Willoughby Hills, Ohio (6-16-2004)
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
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Kenny Young Briefing
On Wednesday, June 16, 2004, a veteran Deputy Sheriff in Lake County, Ohio and his wife observed an unusual triangular-shaped aircraft from two separate vantage points at nearly the same time. The husband and wife couple discussed their experience in detail the following afternoon.
The wife reported sighting the bizarre aircraft at a closer vantage point and with more dramatic detail, spotting this unusual object while driving east along State Route 91 near the State Route 91 and 306 intersections near Willoughby Hills, Ohio (Lake County).
Deputy Sheriff Kevin Coleman sought to report the two sightings to the National UFO Center, advising of the situation in a comprehensive summary on the N.U.F.O.R.C.'s "online report form." His report and comments containing other details of the sighting are enclosed below.
Separately, the witness was also contacted by telephone on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 for additional follow-up.
Coleman advised that he holds a position as Deputy Sheriff with the Lake County Sheriff's Department, and will see his 11th year in service this coming October. He was promoted to detective within 3-years of duty and has investigated all types of crimes and is a veteran SWAT member. He has also investigated plane crashes in vicinity. Deputy Sheriff Coleman reports that the high-flying object he saw traveling from west to east last Wednesday, June 16 was nothing he was familiar with. The object was apparently higher than a jet airliner that was also seen flying through the area.
Most interestingly, according to the witness, was how this unidentified object seemed to be self-luminous.
"I was concerned to find out if this object was just reflecting sunlight. But after studying this for the length of time that I could, it did not seem to change in intensity or seem to be reflecting light in any way," he said. "It had an angular shape to it, giving me the impression that it was self luminous. In my opinion, it was self- luminous. "It was definitely traveling in the easterly direction of the Perry Nuclear plant when I first saw it," Coleman said. "Then this thing seemed to slow down and get bigger. The object was just 'gone,' not accelerating or flew off somewhere, it simply disappeared.
"I had a good visual on it, there was no question about it moving off."
When asked further about its departure method or how sure he was of this observation, Coleman affirmed his certainty that the object did not depart in a conventional sense. "This was, without question, the hardest part for me to explain about the situation… was how it was gone. I mean it was just gone." Coleman said that the duration of his sighting was between 10 to 20 seconds from the time he first noticed the object traveling from west to east and increasing in apparent size to the point of its apparent disappearance.
The near-simultaneous sighting by Coleman's wife of a boomerang-shaped aircraft hovering only 100-feet from the ground was far more dramatic, according to Coleman, and the duration of that sighting was over 1-minute and discontinued due to traffic circumstances.
First viewed to her right and in a northerly direction, Coleman's wife thought the object was some type of military aircraft that was possibly in a holding pattern. "My wife thought this plane was somehow related to the events of September 11th, or even in some kind of investigation related to 911," Coleman said. "What made this really interesting is that she was looking out her window to her right, which would be in a northerly direction which would have generally been the same direction as my sighting, "he said.
When asked if he notified any other police agencies of the sighting, he said that he did not, only filing the report to NUFORC.
Coleman was asked what his thoughts were about bringing this situation to the attention of Homeland Security personnel, or if he feels there is any need for concern due to the uncertain nature of the UFO and its June 16 proximity to the Perry Nuclear Power station.
"The concept of a huge, hovering, abnormal aircraft doesn't register with us to take action on. I don't know what this thing was, but it was far outside the scope of our routine training or duty. This did not seem to be an actionable situation. What I saw was not traditional."
When Deputy Sheriff Coleman was asked if he had any objection to his name being listed in this report, he said:"I have no objection to my name being used. This is a subject that is not a hobby to me, my interest in this is simply reporting the truth about this matter. I believe I have been affected by this and nobody has given me a reasonable explanation for it."
Comments from Kenny
The Perry Nuclear Power Plant is situatedon the Lake Erie shore about 35 miles northeast of Cleveland and between8 to 10-miles northeast of the June 16th UFO sighting location. On June22 it was announced that the power station will undergo stepped-up scrutinydue to equipment breakdowns and other issues. The plant had been shut downon May 21 due to equipment malfunction, several weeks before the UFO sighting.
In March of 1988 a dramatic UFO sightingtook place at the northern-most point of Route 91 (known as the EastlakeUFO Case) where Coast Guard officers and civilian witnesses watched a UFOover Lake Erie. Several smaller objects were alleged to have advanced fromthe large UFO over the lake and one smaller UFO was seen near the PerryNuclear Power Plant.
