UFO ROUNDUP Volume 7 Number 09
Volume 7
Number 9
February 26, 2002
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
SHADOW CREATURE ATTACKS BOY IN NORTHERN ARGENTINA
"Paranormal phenomena are a subject of study for those persons who engage in such research but are also of interest to readers at large: the location known as El Duraznito, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) to the southeast of Rosario de la Frontera," a small city in Argentina's northern Salta province, "happens to be one of the places where El Petizo, a mythic character described as a shadow that attacks lone pedestrians in the middle of the night, has made a reappearance."
"Six claims have already been documented in Salta involving people who received wounds that were later treated by hospital personnel."
"The manner in which the attacks take place is the same in all cases, and the shadow disappears when someone comes to the victim's rescue. These accounts also agree on the fact that El Petizo appears to be immune to knife attacks, and bullets appear to have no effect whatsoever."
"The most recent victim of an El Petizo attack was a boy heading to a northern area on his bicycle to visit friends and do some hunting, bringing with him his shotgun and a knife."
"According to his story, he was toppled from his bicycle and found that a black shadow was facing him. The young man managed to unholster his shotgun and fire two shots. But, when he saw that they had no effect, he promptly drew his facon (Gaucho knife--J.T.) and stabbed it without causing any apparent harm."
"Frightened, the youth tried to escape, only to find that El Petizo knocked him down again without saying a word and began dragging him by the hair to the side of the road. The young man stated that at this point he began screaming at the top of his voice and that this is what saved him. His cries were heard by a local man who rushed to provide assistance, only to find a black shadow dragging the boy by the hair."
"The fearful shape disappeared without a trace after it became aware of the other man's presence."
"At El Duraznito, the place where the grim shade appeared, is bordered by a farm, an abandoned house and is 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) away from the spot known as La Cueva de los Negros (Cave of the Black Ones--J.T.), a rocky formation occupied 800 years ago" by indigenous people "of the Candelaria culture."
"'We can say that this is a mystical area, since there have also been reports of strange lights in the sky, and we have no doubts that UFOs could be involved. A film was shot a few years ago and sent to the Fuerza Aerea Argentinera (Argentinian Air Force--J.T.) for analysis, but no official response was ever received. A copy of the film is in the files of a local cable access channel,' said firefighter Jose Alvarez, a resident of Rosario de la Frontera."
Meanwhile, in the city of Salta, "residents of the barrio Villa Guemes (neighborhood) claim to have witnessed unidentified flying objects last Saturday (February 16, 2002). Area residents pointed out that the strange lights appeared in the sky, executed maneuvers and later vanished into infinity."
"UFO sightings in Salta have been ubiquitous and have attracted the attention of some of the world's foremost experts. Local researcher Mercedes Casas" of the Centro de Estudios Ufologicos (CEUFO) "pointed out that sightings have also been reported in the desert region around Calama, Chile."
Rosario de la Frontera is located 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Salta and 750 kilometers (450 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. (See El Tribuno of Salta for February 22, 2002, "Strange apparition at Rosario de la Frontera--El Petizo attacks a young hunter." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico, y Mercedes Casas de CEUFO por eso articulo de diarios.)
(Editor's Comment: Welcome to Aliens Invade South America Week at UFO Roundup. Don't go away! There are more strange creatures and phenomena to come.)
SMALL ALIEN SIGHTED IN BRAZIL'S PANTANAL REGION
"Strange booming noises were heard over Corguinho," a small town in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (M.G.S.) in southwestern Brazil, "and a UFO flap has been going on in (this) Pantanal region for the past 15 days," since February 5, 2002.
Corguinho is 60 kilometers (36 miles) north of Campo Grande, the state capital of Mato Grosso do Sul.
"An investigator from Campo Grande obtained testimony from several witnesses who saw 'a strange creature that was not local.'" The witnesses described the creature as "having two legs, with a low stature of approximately 1.3 meters (four feet tall), a physique like a human but who moved with a strange fluctuating motion."
"This creature was seen five times" during the past two weeks "by twenty people in the rural zone" around Corguinho.
"The newspaper O Estadio reported that a UFO was seen over a fazenda (farm) belonging to Bena Bernardino. A daylight disc was seen, and loud booms were heard. Insects and plants were found, slightly altered, on that property, showing a strange yellow pigmentation. Biologists cannot explain the change."
In Rochedo, 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Corguinho, five Cebu cattle were found dead with a single incision on the side of the throat. The bodies had been drained of blood.
