An Illinois law enforcement officer patrolling in Niles reported watching two silent, pulsing, red sphere-shaped UFOs, according to testimony in Case 57602 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
The officer was patrolling in the 8700 block of North Milwaukee Avenue about 11:15 p.m. on July 3, 2014, when the objects were first seen.
“My eye was caught by two pulsing, round red lights in the southwest sky, one on top of the other, which appeared to be a cell or water tower in the vicinity of Maryhill Cemetery,” the witness stated. “This caused me to do a complete double-take, because I know there are no such structures in that area.”
One of the objects began moving slowly from west to east.
“The other followed in a ‘wing-man’-type formation slightly behind and further south than the object to the forefront. I thought, because of their basketball-like appearance and large size, that they were helicopters of the ‘bubble-cockpit’ variety, flying low on the southern horizon.”
The witness parked his squad car, shut off the lights and engine, and got out.
“As soon as I got out of my car, I realized that these were not helicopters, and were much farther away and larger than I originally thought. There was no helicopter sound whatsoever in the relatively quiet night air, and the presence of many airplanes in the sky (Niles and Park Ridge are under major flight paths in and out of O’Hare) provided me with an excellent contrasting point of reference to what the UFOs at least ‘were not.’”
The objects glided eastbound, slowly and deliberately.
“They were basketball-sized spheres, approximately five-times the size of the strobe lights on an airplane, with a shimmery white halo completely circling the sphere. The red light was unlike anything I have ever seen, having a pulsating, almost ‘liquid’ or ‘living’ appearance, and glowing, rather than piercing the night sky. The white light appeared like an aura (similar to the heat you see emanating from a rocket or jet engine). I was awestruck.”
The witness described the object’s movements.
“When the first craft was almost directly in front of my line of sight, the spheres both suddenly ‘receded’ quickly up and into the western sky (back where I first saw them, but much higher). The UFO that was offset to the rear disappeared so quickly that I barely had time to register that it was gone. The craft that was more ‘in the lead’ receded up and back to the point that it looked like a red star, and then blinked out of sight.”
The officer said that there were two witnesses to the event.
“I saw that there were two adult male citizens, one African-American and one Caucasian, looking up at the sky from a residential driveway across the street and south of my location. I approached them and we all verbally confirmed that what we had seen had not been fireworks or flares of any kind, but were definitely very large, unidentifiable aircraft. We were all very excited. I remember that my emotions were in a ‘condition red’ or ‘high alert’ status – I remained in this psychological state for many hours after the sighting. The African-American citizen kept repeating ‘warp speed! They took off into space at warp speed!’”
The witness mentioned that other electronic anomalies were happening during the event.
“Two things I would like to point out are that – one – for the 20 minutes or so prior to this sighting, I was unable to connect to the Internet on both my Blackberry cell phone or my in-car Panasonic Tough Book Laptop with Verizon air card. Five minutes after the spheres ascended out of sight, both my telephone and in-car computer came back online. And two – I did not think to take photos of the craft because the camera on my Blackberry produces very poor quality photos. I’ve tried to take pictures of the full moon in the past, and they come out as a blurry white pin-dot of light. I am working on getting a record of any 911 calls for suspicious lights in the sky during this time period.”
Niles is a village in Cook County, Illinois, population 29,803. MUFON Illinois is investigating. Illinois has a current UFO Alert Rating of 4 with a higher than average number of recent reports nationally. Illinois had 22 UFO reports in July 2014 – the 12th highest reporting state – while California had 104 reports as the highest reporting state. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
The UFO Alert Rating System is based on five levels – 1 through 5 – where states with 150 or more reports for the month are rated an Alert 1; states with 100 or more reports are rated an Alert 2; 25 reports or more for the month are rated an Alert 3; 13 or more reports are rated an Alert 4; and those states with less than 13 reports for the month are an Alert 5.
You always listen with respect, when it´s a police officer explaining a UFO sighting. Well done reporting on that sighting. Police officer Gary Heseltine is worth checking out too..
I had a similar experience in Chicago at 12am. Chicago is East of Niles.
A friend and I were sitting on lake Michigan. We noticed lights in the sky(assumed they were planes) coming towards us, we both commented that the lights did in fact seem to be coming towards us. There was one that came pretty close and seemed to be looking, or checking us out. It was right above us, It was glowing, seemed alive, I remember thinking it seemed organic, in the sense that it wasn’t from a machine. It moved in such a way I thought it was like dancing in the sky. There were gusts of wind and the sky was illuminated from the lights. My friend and I couldn’t believe what was happening and were describing it to each other to make sure we both were seeing the same thing. We were both memorized by what we were experiencing. It lasted less than 3 minutes or so, I didn’t want to look away but I did so I could take a pic. Where we were was by docked boats, street lamps, the pic should have turned out something, instead it came out pitch black. A pic I had taken earlier in the night in the same area turned out perfectly fine. Whatever it was came as fast as it left.
My friend and I don’t know what we experienced but the fact that there was wind caused by it, and the fact it lit the sky up some and the fact we both saw the same thing is proof enough for me. Very similar to this story. I have been looking online to see if anyone else saw something that night.
I am shocked about reading the UFO sightings in Niles. My father told me when i was a child about a UFO experience he had in Niles around 1970. We lived on Knight street very close to Our Lady of Ransom school/church. He was in his early 20’s at the time and he went outside on the driveway late at night to have a smoke. He said that he saw a large circular craft with lights swaying back and forth at high speeds. He then said it stopped and then took off towards the sky at great speed. I asked him if it could have possibly been a plane or something, he said no way! He said he did not tell the neighbors as he did not want them to think that he was crazy.