NUFORC Sighting 73021

Occurred: 2008-02-23 01:45 Local
Reported: 2009-10-26 13:12 Pacific
Duration: 30 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Crystal Lake, IL, USA

Shape: Fireball


Large Flaming Football-Shaped Object Over Crystal Lake, Illinois

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 was a cold, crisp, and clear-sky night in Crystal Lake.. the stars were exceptionally bright this evening and really stood out from the dark sky they resided in. At approximately 1:45 AM, I was desparately trying to get our dog to come back in the house after having just let her out 5 - 10 minutes or so prior to the event. The reason for trying to get our dog back in the house so quickly - was that she had started to bark at something and I didn't want her barking to disturb our neighbors. So, I went out into our back yard and found our dog just sitting in the snow in the middle of our yard barking at something up in the air.

At first I thought it might be a squirrel, rabbit, or raccoon - which we have seen in our neighborhood on more than once occassion - so I scanned our one main tree in our backyard for sign of one of these animals but didn't see anything despite our dog still barking. It was then that a huge football-sh! aped object appeared out of nowhere in the southwest sky. The object was more rounded on the ends (as opposed to coming to a point like a football), and was completely on fire.. it was a large flaming object that suddenly appeared, remained motionless for 10 seconds or so, and then rocketed off in a southwest direction at a speed that was - I would say - impossible. It left the entire observable night sky area in under 1 second. It went from (seemingly) standing still, to being gone in under a second. The object did not have any lights or sound.

Posted 2009-12-12

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