NUFORC UFO Sighting 187683

Occurred: 1968-08-02 20:48 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2025-02-12 18:14 Pacific
Duration: 5-6 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: New York, NY, USA
Location details: Central Park, NYC on the gently sloping hill just east of Wollman Skating Rink

Shape: Light
Color: Red
Estimated Size: Very high up. No way to know.
Viewed From: Land
Direction from Viewer: Came from the south, paused over head, moved off to the west
Angle of Elevation: 90
Heading: From the south, paused over head, off to the west
Closest Distance: Very high up. No way to know.
Estimated Speed: Incredibly fast, then stopped,then incredibly fast
Characteristics: Lights on object

Tiny red dot at very high altitude zoomed in from the south, stopped overhead 2-3 seconds, zoomed off at 90 degree angle to the west.

In NYC in 1968, in July or August, I along with a few friends were as usual attending an outdoor concert at the Wollman Skating Rink in the southern end of Central Park. Being 15-16 years old and NYC natives, we’d attended many outdoor concerts there. I’d also been ice skating there with some of these friends many times since age 12, so I was very familiar with that area of the park.

On its northern and eastern sides, the skating rink is surrounded by hills. Depending on which bands were performing, sometimes instead of buying tickets we’d bring blankets and sit or lie down on the softly sloping hill on the eastern side of the skating rink. The rink is close enough to the edges of Central Park that you can see the tops of the skyscrapers surrounding it.

One July or August evening in summer ‘68, I was lying side by side with one of those friends on a blanket on the gently sloping hill just east of the rink listening to the music looking up at the sky. Suddenly, from the south way high up a tiny red dot zoomed in at incredible speed from over the skyscrapers and stopped directly over us/the concert. It paused there for what I estimate as 2-3 seconds and then zoomed off at a 90 degree angle, again at incredible speed, to the west towards New Jersey and disappeared. My friend, who was also lying on her back looking at the sky, and I both turned to each other in amazement and said, “Did you see that?” None of our other friends saw this because they were sitting up. I’ve since tried recounting this story with her, but she doesn’t want to talk about it.

My theory about what I saw that evening is: The “red dot” was doing surveillance and stopped overhead to take some pictures. There’d been two major political assassinations earlier in 1968 (Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy), so I conjecture the “red dot” was checking to see what the thousands of people gathered in the park were up to.


Posted 2025-02-14