, at 11 p.m., Alessandro di P. was in his hometown of Addaura, a suburb of Palermo, the largest city on the large Mediterranean island of Sicily, when he spotted something strange in the night sky.
"The sky was calm and clear," Alessandro reported, "Then a friend told me to look up, and I saw in the sky, towards the east, a glowing luminous white object. The object was proceeding towards us, and it passed directly overhead. The light was at a very high altitude and was glowing, with a twinkle like the one a star would make. It moved in a rectilinear fashion and occasionally oscillated, flashing its light. The whole sighting lasted for just over 30 seconds before the object was lost from sight."
Two weeks earlier, on Tuesday, June 6, 2000 at 10:02 p.m., eyewitnesses in the city of Messina on Sicily "saw a luminous object leaving a short trail behind it, which moved at an extremely high velocity, with a steady light like a large lamp in the sky."
Messina is located about 170 kilometers (102 miles) east of Palermo. The island of Sicily is part of Italy. (Grazie a Davide Ferrara di Centro Ufologico Nazionale-Catania per questi rapporti.)
EERIE LIGHTS BEDAZZLE HOBART, TASMANIA
"A full-scale alien alert went out in Hobart last night as eerie white lights taunted the city's suburbs for nearly two hours."
"Panic-stricken residents inundated the police, the Tasmanian UFO Centre and the Mercury (newspaper) with eyewitness reports of the white, blinding spectacle which initially was passed off as the Antarctic Division's LIDAR laser."
"Excited skywatchers refused to be pacified by police and told the Mercury (that) beams of light were shining earthwards."
Hobart is the capital of Australia's island-state of Tasmania. The city is located 800 kilometers (480 miles) south of Sydney. (Undated news item from the Hobart Mercury. Many thanks to Louise Lowry for this report.)
(Editor's Comment: Please, please, please, dear readers, please include the newspaper's date of issue whenever you send the item to UFO Roundup. Properly documented items are invaluable to UFO researchers of the future.)
TOM KING VIDEOTAPES A RED SAUCER IN ARIZONA
Arizona ufologist and videographer Tom King shot footage of a UFO over Phoenix, the state capital of Arizona on two consecutive nights--Wednesday, June 12, and Thursday, June 13, 2000. Both sightings took place at around 8 p.m.
"A red light known as 'Bubba' to Gulf Breeze (Florida--J.T.) is now patrolling the Phoenix area," Tom reported, "Several people are seeing and reporting this."
"I shot video on Wednesday (July 12) and Thursday (July 13) of Bubba. The video I shot was on a tripod, manual focus and allowed the UFO to pan across the screen to review flight patterns later," he added.
"Video on Thursday was shot using a 5X telephoto lens on a SONY Hi-8, video ranges of 80X optical and 350X digital, shot normal mode in infrared video. You can see a disc or saucer-shaped object" as "it ejected an object out of the top of it."
Tom alerted several people in the central valley of Arizona, including fellow ufologist Jeff Willes, who also caught the saucer on video.
Tom's video footage was aired on several TV stations in Phoenix, Channels 3, 5 and 10.
Tom has posted both his sauver video and the three newscasts on his website. UFO Roundup readers can access Tom King's website by setting their browser for http://www.ufovideo.com
(Editor's Note: Tom King shot much video footageof UFOs during the "Battle of Phoenix" in March 1997.)
BIGFOOT SIGHTED NEAR CAVE JUNCTION, OREGON
A family of five from Alaska encountered a large Bigfoot while hiking in the forests of Oregon Caves National Monument in southern Oregon.
According to cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, on Saturday, July 1, 2000, Dr. Kenneth Johnson, his wife Rochelle and his three children, Levi, Hannah and Micah, stopped at the heavily-wooded national monument during their vacation tour of the Lower 48 states.
Dr. Johnson reported, "We had lunch at a picnic table and then took a tour of the caves. The caves were spectacular. If you haven't seen them before, they are quite an experience."
(Editor's Comment: I'll second that. I visited the Oregon Caves in August 1990, and they were a geologist's delight. Also be sure to visit the nearby Kerbyville, Oregon museum. Tell them Joe sent you.)
"Leaving the caves, people usually turn right to go back to the gift shop and lodge. We decided to turn left and go up (on the ridge) to see the Big Tree."
(Editor's Note: The "Big Tree" is a giant Douglar fir about 1,000 years old and measuring 40 feet or 13 meters in diameter.)
Being outdoor enthusiasts from Alaska, the Johnson family had no qualms about hiking five miles (8 kilometers) uphill into the Cascade Mountains.
"As we were hiking up the hill, we smelled a very strong pungent smell that was as strong as a skunk," Dr. Johnson said, "But it asn't a skunk. We continued to hike up the trail, and the trail switched back to the right as we climbed the mountain."
