NUFORC Sighting 104287

Occurred: 1969-01-08 21:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2013-11-09 14:12 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Landed, Animals reacted

Flat black color, 6-legged, toy jack shaped, basketball-sized object on the ground melting snow in a squall

This report is about a snowy winter night in 1968, 1969 or 1970. That is the best I can pinpoint the ‘ancient history’ from my past.

The unidentified object was shaped very similarly to a jack in the child’s game of ‘ball & jacks’. It was on the ground, tilted so its low side faced the city. It was flat-black color. Its circumference was slightly larger than a basketball.

Toy jacks that I recall had 4 legs radiating outward from a center axis. This object had 6 legs. Two front legs were feet-on-the-ground, facing the city. Two legs were a bit off the ground and to the left and right sides of the ‘face’. Two ‘rear legs’ in the back of the ‘jack’ were off the ground facing uphill.

It was an odd configuration because whoever saw it asked, at least instinctively, “How could 4 legs off of the ground be outweighed by the 2 front legs that were on the ground and tilted to face the city?” This basketball-sized jack with the flat-black finish was sitting halfway up a hill in Grandview City Park in the Pittsburgh, PA.

A neighborhood named “Mount Washington” overlooks Pittsburgh. Mt. Washington has two well known vantage points that gaze across the river at the downtown skyscrapers. These vantages are Grandview Avenue and Grandview Park. They are on opposite ends of the neighborhood. Grandview Avenue got lots of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Grandview Park got much less, especially during winter.

The park has an observation deck near the main entrance. Uphill from the deck, the park is ‘terraced’ by 3 service roads. Atop the hill are 2 huge water tanks. The park’s lowest road is its main service road (no public access for vehicles]. It’s between the hill and the observation deck. This road is 2 vehicles wide.

There are 2 more single-lane service roads. They are further up the hillside. The position of these roads gives a framework for the remainder of this report.

The highest service road goes to the water tanks. At its apex it was about 60 yards (175’) higher than the main service road. The middle service road was about 40 yards (125’) above the main service road.

I know these distances because on snowy nights I practiced playing football. Specifically, while walking our family’s fearless German Shepherd, I played quarterback. I threw snowballs at trees. They were adjacent to the service roads and spaced apart at intervals of 10 to 50 yards. I knew the distances with respect to the same distances on a football field.

Facing the water tanks and, thus, facing away from the city, the large hill is gumdrop-shaped. At its base is the main service road. The highest and midway, single-lane service roads curve across the face of the hill. They intersect at the main road.

This particular night I walked Duke (the dog) up to the top of the hill. It was snowing medium hard. We could see only the brightest lights of the nearest downtown buildings. And those lights were fuzzy & foggy. The same was true for visibility of the park’s service road street lights at the opposite end of the park’s main entrance. Only the 2 of us were walking through the park.

The snow was ankle deep to mid-calf, depending on drifts formed by the wind. The snow was deep enough that the wind that whistled through the park during winter had not yet blown any spots bald to render them devoid of snow.

We walked along the highest service road over the crown of the hill facing the city, walked down the hill to the midway service road, to double back to where we entered. Duke was usually rambunctious and very curious. He knew my game of snowball football. Sometimes, he liked to race me to where my snowball hit a tree. That night we’d done some casual racing in the snow to about 10 trees.

We got to one of his favorite places to race & run. The next tree was about 40 yards away. He liked hearing “pop” when my snowball hit that tree. He liked to take-off as he watched its flight. But he didn’t on that night. He shied away from hurrying toward that tree. He avoided the upside of the service road and stayed his leash’s length away on the downhill side toward the city. He usually preferred the uphill side because other dogs marked their spots on the uphill side.

As we made our way toward the tree I’d just hit with a snowball, I noticed a depression in the snow on that service road. I couldn’t yet see it clearly because the city lights and park street lights were dimmed by medium-heavy snowfall, but there was definitely something dimensionally odd about a point in the snow near tree I’d just hit.

