UFO ROUNDUP Volume 8 Number 38
Volume 8
Number 38
October 8, 2003
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
PHOTO SHOWS THIRD PHANTOM PANTHER IN NORTHERN IRELAND
A photograph "taken in the Mourne Mountains by a Dublin doctor provides strong evidence that a third wild cat is prowling the Ulster countryside."
"The picture, which appears to show a large, black, puma-like creature prowling in a field, was taken by a Dublin-based doctor who described the animal as bigger than a collie (dog)."
"He snapped the amazing photo close to Slieve Bearnagh," County Down, Northern Ireland, "in the Mourne Mountains in July (2003)."
"Dr. Brendan O'Donnell, who spotted the feline with his wife, said, 'It was unbelievable. It was completely different to a domestic cat in the way it moved, which to me was like a hunter.'"
"'The long tail, which can be seen in the photo, was incredibly distinctive. It was one of the most distinctive features and proved to me it couldn't be a domestic cat.'"
"This new evidence that a large black cat is roaming close to the Mourne Mountains comes as the two wild animals still at large in the north (County) Antrim countryside continue to evade capture."
"Phone calls continue to be made to police on a daily basis detailing sightings of the sandy-coloured puma (cougar or mountain lion in the USA--J.T.) and what is thought to be a black panther."
"Over the weekend, the puma is believed to have been spotted close to a hen house at a farm near Dervock while other reports indicate that the wild cats have been spotted roaming in housing estates in Bushmills."
"Collectors could well be prevented from keeping lions and tigers following a decision" by the government "to extend the Dangerous Wild Animal Act to Northern Ireland." (See the Belfast Telegraph for September 29, 2003. Many thanks to UFO Roundup's phantom panther expert, Robert Fischer, for this newspaper article.)
(Editor's Comment: Welcome to Here, Kitty, Kitty Week at UFO Roundup. The number of phantom panther (alien big cats in UK--J.T.) sightings has skyrocketed since last week.)
MAUI'S PHANTOM PANTHER BLAMED FOR GOAT DEATHS
"Maui's 'mystery cat' has been seen in the Orinda area, near Wailuku, state officials reported Saturday," September 27, 2003.
"The recent cluster of sightings rule out a biologist's earlier concern that the animal had moved to a more remote territory" on Maui, one of the islands that form the USA's state of Hawaii, "after it had not been seen for several days."
"Two women got a good look at the cat in the most recent of the sightings, reporting that they passed within about seven feet (2.2 meters) of the animal when it crossed the road ahead of their car around 8:50 p.m. Thursday night (September 25, 2003), according to a Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) statement."
"The women described it as about seven feet long, with a long tail, black coat, yellow-green eyes and a flat face with indented ears."
"Early Thursday morning, another group of people reported they had seen the cat cross the road at the same spot" in Olinda.
"Division of Forestry and Wildlife personnel were to scout the area for signs of the cat, using infrared night vision equipment Friday night (September 26, 2003) but there was no information on the success of the effort."
"In a sighting Wednesday afternoon (September 24, 2003), three people who'd seen the cat before watched it for about three minutes as it walked down a pasture fence. DLNR officials said it was a good sighting because they were able to give a clear description of the cat."
"On (Friday) September 19 and (Monday) September 22 (2003), Olinda residents heard the cat calling, and on (Saturday) September 20 (2003), an Olinda family reported indications that it had visited their yard, eaten food left outside and sprayed their lanai."
"State wildlife biologist Fern Duvall said the multiple sightings were a good sign that the cat was not responsible for some reported goat maulings in Kula."
"Two women who live in the Waiakoa area of Kula said their goats had been mauled and some killed. They don't claim the cat had done it, but were skeptical a dog could have jumped over their high fence."
"'What the hell could have gotten in and out so fast?' said Ernette Prones, whose eight goats were mauled, one fatally."
(Editor's Comment: UFO Roundup readers can answer that question in one word: Chupacabra!)
"But Duvall said the recent sighting placed the cat in Olinda, and said a loose dog might have been responsible for attacking the goats."