All at once, Dr. Johnson heard "a faint sound about five feet away. At first I thought it was merely the blood vessels pounding in my head because it was a constant sound/rhythym. We kept walking up the trail. I heard the sound again, except it was louder."
Calling a halt, Dr. Johnson asked his family, "Do you guys hear that sound?"
"They looked at me and nodded in affirmation," he added, "Continuing to hike, we heard more of the sound, usually in cycles of five or six repetitions."
He described the sound as "Whoa-whoa-whoa- whoa-whoa-whoa!"
"I stopped my family on the trail and told them to stay put. I hiked up the hill to my left," he said, explaining that he was experiencing a "fight or flight" physical reaction and had to defecate. "I was scanning the woods along the side of the mountain on either side of the trail my family was standing on. That's when I saw it."
"I saw it come out from behind a tree to the left and walk to a tree to the right. The creature looked as if it was watching my family as they were standing on the trail. What I saw was not a grizzly bear or a black bear," adding that he has seen both in Alaska and was had an encounter with a Kodiak brown bear on the Russian River.
"I pulled up my shorts immediately, walked fast down the trail and got my family moving up the mountain."
Dr. Johnson described the animal as "very tall. It looked half-human and half-ape and had very dark hair, a mix of dark brown and black hair."
Dr. Johnson led his family back to the lodge on a roundabout route that took several hours. He did apprise his wife Rochelle of the situation but said nothing to the children because he "did not want them to panic on the trail." When they returned to the lodge, he sent the children to the gift shop and reported his Bigfoot encounter to the park ranger.
Oregon Caves National Monument is just off Oregon Highway 199 about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Grants Pass and five miles (8 kilometers) north of the California state line.
Loren Coleman is on his way to Oregon to personally investigate this case. (Many thanks to Loren Coleman for this news story.)
IMP TAKES OUT TWO MORE COPS IN DANDE DE VARELA
El Diablillo (Spanish for Imp from Hell--J.T.) has struck again in Argentina, this time sending two rural police officers to the hospital.
"Two men were hospitalized and sedated after being found in a state of shock attributed to the alleged apparition of a new 'Imp.'"
"They were the second victims of a supernatural apparition in the locality of Dande de Varela," located five kilometers from San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca and about 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, the national capital.
On July 5, 2000, Corporal Migue; Angel Aguero was visited at a substation in Dande de Varela by the Diablillo, described as a dwarf with very red eyes wearing a green shirt and black pants.
"The new apparition allegedly took placeyesterday (Tuesday, July 11, 2000) in the Maria del Valle guardhouse in Dande de Varela. Witnesses were Luis Rodolfo Aguero (no relation to the corporal--J.T.) and Walter Ortega."
"Aguero was asleep and Ortega went out to check after hearing noises from the back of their living unit."
"'I woke up all of a sudden,' said Aguero, who estimated that the sound originated ''from the next bedroom roof' and sounded like '10 or 15 people stamping at the same time.'"
"The man added that Ortega, who is still under sedation, told him that as he was going outside, 'a force lifted him in the air and threw him against a tree limb, which shattered from the impact and caused his injuries.' The men summoned (police) driver Mario Aragon, who was off-duty at the time, and told him to head urgently for the guardhouse."
Aragon contacted the main police headquarters, and three cruisers and "15 to 20 policemen reported to the scene, combing the vicinity and coming up emptyhanded. Both men (Aguero and Ortega) were treated and sent home yesterday afternoon." (See the newspaper La Gaceta of San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina for July 12, 2000. Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Gloria Coluchi para eso articulo.)
(Editor's Comment: If Diablillo tries any of this at a precinct house in Brooklyn, he's going to get his ass handed to him in three or four pieces.)
FIVE CROP CIRCLES FOUND IN ASHERN, MANITOBA
On Friday, July 7, 2000, CBC Radio reported that five crop circles had been found in Canada.
The formations were found in Ashern, Manitoba (population 620), a small town on Provincial Highway 6 about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg.
The circles were discovered in mid-June, and the case is being investigated by cerealogist Fern Belzill and Chris Rutkowski of Ufology Research of Manitoba.
According to Paul Anderson of Circles Phenomenon Research-Canada, the formations consisted of "five doughnut-shaped rings, including one 'half-crescent' averaging 15 feet (4.6 meters) in diameter in pasture vegetation--wild grass bearberry and saskatoon bushes. First found by bird-watchers in mid-June, the rings appeared to be fairly old, perhaps six to 12 months, , and appear as a darkening of the vegetation, not flattened as in typical crop circles, more like the 'old style' UGMs (Unidentified Ground Markings, also known as "saucer nests"--J.T.) The circles are in a remote area east of Ashern." (Many thanks to Paul Anderson of CPR- Canada for this report.)
from the UFO Files...