The nearer we got to my new ‘line-of-scrimmage’ (the tree), the more Duke was reluctant to continue. He always led the charge toward any new curiosity. But he didn’t this time. As I got nearer, I saw a circular black spot with almost no snow on the asphalt service road. Then I started seeing the jack-shaped, object dormantly sitting there.

I got about 2-3 yards away from it. Duke stayed with me although he had enough leash to go sniff it -- which he’d done with everything before and after our encounter with that object; put his nose right on or in it.

I did not feel heat radiating from the jack, but heat had to explain why there was no snow in the radius around it. I ventured to a bit more than an arm’s length away. I picked up a pinch of the fluffy snow and sprinkled it toward the jack. A bit of my sprinkling landed on it and was gone in less than 2 minutes. It took only slightly longer to vanish than the regular snow falling on and around it.

Meanwhile, I studied it as closely as I dared. I saw no seams, nothing that resembled a hatch or window. Yet I had the distinct sense that it was specifically facing the city lights; almost like admiring the view through the snow while enjoying the calm & silence of such a snowfall. At the same time I had a definite sense of “Hands OFF! Don’t touch!” The center of the jack had the biggest pod/cylinder; both in diameter and height. At the end of each leg were smaller-scale versions of the same pod. The pods were approximately the same diameter as the legs that connected them to the center core. If they were different diameters, then it was by a mere millimeter or less; measurable only with calipers. Small as it was it didn’t seem spindly. It seemed sturdy. It didn’t seem hostile, but it wasn’t inviting or overtly friendly. It emitted a sense (or invisible aura) of power . . . not energy, but of power.

Duke inched nearer to it only as I did. I was his shield and security. This was totally out of character for our fierce, fearless dog. I’d always needed to restrain him. He was a trained attack dog that K-9 police gave us because he was too aggressive ~ until he encountered this jack.

This whole encounter was 3-5 minutes. I stepped past the jack, threw a few more snowballs at my next possible (football receiver) trees, drifted back to the jack for one last look, and saw no changes. Then we returned home. My snowballs were unusually accurate that night; missing 1 or 2 of 75-80 throws. The next day my brother took Duke for his morning walk. I told him about the black jack. He looked for it. It was gone. But where I’d seen it there was a divot in the snow shaped like the bottom of a basketball.

Thinking about it you’ve got to ask: “Why was all of the ground below it devoid of snow? Why not only where just the front feet touched the ground? How did the black jack get there? Obviously, it didn’t walk or tumble there.

Why were there no tracks or footprints in the virgin snow?” That made no sense. It had been snowing for 2-3 hours. Anyone/thing moving afoot through the park would have left telltale tracks.

And, Duke very cautiously and tentatively stuck his nose only so close as if a spherical energy field was radiating outward from the jack, just 1-2 inches beyond the full length of the jack’s legs. My observation was that Duke knew or sensed something to the effect, “That’s as near as you get!” But maybe it was selective/smart shielding because snow was OK for touching the jack.

These are my thoughts articulated today (November 2013) but at least subconsciously in my 15-17 year-old awareness during the encounter. It was weird, semi-spooky, and it simply “didn’t add up”. While looking at it I pondered picking it up and taking it home to show Dad (a master engineer of power plants, steel mills and water processing facilities). But Duke avoided the jack as though it was the Plague -- a sign to duly consider. And I had no idea of where to put it, what to do with it, and it ‘felt’ too strange.

The jack looked different than all other UFO configurations/shapes that I’d seen before and that I’ve seen since. I kind of have regrets about this probably dubious ‘opportunity’. But I played it safe and I’m still alive to tell you about it.

----------- Completing the end of this report form . . .

Contact me if you want. I can not accept (pay for) a collect call. I don't prepay my phone with so much money. Also, I did not see the object land. It was already on the ground when I saw it. Now, I live in Spain.

Posted 2013-11-11