"'The cat can't be in both places,' he said." (See the Maui Weekly News for September 28, 2003, "Goat maulings in Waiakoa might have been dogs." Many thanks to Bob Fischer for this newspaper article.)
MORE PHANTOM PANTHERS REPORTED IN SCOTLAND
"A Black Isle man has told the North Star of seeing what he believes to be a large, black, cat-like creature near Avoch last week."
"Civil servant Gerry McGarry's sighting came only days after two young girls," Josie Gaitens, 12, and her sister, Hannah, 8, "fled in terror from a big cat only a few hundred yards (metres) from where he had said he spotted a similar creature."
"Gerry, who works in Inverness, was returning home to Fortrose on Monday," September 22, 2003 "at around 5:25 p.m., in a car driven by his wife Lorraine, when he looked out to his left and glimpsed a large black animal."
"'It was on a field quite high up,' he recalled, 'At first I thought it was a cow, because it was about the length of a cow, but only about half the height.'"
"'I didn't tell my wife at the time because I didn't think it could be a panther, and she might have thought I was daft. But when I read the story about the two girls from Avoch who thought they saw a panther, it freaked the hell out of me.'"
"'I wish I had gone back for a good look, because I've heard a lot of stories about a black cat being in our (Ross-shire) area.'"
"Mr. McGarry said the issue concerned him, as his daughter Erin will have to go in two years' time to Avoch Primary School, close to the scene of his own and the girls' sightings."
"Sales rep Mark Slater thought Evening Express reports of big cat sightings were 'a load of rubbish.'"
"That was before he came face-to-face with a 'panther.'"
"It happened last Saturday night (September 20, 2003) while Mark, 33, and his wife were driving home to Bridge of Don after visiting his mother-in-law in Stuartfield."
"The sighting was on the (motorway) B9030 Old Deer to Auchnagatt Road."
"It was 8:30 p.m. and dark when, about a mile and a half (2.4 kilometers) north of Auchnagatt, Mark's wife spotted something on the other side of the road, flashing eyes picked out in the car's headlights."
"Mark, of Woodcroft, Bridge of Don, said, 'It was running towards us on the right-hand side. At first my wife thought it was a big black dog, but I could see it wasn't. The way in which it moved was cat-like and, as we got closer, I hit the brakes to take a better look.'"
"The 'cat' ran past the driver's side of the car about three yards (2.7 metres) from Mark and darted into a nearby field."
"'It was going at some speed,' he said, 'I could say that it was close in height to an Alsatian (dog) but longer. It had short, sleek, jet-black hair, and its tail came up in a crook. I firmly believe that it was a panther.'"
"He was surprised and curious rather than frightened by his experience."
"But, he added, 'There was no way that I'm getting out of the car and following it on foot.'"
"There has been a spate of sightings of a 'panther' in the Carnie Woods, near Westhill. The beast, called the Carnie Cat, has been seen at least five times in the last month and a half." (See the Scottish newspapers North Star for September 26, 2003, "New big cat about on Black Isle;" and the Aberdeen Evening Express for September 26, 2003, "Thought big cat sightings were rubbish...then I saw one." Many thanks to Bob Fischer for these newspaper articles.)
NEW PHANTOM PANTHER SIGHTED IN ENGLAND
"The plight of the borough's ducks and swans has provoked much discussion over the past year, but one outlandish idea has emerged--a large wild puma is to blame."
"An Enfield woman was walking her dog on Sunday (September 21, 2003) when she spotted the enormous feline prowling the banks of the New River."
"She said the dark-brown beast was larger than her Labrador (retriever dog) with a four-foot (1.3-metre) long tail and pointed ears. She quickly made her way to her home on Tenniswood Road and called police. But when officers arrived, the creature had vanished."
"Mark Fraser, of the British Big Cat Society, believes the animal's description fits that of a puma. He said: 'Big cats in the wild are increasingly coming to the cities attracted by the food. I would not be surprised if wild cats made it to Enfield.'"
"Mr. Fraser advised steering away from the large feline and added that there have been only two attacks on the public from big cats in his 15 years as an expert."
