NUFORC Sighting 175294

Occurred: 1988-10-01 20:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2023-04-18 19:35 Pacific
Duration: 20 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Salem, OR, USA
Location details: Parking lot of apartments on 30th Ave. NE.

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

A UFO followed us from I-5 near Fisher Road and as we drove into our parking area it was hovering 75 ft. above us.

Our encounter was on a crisp fall night like any other, with errands to be completed. The sky was clear and full of stars. My wife and I were returning from the grocery store, driving northward along Fischer Road in Salem.
It is a residential thoroughfare that parallels Interstate 5. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something hovering over the freeway. The unnatural stillness and lack of visible support for the object had caught my eye. At first I thought it was a traffic helicopter, which by itself would have been unusual in this area. As I looked closer at the object, the uniqueness of it compelled me to pull the car over to the side of the road and stop. I got out and listened hard for the sound of rotor noise, but there was none. The fact that it was only about 200 feet away made this highly unusual. The craft had lights about its perimeter, but the exact outline of the body was strangely indistinct, like it had a low profile when viewed from the side. My wife was also observing the strange craft. Exchanging glances with her, I got back in the car and we drove on to Silverton Road, turning left and passing under the freeway and several blocks westward to our apartment. As we turned into the parking lot, we both viewed a sight that is still fixed in my mind like a photograph. There was the hovering craft directly over the parking lot. It had followed us over from the freeway. I had to drive toward it as I pulled into our parking spot. We watched in amazement for a few moments and then decided to get out. There were no bright lights shining downward, and nobody else was outside at the apartment complex at this hour to view it besides my wife and I. There was just it and the two of us, as if we had been selected out of a nighttime crowd that was too busy to look upward. One of my impressions at the time was how unusually easy it was for something so remarkable to be otherwise unobserved in the dark sky. Obviously whoever was piloting the UFO had seen us watching them, and they were now looking at us out of curiosity or to see if we represented some kind of threat. At this point the craft was about 75 feet overhead. I could see clearly it was perhaps 30 feet across, with a triangular shape that was outlined with small round lights. There was no significant sound coming from it, only a faint humming that was barely noticeable. The way it hovered absolutely motionless made it all the more fantastic. The craft quietly defied all rational attempts to explain it. It was real, a dark gray triangle floating in a sea of stars. We stared at it for what seemed like thirty seconds, with tension slowly building. We hastened inside our apartment and walked directly across to the patio door to look out. The craft was slowly moving southward, building speed with deliberate precision. Its ponderous mass floated like it was a feather, disappearing into the night sky. Since we had said little during the event, I asked what my wife had seen as verification, and she mirrored my observations. Looking at the clock, we were relieved to see no time was missing.

Posted 2023-05-19