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Witness in Ontario photographs “rectangular box-shaped” UFO

A witness in the town of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada can not identify a strange object photographed on July 11, 2017 from an apartment balcony. The witness described the object as “rectangular box-shaped,” and says the object hovered slowly overhead and at one point changed direction.

Witness photograph. (Credit: MUFON)
Witness photograph. Click image to see full-size. (Credit: MUFON)

The witness submitted the report to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) earlier today, along with several pictures the witness took from the witness’ apartment balcony.

The witness claims to have spotted that object at about 4:15 pm. The witness described the object’s movement as “floating” or “sailing” overhead. When it got closer to the witness, the object changed direction. The witness said the object was about the size of a small vehicle, such as a Mini Cooper.

“It looked like a large, rectangular, metallic box,” explained the witness. “How it was airborne, and how it remained so, completely puzzled and mystified me.”

The witness titled the report: “Unidentifiable, 3D rectangular box-shaped object drifting very smoothly over the city.”

Witness image cropped. Click to see full sized . (Credit: MUFON)
Witness image cropped. Click image to see full-size. (Credit: MUFON)

Here is the complete report, verbatim:

On July 11, 2017 at approximately 16:15 – 16:20 hrs., I witnessed an unidentifiable flying/floating object sailing over my area (East Hamilton, Ontario), from my apartment balcony. My balcony faces N/E, toward the bay of Lake Ontario. I stepped out to take a look at the construction crew tearing down an old high school across the road from my building, and to check on the current temperature, when this object caught my eye, drifting at first in my direction (fully south), coming from the north area of the city, closer to the lake. It was fairly large, and I estimated it to be almost the size of an Austin Mini Cooper car. It looked solid/3D, and was rectangular and box-like in shape. The colour was a dark grey, but parts of it appeared to be a lighter grey. It changed direction as it approached my area, turning left, and heading toward the town of Stoney Creek (south-east/east). My neighbourhood is on the border of Stoney Creek, and this object floated away over that town and out of sight. I captured a few photos of it with my mobile phone, but by the time I went into my apartment to get my phone and returned to the balcony with it, the object had moved further away, so the photos don’t show it very well. I had no idea what this object was when I first noticed it, or when it sailed past my location. It looked like a large, rectangular, metallic box. How it was airborne, and how it remained so, completely puzzled and mystified me. I was talking on my house phone (cordless handset) with a friend while all of this was going on, and I remember just laughing slightly when I first saw it, telling her, “Holy CRAP… there’s a UFO heading this way, and by that, I mean an unidentifiable flying object.” Then after it started to turn toward the east I said, “Well, now there’s a large metallic, rectanglar box just sailing past this neighborhood… gonna grab my phone and take some photos.” So I stepped inside, grabbed the phone, and took about a half-dozen photos, before it sailed too far away. I don’t know how to describe my feelings at the time, really… nothing extraordinary, because I had no idea what this object could be. I was just really puzzled/curious, more than anything, because I couldn’t figure out what it was. I’m still wondering about it, and would love to hear if anyone else happened to witness it too, and may have some idea of what it could be?!

The images do show a rectangular-shaped object in the sky. The slow movement would usually indicate something floating in the sky, such as a balloon, and party balloons do come in all shapes and sizes. Balloons do not often seem to make a change in directions, but it is possible if the wind changes direction. However, it is not immediately apparent what the object is.

Close-up of object in witness image. Click to see full-sized image. (Credit: MUFON)
Close-up of object in witness image. (Credit: MUFON)

Incidentally, we recently posted a UFO report from nearby Toronto from July 2, 2017.

Map of Hamilton. (Credit: MUFON)
Map of Hamilton. (Credit: MUFON)

The vast majority of UFO sightings turn out to be mundane objects, but once in awhile there are sightings that are much more difficult to explain. MUFON conducts investigations on sightings submitted to their website, and if they share their conclusions, we will let you all know. Meanwhile, others will likely chime in and we will try to keep you up to date with any discoveries. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the object in the comments below.

UPDATE 7-13-2017

A potential answer to this mystery has come to light. Reader Bryan Collins has pointed out that the object could be an advertising banner being pulled by an aircraft. If that is what this UFO turns out to be, it would not be the first time a banner of this sort has been mistaken for a UFO.

Bryan noticed, “If you look in the original photo, you can almost see the ‘v’ shape rope at the from of the banner.”

He also provided this image for comparison.

Image of an airplane pulling an advertisement banner.
Image of an airplane pulling an advertisement banner.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

 

Alejandro Rojas

Alejandro Rojas is a radio host for Open Minds Radio, editor and contributing writer for Open Minds magazine as well as OpenMinds.tv. For several years Alejandro was the official spokesperson for the Mutual UFO Network as the Director of Public Education. As a UFO/Paranormal researcher and journalist, Alejandro has spent many hours in the field investigating phenomena up close and personal. Alejandro has been interviewed by media organizations around the world, including the largest cable and network news agencies with several appearances on Coast to Coast AM.