"At present, there have been numerous sightings of mysterious 'big cats' in Britain, including photographs and film but no firm evidence."
"A spokesman for Lincoln Zoo ruled out the possibility of the Enfield puma being an escapee. She said: 'We don't have any pumas here at the moment, so it certainly ddn't come from here.'"
"But, she added, 'The most frequent sighting we get is the puma. So they must be thriving out there somewhere.'" (See the Enfield and Haringey Independent for September 25, 2003, "Warning--Big cats on the loose." Again, many thanks to Bob Fischer for this newspaper article.)
(Editor's Comment: Bob, if these reports keep pouring in, you'll be able to launch your own newspaper--Phantom Panther Press. Meanwhile, in the USA, there's still the Great American Monster...)
BIGFOOT SEEN IN VERMONT AND ARKANSAS
"A Winooski man believes he saw a Bigfoot-type creature at dusk while driving north on Route 7 in Glastenbury," Vermont on Wednesday, September 24, 2003.
"At about 7:10 p.m., Ray Dufresne, 45, was heading back up north after visiting his daughter at Southern Vermont College, when he spotted a six-foot-plus (2 meter) tall, 270 pound, 'big black thing' walking upright near the highest point of elevation on Route 7."
"'It was hairy from the top of his head down to the bottom of his feet,' said Dufresne, 'It was not walking like a normal person.'"
"Although Dufresne couldn't see the animal's face, he said from his vantage point of about 140 feet (42 meters) away, he could see that the creature had very long arms and was covered in long black hair. He said it walked east into the woods toward Glastenbury Mountain."
(Editor's Note: Glastenbury Mountain is the paranormal capital of Vermont. For decades the mountain has had sightings of UFOs, Bigfoot, phantom panthers, mysterious robed figures, strange disappearances, you name it! Indeed, H.P. Lovecraft set his one-and-only alien story, The Whisperer in Darkness, in the Glastenbury area.)
"'The first thing I thought was, this is a gorilla costume! I thought it was a joke,' he said, 'Then I put two and two together.'"
"There were no homes or abandoned car nearby, so Dufresne surmised that the dark figure could not have been a person. Although he had heard of the Bigfoot phenomenon before, Dufresne said he had never heard of it happening in Vermont."
"Dufresne also attested that he had not been drinking or doing drugs on Wednesday, and that he had no history of mental illness."
"'Why would someone be walking down the road like that?' Dufresne said he asked himself at the time. 'I kicked myself for not turning back.'"
"Dufresne continued driving north to his house. He said that at his job at a car dealership in Burlington on Thursday," September 25, 2003, "people were having a laugh at his expense while he retold his story."
"Lt. District Chief Dane Hathaway of the (Vermont) Field and Wildlife Dept. said this was the first time he had heard of anything like this during his 32 years of working for the state."
Mount Glastenbury is nine miles (14 kilometers) east of Bennington, Vermont in the Green Mountain National Forest.
Elsewhere in the USA, a Bigfoot was sighted in the woods near Decatur, Arkansas (population 1,314), a town on Highway 59, located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Fayetteville.
"A large ape-like animal has been sighted in the Decatur area. Police say they're received three calls from people reporting the animal. Police Chief Coy Hendrix said he doesn't know whether to caution residents."
"'I don't know what it is,' he said." (See the Bennington, Vt. Banner for September 26, 2003, "Man spots 'Bigfoot'" and USA Today for October 2, 2003, "Across the USA: Arkansas," page 17A. Many thanks to Loren Coleman for the Vermont article.)
GREEN FLASHING LIGHTS SIGHTED IN OHIO
On Saturday, September 27, 2003, at 10:30 p.m., "while driving home from the Solid Rock Church" in Franklin, Ohio (population 11,396), eyewitness Sandy "was approaching her residence in the Heartland subdivision when she spotted a very strange pattern of green flashing lights low in the sky."
Sandy "said that these lights were first visible to the northeast as she entered the subdivision. Upon observing the lights, she drove in pursuit of them at the urging of her son. She drove about the area for one mile (1.6 kilometers) and did observe the situation" for up to two to three minutes.