Also, on Monday, February 5, 2002, children in Camapua, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Campo Grande, saw "a low-flying black helicopter flying west" towards the Serra de Maracaju. (See O Estadio for February 17, 2002. Muito obrigado a Jair S. Barros por esos casos.)
(Editor's Comment: The black helicopters are back...and not just in Brazil. Check out this issue's story from Montana.)
WEIRD EARTH CHANGES REPORTED IN CHILE
"A series of fissures appeared in the town of Baquedano," located about 32 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Antofagasta in northern Chile. "No one has been able to explain the phenomenon."
Local mayor "Matilde Assante made known her concern over the rapid spread of the subsidence through Baquedano, which presents a series of fissures and craters, with one in excess of 400 meters (1,320 feet!) approximately."
"The strange phenomenon now covers even the facilities of the Carabineros (Chile's national police--J.T.) In the cuartel (barracks), rooms of the officers, in addition to the other facilities, now show cracks in the walls and floors."
"Likewise, according to police, nearly twenty homes in the barrio Villa Nueva (neighborhood) which were turned over to their tenants in September (2001), also show cracks in their foundations and walls."
"The governor of Antofagasta province, Christian Pizarro, along with representatives from the Servicio Nacional de Geologia y Minas (Spanish for National Geological and Mining Service; the Spanish acronym is SERNAGEOMIN), ESSAN, ELECDA, the Regional Emergency Office and the El Tersoro and Lomas Bayas mining companies held an emergency meeting and toured the affected area."
"The emergency committee tried to explain the origin of the fissures, which left in their wake two injured municipal workers and serious structural impairment of the Municipal Building."
"Sra. Assante noted that for this reason, following the tour, it was seen that the fissures in the ground had a radius of 400 meters (1,320 feet). The mayor added that the authorities agreed to call in a geologist who could define the cause of the subsidence, which has caused the evacuation of all of the municipal facilities" in Baquedano. The town is about 70 kilometers (42 miles) southwest of Calama, which has been the site of extremely heavy UFO activity for the past two years. (See the newspaper El Mercurio for February 19, 2002, "Fissures destroy houses in Baquedano." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Jaime Ferrer del Centro UFO de Calama para eso articulo de diario.)
(Editor's Comment: If this were a comic book, Governor Pizarro would be phoning Reed Richards in New York City, requesting the help of the Fantastic Four. This is unbellievable. First we have a "Shadow-Thief" straight out of Hawkman running amok in Argentina. Now we have an underground menace right out of an issue of Fantastic Four, wrecking a small town in Chile. Phenomena appear to be taking their inspiration from the Silver Age comics of the 1960s. To quote Benjamin J. Grimm, "What a revoltin' development this is!" But stay with us, folks. We have two more South American countries to cover.)
LUMINOUS DISC HOVERS OVER MERCEDES, URUGUAY
On Saturday, February 16, 2002, Raimundo Souza and several friends were outdoors at 9:40 p.m. in the Plaza Rivera in Mercedes, a mid-sized city in the department (state) of Soriano in Uruguay. Suddenly, they noticed a bright light approaching from the northeast.
"We watched it and then saw that it was a large flattened disc. It had no doors and no windows. There was a bright green aura around the object," Raimundo reported, "At first it was over the Calle de Braceras and moving south. When the object reached the Calle 19 de Abril, it stopped and hovered. There was no sound except the breeze rustling the palm trees. After three minutes, a bright white light came down from the disc and swept over several houses" along the Calle 19 de Abril (street)."
The light beam "went out suddenly, and the disc flew away rapidly to the northeast," towards Fray Bentos.
Mercedes is located 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. (Email Form Report)
ANOMALOUS THUNDERSTORM WREAKS HAVOC IN BOLIVIA
"President Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia declared a state of emergency in La Paz," the national capital, "after a thunderstorm created flash flooding that killed at least 36 people."
An estimated 10 centimeters (four inches) of rain fell on the Zona Central of La Paz, flooding the streets and causing landslides in the upper slopes of the quebrada.
(Editor's Note: La Paz is located at the bottom of a large quebrada or canyon.)
"The storm shut down electricity and transportation. It dropped heavy hail and rain, which flooded downtown streets," like the Avenida Mariscal Santa Cruz, the Avenida Camacho and the Calle Murillo. People waded thigh-deep through the Plaza de San Francisco during the flooding.
Bolivia's "National Meteorological Service said the storm was the most intense La Paz has experienced since it began keeping records 50 years ago." (See USA Today for February 21, 2002, "Bolivia declares emergency after deadly rainstorms," page 5A.)