1881: A POSSIBLE ABDUCTION IN SOUTHERN WISCONSIN
Just off Highway 151, midway between Platteville (population 9,800) and Belmont (population 80) lie two ancient mounds, the scene of a very strange incident back in 1881.
"These mounds are 1,420 and 1,380 feet above sea level. In 1827 Major John H. Rountree and a friend, exploring in the region, climbed one of them to view the surrounding country and carved their names in rocks where Indian signal fires once burned. Rountree later became owner of one of the most profitable mines in the Platteville district."
No one knows who actually reared the mounds. They were already old when the Lakota people (also known as the Sioux Indians) arrived in Wisconsin in 600 A.D. Some theorize that the mounds were erected by a mysterious people known to the Ganegahaga (also known as the Mohawk Indians) as the Ot-ne-yarheh. Curious-looking artifacts of the pre-Columbian Greenwood culture--mostly diamond-shaped knives and pendants--have been found at the site.
According to historian Erva Loomis Merow of Kenosha, Wis., the stone farmhouse nearest the mounds was purchased by a young German farmer named Karl Nodolf, "who went back to Germany to marry" his intended bride "and bring her back. He arrived there only to discover that his bride-to-be had died of diphtheria weeks before...Slowly Karl lifted himself out of his grief to discover that, of his bride-to-be's family, only two people had survived, her mother and a young sister. Karl looked at the sister, just sixteen years old, and onceagain the (Wisconsin) farm became a beautiful dream. He asked the mother and sister, called Louise, to go back to Wisconsin with him."
Karl and Louise married, and in 1877, their first child, daughter Minnie Louise, was born. Two years later, in 1879, their son Louis was born. "Minnie and Louie Nodolf were to become the center of a legend--a legend which still lives among the people near the Mound."
One night in June of 1881, a thuderstorm passed over the farm. "Louise and Karl put their two children," Minnie Louise, age 4, and Louis, 2, "to bed upstairs. This night the wind had become stronger after dark, so Karl locked every shutter tight. They went back downstairs to sit before the fire, reading and sewing."
"Usually Louise liked to mend, but tonight the wind howled like a fall blizzard, instead of a June thunderstorm. They stayed up longer than usual because the wind became so intense. Great streaks of lightning and cracks of thunder filled the air. Finally Karl decided it was just another summer storm, and they prepared for bed."
"Karl closed the shutters at the windows and barred the doors securely. Louise, carrying a lamp, led the way upstairs. She covered the children and soon they were all asleep."
"Toward morning a very loud crack of thunder woke Louise and Karl. Louise said she heard Minnie crying for her and ran to her bed. Neither Minnie nor Louie were in their beds. She lighted a lamp and looked around the room, thinking they must have been frightened by the storm and gotten out of bed. They were not in their room."
Then, between the battering of the wind and cracking thunder, they heard the children crying They listened, unbelieving. Karl ran to the door, sliding the heavy bar back. He swung it open and there, outside on the step, stood Minnie and Louie!"
"'Children!' cried Louise, and they carried them in by the fire."
"'Wrap them up,' began Louise, 'I'll get their dry--'"
"She couldn't go on, for Karl was feeling their nightgowns. He touched Minnie's hair. 'You don't have to get dry clothes, Louise. They're not one bit wet!'"
"'But that's not possible. It's pouring rain,' whispered Louise."
"'How did they get out there, Louise? That's not possible either,' said Karl."
Kneeling before her daughter, Louise said, "'Minnie! Minnie, how did you get outside?'"
"'I-I-I-I don-don-don-don't kno-kno-know,' stuttered Minnie."
"'Karl!' screamed Louise, 'She's stuttering!'"
"So she was. And so was Louie, just learning to talk. Both were stuttering for the first time. From that moment on, they stuttered. Of the eight children born to Louise and Karl, Minnie and Louie were the only ones who stutter, and they do, still, to this day."
(Editor's Comment: What do you think, child psychology majors? Evidence of trauma?)
"Every window in the house had been closed. The doors were barred with high sliding bars. It was impossible for the children, four and two years old, to open them, get out, and then slide the bar back into place. Everything was locked from within."
"Did Minnie and Louie somehow get out of the house, locked from within? Why, then, weren't they wet? The children couldn't explain how they got outside. Not that night, nor in the many years to come. Yet they were so frightened they stuttered from that night on!" (See the Book Wisconsin Lore by Robert E. Gard and L.C. Serden, Duell, Sloan and Pierce, Inc., New York, N.Y. 1962, pages 37 to 40. Also Wisconsin: A Guide to the Prairie State, Hastings House, New York, N.Y. 1954, page 429.)
Well, that's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2000 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared...