"I don't feel that they were any kind of spotlights," she reported, "The lights were brilliant green, not fuzzy, and there were no beams."
"'The big green lights,' she said, 'numbered from two or more and would conjure patterns ranging from a big circle to a rectangle. The left and right lights would 'move to the center' and then back again, and were comparable in size to a full moon," from her perspective.
"There was a pattern to the way the lights would flash," she added, "They would move in uniform formation at the same time and stay at equal distances to one another."
The UFOs "appeared over an area near Springboro (population 12,380) on Route 471," located four miles (6 kilometers) east of Franklin, "moved from south to north and eventually vanished over the treetops."
Following the sighting, Sandy's son prevailed upon her to contact Wright-Patterson U.S. Air Force Base in nearby Dayton, Ohio.
Franklin and Springboro are about 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Dayton. (Many thanks to Kenny Young of Cincinnati UFO Research for this report.)
LUMINOUS UFOs SEEN IN THE NETHERLANDS
On Monday, September 29, 2003, at 8:30 p.m., eyewitness A.W. noticed a strange object in the night sky over Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, which she described as "bigger than Mars and bright white."
"It did not flash and was a continuous light. An aircraft approached from the southeast, and the object departed to the northeast. The light moved faster and disappeared when the aircraft was nearing it."
"After the aircraft was out of sight, two small lights suddenly appeared where the large light had disappeared. They flew in a northwesterly direction, parallel. The top one was a little in front of the one below. They flashed white simultaneously, then nothing and then red."
"An hour later, I was casually looking out the window and saw another pair of flashing red and white lights flying from the northwest to the southeast. These faded as an aircraft entered the vicinity and became brighter once the aircraft had flown by."
"Ten seconds later, they just vanished. Not 40 seconds later, two more of the same lights appeared, following the same direction as the previous two. I called to Tom to have a look. All of them made no noise at all."
On Sunday, September 21, 2003, "a large cigar-shaped object was seen over Zwartewaterland, in Overijssel," in the Netherlands. "An amateur astronomer watched the object through hs professional Oberwerk 11 X 70 binoculars on a tripod for about 20 minutes. The object, flying at a height of 7 kilometers (23,100 feet), looked like a small letter L without the loop. The object was yellow. At the end of the sighting, the witness noticed two small star- like lights beneath the object, which went on in turns, with an interval of two seconds." (Amsterdam was an Email Form Report. For the Overijssel sighting, see Filer's Files #40 for October 1, 2003. Many thanks to editor George A. Filer for allowing UFO Roundup to reproduce this news item.)
GLISTENING WHITE UFOs SEEN IN VENEZUELA
On Sunday, September 28, 2003, "two witnesses observed the maneuvers of an enormous luminous sphere that flew over the Punto Fijo region of the coastal state of Falcon" in Venezuela, "to the northwest of the Golfo de Venezuela."
"The event took place at 7:45 p.m. while Jose Jimenez and his father-in-law were fishing in the vicinity of Playa de Villamarina and Playa del Pico beaches."
"According to Jimenez, the object produced an extensive and 'glistening' white light that came from above. This caused him to look up to the heavens and notice the strange and luminous presence among 'hundreds of stars in the sky.'"
"The witnesses added that, after a while, after having remained stationary for a few seconds, the object became lost from view after performing zigzagging and vertical 'appearances and disappearances' in the air space over Falcon."
"It is worth noting that this is not the first time that such events have been reported in this area. Dozens of people have repeatedly reported the presence of these odd luminous objects. Likewise, 'confidential' unofficial communications made by the crews of Venezuelan vessels have also reported strange objects during crossings" of the Golfo de Venezuela. (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Arturo Escalante y Roger Lopez del grupo OVNI Venezuela para esta historia.)
MORE BROWN GOOP FALLS ON NEW ZEALAND
"A house in Huia has now been hit by the mystery brown muck appearing on rooftops around the country" of New Zealand.
"Plumber Murray Norris returned home from work on Friday night (September 26, 2003) to find what appeared to be feces splattered on the west wall and roof of his home."