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15 Comments

  1. I am the witness who photographed that rectangular, box-shaped, unidentified object over Hamilton and Stoney Creek. I would just like to clarify, there was no aircraft in sight, which was why I was so puzzled by this sight – none had passed by ahead of that object, and when I first spotted the mysterious “box”, it was heading toward my apartment building from the lake, then made a left-turn, and headed east, over Stoney Creek. As it turned, I could see it wasn’t flat, like a banner, but 3D, which is why I refer to it as a ‘box”. I’m not claiming it’s anything extra-terrestrial, but I’d sure like to know what it is?!

  2. Hi,
    My pal and I (we both live in Hamilton) often head out to the beach near Van Wagners Beach Rd. to sky watch.
    Last week we were there checking satellites on a Google App Satellite AR and looking for odd stuff as you do.
    A twin engine piston powered plane came from our right across the lake (east) and we thought it was towing a big square shiny banner, we couldn’t understand why at ten at night this should be the case, but we thought OK, but just a bit odd. As the plane got close to being directly in front of us, the square thing was now higher than the plane but still right behind it. Then suddenly there were two lights either side and behind the plane but no square shiny thing, the two lights moved closer together and then went straight up and continued until they just disappeared.
    Between us there was a lot of, “did you see that, and what the hell was it?” type comments, but it made no sense at all and is exactly as described above, it was very strange indeed.

  3. Years ago now I saw something similar driving along a country road mid-day outside Boulder, CO. where I used to live. It was just a large, metallic, shining box (more box than rectangular) floating away off in the distance with some sort of metallic orb behind it. In retrospect it is very hard for me to understand why I disregarded it as something mundane like a blip apart from the fact it was far away. I just told myself it must have been and that was that. I doubt it was now.

  4. To Mr. Snudge: Hi and thanks for your response. There was no plane in sight anywhere in the sky when I saw the rectangular/square box-shaped, two-toned grey metallic looking object. I say “metallic” because of the colour(s)… it wasn’t close enough for me to really see what it was “made” of.

    Interestingly, it continued to head east for a while… for long enough, that it passed over St. Catharines a little later and was not only seen, but also captured on video by another witness, named Derek Bennett. While Derek was out driving, he spotted and filmed this UFO it as it passed directly over the street he was driving along! When I saw it, it appeared to move in a very straight, smooth path, yet it seemed to be turning or rotating in position, as well. This movement is much more apparent in the Dereks’ video capture, seen here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqLfySWTSHs

  5. I was travelling North of Barrie, near Spring water on HWY 400 about 8 weeks ago. I saw a large, rectangular, green , flattish, with what looked like jet packs on the bottom, and lights. The green was an army type green. It was silent. It moved slowly just over the top of the tree line ( which was composed of mixed coniferous; mainly pines) in a Northward direction. I have now history of belief or interest in UFO’s and this is a real sighting.

  6. Hi,
    Last month i had the same experience here in the netherlands. An rectangular black/grey object, not moving…no sound…no airplane in sight. Them it moved in a straight line, a couple of times.
    a really strange phenomenon. i reported it on a dutch website for ufo sightings.

  7. I saw a simular object twice less than 20 years ago in the west part of the Netherlands over a small town flying eastwards. I saw it much closer above me with clear weather and it was a grey box flying at an altitute of 600-800 ft with a speed of I think 30-40 miles an hour. There were no wings or propellers and no sound at all.

  8. I seen the same boxed shape object on April 7th 2018 flying over Lake Erie in Cleveland. I couldn’t tell exactly how long it was, but from the distance I was away from it, about 3-4 miles, it had to be anywhere from 50 to 100 ft long.

  9. Hi

    I have searched online for any sighting of a rectangular-shaped UFO and discovered this post.

    I would just like to add that I too have witnessed an elongated rectangular-shaped UFO here in New Zealand whilst driving during daytime on the 7th of December at 1:45PM. I am still very much perplexed to what exactly it was what I have witnessed… I was driving down a straight highway and my eye caught a glimpse of an object being totally stationary – hovering over an embankment next to the road. Since an airport is quite close by, my first thought was that this is probably some kind of new radar but the object had no support at all. I was in total amazement. It was between 3 to 5 metres in length, bright white and only after the sighting, I had a strange recollecting of two diagonal black stripes at the UFO’s right bottom corner. As a drove onwards for another 400 metres, I continued to look to the left and as the embankment passed, (to my astonishment), I saw the same object in the far distance stationary, yet hovering infront of a tall tree! There could have been two objects or the one I initially spotted could have moved away from the road towards the trees. I am just so frustrated that I can’t talk to anyone about it. I did however inform the airport but it’s been almost four months and no one has ever bothered to get in touch or to corroborate my sighting at all. I am one million percent certain of what I had witnessed was not mistaken identity of any kind.