ORANGE UFOs SPOTTED BY MANY IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
"Orange lights in the sky are causing a stir around Perth," capital of the state of Western Australia on the island continent's Indian Ocean coast.
"UFORM, a group which discusses the mysteries of outer space, said there had been three incidents of orange balls of light (OBOLs) this month," i.e. during February 2002.
"Several people rang Perth radio stations about unusual lights in the Fremantle and Coolbellup area on Friday night," February 15, 2002
"Seventy-nine-year-old Pauline Cumming of Coolbellup, W.A. said she watched two balls of light for 15 minutes from about 10 p.m." that night. 'They had blinking lights,' she said, 'as if they were sending messages.'"
"UFORM researcher Brian Richards said there had been similar sightings at Trigg and Marylands, W.A. this month. But the (Australian) Bureau of Meteorology said it was not aware of unusual lights."
On Saturday, February 2, 2002, in Ocean Reef, W.A., two groups of people spotted "a star-like sparkle four times the size of Jupiter, coloured orange, traveling northwest at the speed of a jet fighter."
John, an amateur astronomer, and his girl friend saw the object from the beach at precisely 12:05 a.m. He reported, "I was paying particular attention to the sky and thought, Wow! What the--!? At first I thought it was planes in formation.
Other people stopped to have a look as well. The object passed by some two kilometers (1.2 miles) away. One of the objects dropped form the formation and disappeared."
Frank and his friends were on the beach at 12:10 a.m. and reported seeing a formation of four orange lights in the array shown below.
* * * *
(Many thanks to Diane Harrison of Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN) for this report.)
BLACK HELICOPTER SIGHTED NEAR PRYOR, MONTANA
Black helicopters have been reported flying over the high prairie and the coulees (gulches) of the Crow Indian Reservation in eastern Montana. Recently, a group of Absaroka indigenous people living on the reservation snapped a photo of one.
On Saturday, February 9, 2002, a group of Absaroka people were riding their horses just northeast of Pryor, Montana. "They saw a black helicopter hovering over a hill they had just crested. They thought it was weird to see the black helicopter, and one of them happened to have a (pocket) camera and took a picture."
The black helicopter whirled around and flew away at a high speed.
Pryor is a small town on Montana Highway 418 approximately 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Billings, the state's largest city. (Lila pilamaya to Frank Running Elk, Kirsanna and "the Children of the Raven" for this report.)
WORKMEN SPOT A UFO IN EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN
On Saturday, February 16, 2002, at about 9 p.m., Jerry L. "was standing outside of my place of work" in Eau Claire, Wisconsin "to take a break. I looked to the south and noticed a very bright light in the sky. At first I thought it would be Venus or another planet because it was so bright and bigger than any of the stars I saw."
"At that point, another worker came outside, and I asked him what he thought it might be. He thought it was an airplane, and I said it could be one coming into the (local) airport. But it was not moving any closer, as I had been watching it for several minutes."
"As it started moving closer, I thought what I was seeing was its landing light. At that point, the object changed its shape from a circle to a triangle. It had flashing red lights on either side of the points (corners) at the base of the triangle, and they were flashing in unison. Then the triangle started to rotate (to the) right, and it seemed to divide in half and become two separate pieces. At about a 45 degree angle, it came back together and reformed into a wedge shape that resembled an F-16 shape with swept wings."
"At that point I realized that it was not the whole object. You could see a darker black around the white light. It was blacker than the night sky. It was ringed by faint flashing white lights that gave it its shape, which was very large, maybe two times the size of a commercial jetliner."
"This object was seen in the southern sky when I first observed it," Jerry added, "It moved towards us heading north. As it approached, it stopped, rotated clockwise 90 degrees and headed west-southwest. The episode lasted about five minutes. Saturday the (February) 16th was cool, clam wind, crystal clear sky" in western Wisconsin.
Eau Claire, Wis. (population 61,704) is on Highway 12 approximately 241 miles (385 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee. (Many thanks to John Hoppe, director of UFO Wisconsin, for this report.)
SOUTHERN OHIO ROCKED BY MANY UFO SIGHTINGS
Radio station WLW 700AM in Cincinnati, Ohio received a flood of telephone calls reporting UFO sightings one night last week.
NewsRadio first heard from "a caller (who) reported something strange over Blanchester, Ohio (population 4,220)," a small town on Routes 28 and 133 about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Cincinnati.
