A California witness at Rancho Santa Margarita reported a UFO encounter from 1999 when a ball of light about the size of a beach ball appeared in front of his vehicle, according to testimony in Case 82195 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
The witness says it was a clear and sunny day, in broad daylight, on a very familiar road, while driving his car with friends about 2:30 p.m. on July 10, 1999, when the incident began.
“What I can only describe as some kind of a ‘ball’ of light about the size of a large beach ball appeared, very suddenly, out of nowhere, directly in front of my car,” the witness stated. “In a bit of a panic, I asked my friends if they saw it too and they all definitely did.”
The group was stunned and the witness says they were not sure what to do.
“It appeared to be floating/hovering/flying about three feet off the ground, and it was moving with us. There was no physical structure to it, as it appeared to be literally made of light. The light varied in color and was dynamic, not static. It was almost impossibly bright, like no other light source I’ve even seen, even though it was the middle of the day.”
The object appeared about 30 feet in front of the vehicle.
“And it seemed to be matching my speed. I was going about 40 mph at first, but I slowed down a little bit, not wanting to drive into it, but it seemed to slow down with me, remaining the same distance ahead of us. Then I sped up a little, and it did the same thing, matching my speed and remaining directly in front of my car.”
And then the object just disappeared.
“It was only there for a few seconds, maybe 10 or 15 seconds, before it vanished, just as it had appeared, into thin air. Also, there were definitely other cars on the road with me that day too, both behind me and in the lanes next to me and slightly behind me, but I have no idea if anyone other than my friends and I saw it. This happened in a pre-iphone/smartphone/cameraphone world, so none of us got any photos or video. The image I uploaded was created by me, years later, using Photoshop and a screenshot from Google street view of about where it happened.”
California MUFON Field Investigator Dianne Hall is investigating.
MUFON has several historical cases in their witness database with accounts of objects moving along with vehicles. In particular, three Arizona accounts include fascinating testimony in cases closed as Unknowns. These are Case 27685, May 19, 2010, Congress, AZ; Case 29547, June 10, 2011, near Kingman, AZ; and Case 29703, June 24, 2011, Flagstaff, AZ.
Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