Witness Testimonial
Occurred : 6/16/2004(Entered as : 06/16/2004)
Reported: 6/17/200410:04:53 PM 22:04
Posted: 6/18/2004
Location: Willoughby Hills, OH
Shape: Triangle
Duration:1 minute
Triangle object, multiple witnesses, 100 feet from ground. Hovering over wooded area
Some brief but much needed history behind this sighting is needed before writing this report to you. My wife is as un-likely a person, in my mind, to discuss UFO sightings as I've ever met. We were sitting on our back deck just talking about our work days the night before when we stumbled upon a dualsighting, hers much better than mine but ironic to say the least.
I am a veteran((law enforcement officer in Lake County, Ohio)) (20 miles east of Cleveland on Lake Erie) and in good standing within. I'll tell you the story in a chronological order as it occurred to me and how it unfolded to me as well. To begin, this is not the first sighting I've had but the first in which my wife and I saw something together. We were apart when it occurred and we did not have the opportunity to talk about it when it happened. This is, however, my first report I've ever filed with any agency.
I signed up to work a side job for the ((deleted--local community)) and was waiting for the rest of the bingo crowd to arrive. I was in the parking lot waiting to direct the patrons into their spots when there was a lull in the traffic coming in. As you probably know, there has been some pretty violent weather in the area and I was checking a storm that had blown over (approx. 1745hrs). I first saw a very normal jetliner cruising through the sky at normal height and speed when I saw an object not familiar to me.
I've seen satellites, helicopters, small planes, big planes and weather balloons due to the fact we live 25 miles from Hopkins Airport and have three smaller air fields in our patrol zone as well as a nuclear plant 10 miles away (busy with activity). I followed the plane for about 15 seconds and lost sight of it after it flew over a cloud deck. I continued to check out the sky to see if threatening weather may be on the way. I then saw this object in the sky that was much higher than the plane I'd just seen. The speed was unreal compared to the speed of the plane lower in the sky. I picked it up much further to the east that I'd seen the plane just seconds prior. At first, I thought it was a satellite because of the small overall look it had and incredible speed it appeared to be cruising at. I then realized that it should have been difficult to see a satellite with it being daylight. After just a second or two, it appeared to get bigger but I realized it was getting closer. I saw what appeared to be a triangle object that was still far away... probably at 10,000 feet, but it was oddly shaped and had no wings or tail. It looked to be about the size of my thumbnail in the sky. I dismissed it, as I have in the past, and just wondered as to its origin. My day ended with nothing else worth noting.
That brings me to my wife and I talking on the deck. She and I were just talking about everyday things and our work days the day before, I never talk to her about UFO's and the like and had pretty much forgotten about my "sighting." My wife then said something about her needing to call me at 1645 hrs the day I worked the bingo detail but she didn't because I was probably en route to the location or already in the armory (location of the bingo game) where my cell phone gets no reception. My wife then told me what happened and said she was driving east on I-90 eastbound between SR 91 and SR 306 and said, " I saw a triangle thing in the sky, I was so scared cause it looked like it was watching something." I asked her what she meant and had still forgotten about what I'd seen and expected a normal explanation from her.
My wife proceeded to tell me that the 'thing' was hovering and not moving. She said that the 'thing' made no sound and didn't even bounce in the sky. I asked her if it could of been one of those self-made gliders moving real slow like they do and she became adamant that this thing was "HUGE, no way." I realized at this point that she didn't have a clue what she was describing in respect to the relevance to UFO reporting. She's never heard of the triangle phenomena or even the UFO research being conducted. It was like asking an innocent kid about seeing a crime or describing their first home run....it was completely honest and very compelling. I then recalled what I had seen but didn't tell her because she gets really freaked out about these types of things, you'd see if you ever spoke to her.
I then asked her if she could tell how close it was to the ground. I figured she'd give me an airplane type altitude. She looked at one of the trees in our neighborhood and said "about 100 feet above that tree." I then became very curious but skeptical about her sighting and asked her if she was sure it wasn't a plane or something else she'd seen before. I know my wife and it was clear that she was freaked out because she had went to work and told her friends she thought something was going on with "911" and we were being watched. I told her that I would have been the first to know being that I'm in law enforcement and being next to an international airport and nuclear plant(at least I'd like to think so). My wife then told me that she thought it was a plane but she couldn't believe it was a plane because it just stood still in the air. She said that she had to stop looking at it because, as she kept driving, she was losing her field of vision at it, and thought she might wreck if she kept trying to watch it as she kept driving. She said she saw it over a very thick wooded area and thought it was looking at something. We live only 5 miles from that location. She then arrived at work and her sighting ended. She described the object as being a triangle with no wings and no tail. She said it was a darker gray shape with no lights or no other markings worth noting. Anyway, our story and whereabouts can be easily verified as well as her telling her co-employees about it and our weird way we came about this story. I would have never written if she hadn't told me about her story. Times dates and actions during the sighting can be verified. Thank you.
Credits
- Special thanks to the late Kenny Young for this research, Peter Davenport, NUFORC and researcher Dan Wilson