This was swiftly followed by a UFO report from Zanesville, Ohio (population 25, 586), a city on Interstate Highway I-70 approximately 56 miles (89 kilometers) east of Columbus, the state capital.
Bill Jones of MUFON reportedly telephoned the station and "said at some place in Ohio Interstate Highway I-75 was 'closed' due to traffic stopping to observe a UFO."
"One caller from Fairfield, Ohio (population 42,097)," a city on Route 127 about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Cincinnati, "reported seeing a UFO to the east of his location. The time of his sighting was about 10:30 p.m. He said the object was visible for 30 minutes before it moved towards Dayton."
"A motorist heading east on Route 125 near Amelia, Ohio (population 2,752)," approximately 27 miles (35 kilometers) east of Cincinnati, "around 10 p.m. observed colored lights in a straight line, describing its sequence as blue, red, blue, red, blue, red, etc."
"Tim from Dayton," a large city 55 miles (88 kilometers) north of Cincinnati, "said he saw something with blue and red (lights) coming from the east, heading south, and that it couldn't have been a helicopter. He said it made a sharp angular turn. This caller said that the object made a sound like 'a broken-down aircraft.'"
"Another caller said that at 10:15 p.m. he saw lights coming out of the south from his vantage point near Mason, Ohio (population 22,016)," a small city just off Interstate Highway I-75 approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Cincinnati. "This caller said he saw an object with two white lights and one red light that flashed like a strobe (light). He also said there were six objects separately heading north-northwest that seemed to approach Hamilton, Ohio."
(Editor's Note: Mason, Ohio is home to the Voice of America radio station. The city of Hamilton, population 60,690, is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Cincinnati.)
Across the state line in Indiana, "another caller said he was on Interstate Highway I-70 headed eastbound through Richmond, Indiana (population 37, 124)," a city 52 miles (83 kilometers) northwest of Cincinnati, "when he saw an object (hovering) close to the ground. The caller said the object went straight up, then straight back down, and made 'a left turn.'" (Many thanks to Louise A. Lowry for forwarding the WLW 700AM material.)
RESEARCHERS EXPOSE PENNSYLVANIA BIGFOOT HOAX
"The footprints were there, deep in the muck on both sides of the creek. They run for about 100 yards (90 meters). There are 40 or more of them, said Mike Hilton, 28, of South Mountain."
"'I was skeptical at first until I saw them,' Mike Hilton said Monday night (February 18, 2002) as he led the way through the darkness to the Waynesboro (Pennsylvania) Reservoir to investigate the tracks left in the mud."
"The footprints, if that's what they are, are about 13 inches (32 centimeters) long and about 6 inches (15 centimeters) wide."
"There's a rounded heel like a human's but spreads out into what looks like a set of five dangerous claws."
It all started when "Steve and Denny Gates saw photographs in the Record-Herald showing how the reservoir level has dropped during the drought. When they went up to take a look for themselves, they found tracks in the creek (bed) at the upper end of the reservoir."
"'They were very distinct. You could see toe marks, the heel, even the arch,' Steve Gates said Monday. He said hundreds of prints extended 350 yards (294 meters) in the mud before disappearing back in the woods."
"'We came home and talked about what we'd found. It was mind-blowing,' he said."
"'I'm almost convinced now,' said Denny Gates, 'I never really believed one way or another before.'"
"Paul Scott, Steve's brother-in-law, went up to the reservoir to see for himself. 'It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up,' he said."
"The three took their own video and made casts with automobile (body) putty, Scott said."
"Scott related the discovery to his mother, Darlene Taylor, in South Carolina, and she contacted the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO)."
"Ron B., a Bigfoot investigator from Salisbury, Maryland, went to the reservoir on Sunday," February 17, 2002.
It sounded too good to be true. And indeed it was. Investigators soon exposed the hoax at the reservoir, which is located in Quincy township about 6 miles (9 kilometers) north of Waynesboro, Pa.
By midweek, "the large, unusually-shaped footprints found in the muddy flats" around the Waynesboro Reservoir "appear almost certainly to be a crude hoax."
"At least that's the conclusion of one of the cryptozoologists who examined photos of the evidence collected at the scene."
"'We can't definitely identify the brand of sneaker, but the logo is there,' said Loren Coleman of Portland, Maine. 'You're getting a repeated human-made imprint in the middle of the arch,' he explained Wednesday (February 20, 2002) in a telephone interview."
"'I was given some confidential material to review,' said Coleman, author of The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide."