"'If there's anyone who knows what shit looks like, it's me--and that's what it looked like,' Mr. Norris said."
"Some patches of the muck were about 3 metres (10 feet) wide but did not smell."
"The suspicious substance has appeared on houses in Takapu Valley, near Wellington, Te Awamutu in the Waikato, and Blenheim."
"The (New Zealand) Civil Aviation Authority ruled out aircraft toilets as the cause."
"Tests of the muck found in Takapu recalled no chemicals used in such toilets."
"The Dept. of Conservation is expected to investigate the incident at the home of Mr. Norris."
"There are plenty of weird and wonderful theories about the source of the muck; some people believe the spatters are from a large bird."
"'If it's a bird, then it's either a really big one, or it has a serious problem,' Mr. Norris said."
"Meanwhile, he is grateful that the weekend rain gave his house a good clean." (See the New Zealand Herald for September 29, 2003, "Aerial muck splatters Huia house." Many thanks to Kirsty MacLaren for this newspaper article.)
FROG EGGS FALL FROM CONNECTICUT SKIES
"Primo D'Agata was startled by what he thought was hail smashing on his porch" in Berlin, Connecticut (population 1,230) on Friday, September 19, 2003, "as the remnants of Hurricane Isabel roared through the state. But when he went outside to investigate, D'Agata discovered tiny gelatinous eggs with dark spots in the middle."
"It had apparently been raining frogs."
"Since no frogs in Connecticut lay eggs this late in the year, scientists and naturalists speculate that they may have come up from North Carolina or another warm location on the winds of Isabel."
"D'Agata brought a bowl of his mysterious find to a nearby nature center, after the town's animal control officer couldn't identify what had arrived in his yard."
"Nicolas Diaz, a naturalist and teacher at the New Britain Youth Museum in Hungerford Park, took a look at D'Agata's bowl and told him it looked like amphibian eggs."
"D'Agata is keeping two small water-filled jars for the eggs to see if any of them will hatch. He said a few seem to have sprouted what looks like a tail."
"'I'm just going to let them sit and see what happens,' D'Agata said."
Berlin, Conn. is on Route 5 approximately 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Hartford, the state capital. (See the New London, Conn. Day for October 2, 2003. Many thanks to Ashley Reynolds and Steve Wilson Sr. for sending this newspaper story.)
(Editor's Comment: Next we should be hearing about a small earthquake in Albany, N.Y., as Charles Fort rises from the grave to investigate his favorite topic.)
MYSTERIOUS BLACKOUT SENDS ITALY REELING
A new mysterious electrical blackout, the fourth worldwide in the past six weeks, turned out the lights in Italy on Sunday, September 28, 2003.
It was Italy's worst blackout since World War II and "stranded about 30,000 passengers aboard 110 trains for hours. The outage caused traffic jams in major cities and forced fire departments to shuttle fuel for emergency generators to hospitals."
"The only part of Italy not hit by the blackout was the island of Sardinia, where energy is produced locally."
"By Sunday evening, only a handful of the 103 provinces were still without partial power, mostly in the south. But train service remained disrupted and many traffic lights were out in Rome."
"Italy imports 16 percent of its power from France via Switzerland. ATEL, the main Swiss electricity provider, said that at 3 a.m. Sunday a tree knocked out a transmission line that carries electricity from France over the Alps. Also, two French high-voltage lines failed--a problem caused by lightning during heavy storms there," Italian energy officials said.
"But why the entire Italian network collapsed within 20 minutes, leaving most of Italy's 57 million people without power, remained a mystery."
The Carabineri (Italian national police--J.T.) "reported some stores were looted. Fire departments, ambulances and police reacted quickly, ferrying to hospitals thousands of patients whose at-home medical equipment, run by electricity, had ceased working."
"In Rome, 400,000 people out celebrating 'White Night,'" in which theaters, museums and art galleries are open all night free of charge, "suddenly found themselves in a black night."