  10. My wife and I were walking along Ocean Beach in San Francisco in 2016 at around 3:00am. We saw a craft hovering above the water with just a small red blinking light. It was moving north to south slowly along the waters edge roughly 70 to 90 feet above the beach and about 50 yards away when we noticed it. after about 3 min., it came right towards us and stopped no more than twelve feet above us. I could have easily hit it with a football. It shined a light on us. bright but not overwhelming. It was a two toned metallic box the shape of a brick. It made no noise. It seemed military at the time. After about two seconds it turned off the light and slowly went about its business. It briefly shined the light on the water then went off into the darkness

  11. Me and my son 10 years old saw two box shaped rectangular grey/brown UFOs stationed very high above my residence in Baulkham Hills, NSW, Australia 2015 around 1pm. One disappeared quickly and the other one was visible for about 30 seconds and then disappeared. Didn’t have my phone to capture it. We can still vividly remember. Very closely looking like the photos of this article.

  12. Lainey
    July 15, 2017 at 7:14 pm
    I am the witness who photographed that rectangular, box-shaped, unidentified object over Hamilton and Stoney Creek. I would just like to clarify, there was no aircraft in sight, which was why I was so puzzled by this sight – none had passed by ahead of that object, and when I first spotted the mysterious “box”, it was heading toward my apartment building from the lake, then made a left-turn, and headed east, over Stoney Creek. As it turned, I could see it wasn’t flat, like a banner, but 3D, which is why I refer to it as a ‘box”. I’m not claiming it’s anything extra-terrestrial, but I’d sure like to know what it is?!
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    Hey Lainey,

    I also saw the exact same object with a friend. Might have also been 2017, but I think it may have been 2018? Not sure of the date. Well, both of us just happened to be looking up at the sky right in the daytime when we saw what appeared to be a bright flash along the Eastern horizon…..then all of a sudden we both saw this flat black object go right across the sky coming from the Eastern part of Lake Ontario. It moved towards the West and my buddy grabbed his 7×50 binoculars and we took turns looking at it. It was something I have never seen before in my entire life. I study Astronomy and I have 10 inch reflecting telescope and there was no way it was a plane with a banner on the back of it like the pic above. It was really sunny out and there was no reflection at all on this thing. It was jet black and flat black in color. It moved really weird. Super hard to explain. We were both freaked out as it moved pretty fast over the sky and there was not even any sound at all…so that completely rules out a plane or aircraft of any type..or helicopter. I was on Nash Rd in his backyard when we both saw it. His wife saw it as well with us. Man this is great that I found this page.

  13. While returning to Virginia from a weekend road trip to Atlantic City with my mom, we were driving on a two-lane road in farmland near Buena NJ on Sunday, September 11, 2016 at 1 pm, when my mom spotted a small black object slowly moving from right to left in the distance across a field following a treeline and heading our way. “What is that?” she remarked. I strained to see what it was but had no clue. However, the timing was perfect and when it crossed over the road about 50 yards in front of us just above the treetops, there was no mistaking the tennis court-size perfect black rectangle on edge and I suddenly realized “That’s a UFO!” We were as close as 25 yards at one point as we approached the treeline where it had crossed over the road. Now it was on my left and I was able to see it in clear detail, particularly noting the slightly darker hexagonal beehive pattern that covered the entire surface. It continued moving slowly in a perfectly straight line without disturbing the trees below and had no visible means of propulsion, as well as (thankfully) ignoring us. Glancing back after passing the object, I observed the “opposite” surface was “glowing” with a bright white light (Note: There are reports online of “white” rectangle UFOs) and from the side was only a few feet “thick” — a thin flat panel.

    At that point I hadn’t thought about UFOs in about 20 years and to attempt a photo never occurred to me while I was driving and observing. My instinct was to get away from there as fast as possible. Not being mentally prepared for such an encounter made it a rather shocking experience and we were pretty quiet the rest of the three hour drive home.

    The object moved in a manner exactly like the black rectangle filmed over Las Vegas (search Las Vegas black rectangle UFO). Another point of interest is while researching these objects I came across a report of a black rectangle sighting in Elmendorf Texas (search Dark Rectangylar UFO Mesquite TX–it’s in the comments) on the same day, but about 2 hours after my encounter! I had no sense that the object was “otherworldly” other than it exhibited flight technology that certainly is far beyond anything publicly known today. There are many similar sightings reported online of this type of UFO, however it doesn’t seem to have the same interest of prominent investigators that the Black Triangles, Tic Tacs, Orbs and other types do. Let’s hope that changes!

    Sent from the all new AOL app for Android

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