"That material included photographs taken by researchers who visited the site at the north end of the reservoir in Quincy township."
"Coleman and Mark A. Hall, another cryptozoologist from North Carolina, reviewed the evidence, which included photos other than those taken by the Record-Herald on Saturday (February 16, 2002), Coleman said."
"'That the 'toes' have left 'clawmarks' and an 'ape' configuration rely on an impression outcome of the design of the prankster or pranksters,' Coleman and Hall wrote in an email."
"Coleman said by telephone the prints may have also been made by the footprints of something like a Halloween costume."
"The initial reports of footprints piqued Coleman's interest because of what appeared to be a big toe extending away from the foot, such as it would in the prehensile foot of an ape. During his 40 years of investigation, Coleman said he has been particularly interested in reports of Napes, his term for North American apes. Such creatures, if they exist, would be more like a chimpanzee than the large Bigfoot or Sasquatch of popular legend."
"'If it's a hoax...we swallowed it hook, line and sinker,' said Paul Scott," who "said finding the tracks has affected his life but not in a positive way. He said he spent '12 to 16 hours' on the phone Monday and Tuesday (February 18 and 19, 2002), fielding calls from as far away as San Diego, California. A newspaper in Maryland printed a story about the footprints, 'without ever talking to me, Steve or Denny.'"
"However temporary, the story may have had some benefits for the community. Many people, unaware of the existence of Waynesboro, no doubt learned of it for the first time, and one local restaurant joined the fun by putting a 'Bigfoot Burger' on the menu Tuesday."
Waynesboro (population 9,614) is on Routes 316 and 977 about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Harrisburg, state capital of Pennsylvania. (See the Waynesboro, Pa. Record-Herald for February 18, 2002, "Pennsylvania no stranger to Bigfoot sightings" and "Bigfoot a tall tale? Ruckus at the reservoir;" and for February 22, 2002, "Bigfoot: Big joke. Scientist says prints are fake." Also the Frederick, Maryland News-Post for February 19, 2002, "Footprints: Prankster or Monster?" Many thanks to Loren Coleman for forwarding these newspaper articles.)
From the UFO Files...
1942: CRUISER ENCOUNTERS A LARGE DISC
Sixty years ago, the Tromp, a cruiser belonging to the Royal Netherlands Navy, was on a wartime patrol in the Timor Sea, south of the Dutch East Indies (now the nation of Indonesia--J.T.) when the vessel had a strange encounter.
February 1942 saw the Allies' fortunes dwindling fast in the Southwest Pacific theater of war. With the bombing of Darwin on February 19, 1942, the Japanese had pushed the front line right into the Gulf of Carpentaria. An invasion of Australia seemed imminent, so the Allies cobbled together the "ABCD fleet," a motley collection of American, British, Australian and Dutch warships, and ordered Admiral Thomas Hart to hold back the Japanese advance.
Which is what the Dutch cruiser Tromp was doing on the seas southeast of Timor island at 10 p.m. on February 25, 1942.
The Officer of the Deck heard a lookout's warning cry. "Aircraft, sir!"
Lifting his Zeiss binoculars, the O.D. scanned the sea's horizon as "a large aluminum disc flew towards the ship at tremendous speed. The UFO then circled high above the Dutch vessel for about three to four hours."
"Finally it (the UFO) flew off at an estimated 3,000 to 3,500 miles per hour (4,800 to 5,600 kilometers per hour). The officer on duty was unable to identify it as any known aircraft."
The interesting thing about this sighting is that it took place the same day--February 25, 1942--as two other well-known UFO events. The first was the "Battle of Los Angeles," in which nine silvery white UFOs overflew the southern California city (see UFO Roundup, volume 3, number 8 for February 22, 1998, "1942: Army gunners fire at UFOs over Los Angeles.") The second was the encounter between a Royal Australian Air Force Bristol Beaufighter and a bronze UFO over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, Australia (see UFO Roundup, volume 3, number 7 for February 15, 1998, "1942: The Brennan Dogfight.").
That makes three UFO incidents recorded at different points around the planet Earth on a single day--February 25, 1942. Who knows? Maybe it was Alien D-Day. (For more on the strange cruise of the Tromp, see the book The Flying Saucer Story by Brinsley LePoer Trench, Ace Books Inc., New York, N.Y., 1966, page 69. Also Flying Saucer Review , volume 3, number 6 for November-December 1957, page 8.)
That's it for this week. Join us next time for more UFO, paranormal and Fortean news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2002 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.