"'I was sitting in a bar waiting for my cappucino when the lights went out. No cappucino. Then I stumbled through the dark, bumping into other people who were also trying to find a way home without lights,' said Paolo Palma, an overnight reveler in Rome."
"Tens of thousands of Romans ended up camping at railway stations, in tunnels or under bridges, stranded because all-night subway trains and trams were out of action. To make their plight worse, steady rain poured on the capital city throughout the night."
"'Thousands of people lived through the dark without any problem to public order. This was a demonstration of exemplary public behavior,' said Rome's mayor, Walter Veltroni."
"A diesel locomotive eventually towed a passenger train out of the tunnel in the alpine Brenner Pass where it had been stuck for five hours. Red Cross workers distributed food and drinks to train passengers, some of them shivering on a cold northern night."
"Highway motorists ran out of fuel and gas stations were closed. Frozen food melted in supermarkets, and ice cream vendors complained that they had lost millions of dollars."
"Residents in Italy's south queued up for water at municipal fountains after electric pumps went out of action."
"Three deaths were attributed to the outage: a man killed in a traffic accident at an intersection where the lights had failed; and two elderly women who fell down stairs in the dark, in separate cases."
"Italians were largely not worried, and most shrugged the outage off. They were thankful power was back on by noon, in time to watch the soccer matches."
"'Futbol in Italy is like morphine,' said Pier-Paolo Pagnini, 32, 'There would have been riots.'"
"State-controlled airline Alitalia said airports continued working, with only four domestic flights cancelled."
The Italian outage "was the fourth major Western blackout in two months, after (power) cuts in North America," London and Kent in UK, and eastern Denmark and southern Sweden. (See the Chicago Tribune for September 29, 2003, "Italy's blackout traced to tree," page 3; and USA Today for September 29, 2003, "Italian blackout snuffs lights over much of country," page 7A.)
From the UFO Files...
1964: STRANGE ARTIFACT ON THE OCEAN FLOOR
"The American ship Eltanin, owned by the Military Sea Transportation Service, was designed for use in the National Science Foundation Antarctic research program."
"On August 29, 1964, the Eltanin was a thousand miles west of Cape Horn," and just north of Antarctica, "and its crew was busily engaged in photographing the ocean floor, which reaches a depth of 13,500 feet (3,105 meters) in that area. A specially designed camera, housed in a metal cylinder, was being pulled along by a cable."
"Later that day, when darkroom technicians developed the exposed film, they found that the camera had captured an image of a strange device jutting out of the mud of the ocean. A central mast supported four series of cross rods, which made the object appear to be something like a cross between a television antenna and a telemetry antenna. The cross rods were spaced at ninety-degree angles and showed white knobs on their extremities. The mysterious object appeared to be man-made and seemed definitely out of place in the anticipated natural environment of the ocean floor."
"The specially constructed underwater camera had been designed to bounce along the seabed and to take pictures at regular intervals. It was only a fortunate, albeit engimatic, accident that the unidentifiable object had been photographed."
"When the Eltanin docked at Auckland, New Zealand on December 4, 1964, a reporter questioned Dr. Thomas Hopkins, senior marine biologist on board, about the 8 X 10 prints of the underwater anomaly. Dr. Hopkins was quoted as saying that the device could hardly be a plant, for at that depth, there is no light. Without light there is no process of photosynthesis and plants cannot live. Dr. Hopkins was reluctant about declaring the object to be man-made. He estimated the device to be about two feet (0.6 meters) high and specified its point of discovery as being on the 45,000-mile (72,000-kilometer) fault-line rift that encircles the earth."
"'If it is some strange coral formation,' Dr. Hopkins said, 'then no one on board has ever heard of it before. I wouldn't like to say that the thing is man-made, because this brings up the problem of how one would get it there.'"
The possibility that the Eltanin's mystery undersea antenna might be an alien probe from outer space occurred to only a few people. One of them was Hollywood producer Irwin Allen, who worked the Eltanin mystery into an episode of his TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea about a year later. (See the book Atlantis Rising by Brad Steiger, Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1973, pages 97 and 98.)
That's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home- -UFO Roundup." See you next time.
