NUFORC Sighting 64978

Occurred: 2008-08-02 00:30 Local
Reported: 2008-08-03 14:15 Pacific
Duration: 1.5hrs
No of observers: 2

Location: Rockford/Loves Park, IL, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object

Strange colorful ball of light over Loves Park IL late at night

I want to be completely honest and explain my background on this matter before I tell this story. Up until about a month ago, I like many people thought that when people say they saw a “UFO” that they were a little… weird… Even though I saw something strange in the late 90’s, I thought it was explained by the news. After watching a recent episode of Larry King, and seeing something mentioned about the Phoenix Lights (which I had no prior knowledge of because I did not watch TV in those days, yet it reminded me of what I had seen in the 90’s) I also thought of something that my best friend (who does his best to explain stories in truth and detail) told me a few years ago that he saw. I was puzzled by the story about he and several other people at a stop light seeing a an oval metallic disc slightly larger than a car, with lights all around it silently hovering over the intersection only about 40ft up. He said he stepped out of the car, and it tilted a bit and took off at a VERY high speed, still making no sound. I figured he and his wife had some sort of temporary insanity. I found the Phoenix lights DVD on ebay, and purchased it. I asked my friend about that story again, and told me again. He said he never told many people because people (including myself) just looked at him like he was crazy.

After watching the Phoenix lights DVD, I was amazed. It looked just like what I had seen in the sky over Rockford at around that time. The local news also said it was probably military flares, and that was the end of it. I assumed they were telling the truth.

I started doing some research and started to scan the sky day and night, lately.

My mom barrowed my Phoenix Lights DVD, as she is interested in the subject. My step dad, who is very skeptical made a joke about her watching the sky since watching the video. I admitted that I do, but made the joke that my chances of seeing something now that I have this interest are probably much slimmer. It would be a very strange coincidence.

The only reason it wouldn’t be less likely to see something would simply be because I am actually watching, now.

I left my mom’s house on Friday night, about midnight.

At about 12:30am, I was looking up at stars in the sky, as I was walking to my garage to get something. I looked to the north east probably above the nearby cities of Loves Park, or Machesney Park, IL (about 5-10 miles away) and noticed a light that looked like it was about 400-500ft high. No structures or towers in that area, (that I know of) are nearly that high. The light was distant, but coming from a fairly large source, because I could tell that the lights were alternating green and red with an orange/yellow in it as well.

My first thought was that it was a helicopter. I couldn't hear it, but that seemed normal since it was so far away.

I watched it for several minutes. I figured if it was a jet or a helicopter that was flying directly away from my view, it would soon look smaller and vanish from view. If it were flying toward me, it would do the opposite, and I would soon know for sure. It did neither. What it did appear to do is jerk left, then right short distances every minute or so. I saw a jet fly by a little closer, but higher in the sky, and it looked completely different. The light started to slowly move upward and further to the east. I went inside and told my girlfriend to go out with me and check it out. I got my camcorder. I wanted to make sure I had at least these 2 witnesses, so if I told anyone, they wouldn’t just say that it was just a case of me wanting to see something since I’m suddenly interested in it (which I am sure people wll probably think anyway) My camcorder has 3CCDs, so I knew it would pick up the colors, well, which it did, but it was too dark outside and too distant to see exactly what it was. She watched it, and said she saw it occasionally see it jerk left and right. To make sure that both of us didn't have a case of our eyes playing tricks on us, we put the camcorder on the light(s), and stared at a star to see if just watching a distant light that intently caused our eyes to make that effect appear, because it was so slight. That was not the case.

Over about a half hour, it looked like it had climbed a few hundred more feet in the sky. This was also after several jets had passed it. I decided to get into my car and drive toward it. By the time I had gotten to where I think it was when I first saw it, It had gone several hundred more feet into the sky, and a bit further north. By this time, it was so far away, at first glance it just blended in with the stars. No one would notice it. The colored lights were the same, but washed out by the distance. This was confirmed when I got home and could see it much further up in the sky. I had landmarks I could measure it’s movement with. A neighbor’s roof, and a tree made good reference points. It got to the point where I could no longer see it on my camcorder.

I do not know how long a helicopter can hover, but by 2:00am, I had to get to bed, and could no longer observe. I am no expert, but I have not ever seen a Helicopter behave that way, and can't imagine it would for any reason over loves park/Machesney Park.

All I know is that we did not know what it was, and still don't after looking at the video. I didn't know who to call if anyone to see if anyone else saw it. I was not able to watch the news last night to see if anything was reported. I’m not sure how to find out if anything was.

I found this website, and figured I would post the info here first.

(for option below: I am not requesting to be contacted, but will be happy to answer any questions if someone wishes to contact me, or provide a copy of the video, upon request)

Posted 2008-08-12