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As seen on UFO Hunters On the History Channel
A duo of California private eyes have taken on the unusual case of a UFO photographer who mysteriously vanished into cyberspace after posting his photos on the Internet, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Shortly after posting photos of the clunky-looking spacecraft hovering over a utility pole on Craigslist.org, an Internet persona known only as “Raji” disappeared. The mystery peaked the interest of London-based Open Minds group, which specializes in “UFOlogy,” the Times reported.
An unidentified woman representing the Open Minds group then hired private eyes Frankie Dixon and T.K. Davis to help find Raji. She told the detectives that she e-mailed “Raji” shortly after he posted the pictures, and he said he snapped them in Capitola, Calif. Before she could ask more questions, Raji’s e-mail account was canceled and he wasn’t heard from again.
But Raji was not alone. Others in the Internet world have allegedly posted photos of the craft, which has become known as the “California drone” due to its apparent inability to fit a person inside, the paper reported.
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Where's that power pole? And the guy who said he photographed a flying saucer above it? Two down-to-earth private eyes want to know.
By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 18, 2008
CAPITOLA, CALIF. -- Private eye T.K. Davis has worked his share of
oddball cases. Once he tracked down a one-armed woman wanted for
child endangerment. He staked out a backyard to catch a guy throwing
dirt clods into a pool. When you make your living answering life's
mysterious questions at $100 an hour, you take a few calls out of
the blue.
He works the streets of this suburban town near Santa Cruz, where
dog-walking mothers and aging hippies compete for beach time. Oh,
sure, it might seem innocent enough, but it can get a little creepy
if you let it. People might see things -- unusual objects in the
sky, for instance -- and not say a thing for fear of being
ridiculed.
At times like that, a private eye comes in handy. He can look
around, ask a few hard questions -- even if it means risking his
reputation built over 30 years as a deputy sheriff.
That's more or less where Davis finds himself now, behind the wheel
of his blue Ford Explorer, with his partner Frankie Dixon. They're
cruising down streets, looking at utility poles and trying to figure
out: Is that the one in these three pictures, the pictures with the
unidentified flying object?
The photographs came from -- surprise! -- the Internet. In May,
someone using the name Raji posted them on Craigslist. All three
show a lone wooden power pole with its jumble of crossbeams and
wires. Hovering just above it is some kind of flying saucer.
The thing looks part campy "Star Trek" prop, part slapdash
collection of handyman tools, with metallic limbs jutting from a
cylindrical sphere. Examined closely, one of the arms bears some
kind of writing.
Raji told people he took the photos in Capitola. Then he vanished
into cyberspace.
UFO hunters around the world started buzzing. Apparently, Raji
wasn't alone. Elsewhere, other alleged eyewitnesses posted pictures
and video of the quirky little craft. It became known as the
"California drone" because it was clear from the photos that no
human could have fit inside to fly the thing.
Soon, the mystery became too tantalizing to be left to Internet
speculators. Somebody who knew what he was doing had to be hired to
locate that pole, which might lead to finding the elusive Raji.
Enter Davis, 62, and Dixon, 60.
Men in Black they're not. To cover his middle-age paunch, Davis
prefers windbreakers and blue jeans to the crisp suits of
Hollywood's extraterrestrial sleuths. Dixon is more Man in White. On
this day, he's wearing a Vegas-bright white sweater suitable for the
first tee at the golf course -- which is where he spends most of
this time since retiring from police work seven years ago.
"See how close that one is?" Dixon says of one power pole, comparing
it with a photo. Their SUV is easing along a shady street, its cab
cloudy with smoke from Davis' cheap Hav-A-Tampa cigars.
"I like that one," Davis says.
"No," Dixon says, "it's turned the wrong way."
They motor on, scanning the sky.
A onetime captain in the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department,
Davis considers himself an expert in scam artists and nut cases. So
his radar went up in January when he got the call from a woman in
London.
She said she was from the Open Minds Forum, an Internet group
specializing in "UFOlogy." She said she represented people who were
interested in the drone and wanted to contact Raji and others who
claimed in Web postings to have seen the craft. There was the guy in
Bakersfield who called himself Chad. There was the hiker and the
bicyclist, both from the San Jose area. Nobody used last names. So
far, nobody could be found.
Before calling Davis, the Open Minds group had e-mailed Raji. He
told them he snapped the picture from his fiancee's parents' home.
They hoped to ask more questions, but he suddenly closed his e-mail
account. They spent months looking for him before deciding to hire a
professional.
Find the power pole in the photo, the woman told Davis, and you'll
find the house. And Raji.
Oh, and one more thing: She didn't want to be identified.
Here We Go Again! Roswell All Over!!!!
Officials: UFO sightings were military jets
But residents of Texas town say they saw jets chasing unidentified object
FORT WORTH, Texas - U.S. military officials said Wednesday that fighter jets were training in a rural area the night of Jan. 8 when dozens of people reported seeing a UFO.
Although officials at the Naval Air Station Reserve Base in Fort Worth initially said none of their planes were in the area of the UFO reports, they changed their story Wednesday, saying that 10 F-16 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp. were training near Stephenville, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth, about the time of the sightings.
But, some residents say the military's revelation actually bolsters their claims because several reported seeing at least two fighter jets chasing an object.
"This supports our story that there was UFO activity in that area," said Kenneth Cherry, the Texas director of the Mutual UFO Network, which took more than 50 reports from locals at a meeting last weekend. "I find it curious that it took them two weeks to 'fess up. I think they're feeling the heat from the publicity."
Several dozen people swear that what they saw was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane.
"I guarantee that what we saw was not a civilian aircraft," Steve Allen, a pilot and freight company owner, said Wednesday.
Allen said that the fighter jets' training area in the Brownwood Military Operating Area, which includes Stephenville's Erath County, is not in the airspace where he saw the object. Also, Jan. 8 was not the only day sightings were reported.
Anne Frazor, who owns a fabric store in Stephenville said many in town have seen military aircraft zoom overhead from time to time as part of training operations. But she said that is different than what she saw Jan. 8.
"I couldn't begin to say what it was, but to me it wasn't planes," Frazor said.
Since the reported sightings two weeks ago, the 17,000-resident town has had some fun with the international publicity. Some high-schoolers made T-shirts that read "Stephenville: the new Roswell" on the front and "They're here for the milk!" on the back. A picture features flying saucer beaming up a cow.
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The U.S. Air Force says it has not investigated UFO sightings since 1969 when it ended Project Blue Book, which examined more than 12,600 reported UFO sightings — including 700 that were never explained. That program started a few months after a 1947 crash near Roswell, N.M., which the government said involved a top-secret weather balloon but others involved later said was an alien spacecraft.
"What we want is the government to admit there are UFOs and what they know about them," Cherry said.