CAPE GIRARDEAU SIGHTING 1/26/2002

 

Transcript of telephone interview given on January 30, 2002 by the winess, a Cape Girardeau police officer. Please note that names have been removed to protect  witness privacy. Interview conducted by Jon Wagner. This sighting was reported on the Jeff Rense radio program February  9, 2002. 

 

 

JW: We have the tape rolling, please tell me the story, with as much detail as you can.

 

PW: On Saturday, Jan 26 at aprox. 2145 hours, I was parked on Minnesota St and Highway 74 in Cape Girardeau [MO]. I was clocking eastbound traffic on Highway 74 with a handheld radar unit. At that time, I observed in the sky a, like a reflection of something. I looked up and I saw an object that I would estimate to be about 400 feet in altitude and if I was about 500-600 to my west I would have been directly under it. The object didn’t have any lights on it. I was light in color, like a white or a silver, because it was reflecting the lights from below. The only way I could see it was from the lights in the city and from traffic that was reflecting on the bottom of it. It was moving at a very slow rate of speed directly south bound. It crossed 74 and continued south and I lost sight of it as it went into an area where there aren’t any lights, were there just wasn’t anything to light it up. Right as I lost sight of it I pointed my handheld radar toward where it was at and I didn’t get a reading, which told me it wasn’t, uhm, like the standard metal you would have on an aircraft or on a vehicle. I contacted my dispatcher and asked them to call the Cape Girardeau airport. They didn’t get an answer at the control tower. I went ahead and went southbound on Kingshighway toward I-55 to see if I could get ahead of it, but I never could see it again. As far as I know, we don’t have any more reports on this incident.

 

JW: So it was going north to south?

 

PW: Yep.

 

JW: And it crossed right over 74 there.

 

PW: crossed right over 74 between Minnesota and Kingshighway, closer to the Minnesota side.

 

JW: What kind of area is it right there? Residential, commercial or…

 

PW: It’s an open area where in the last few years they have been building businesses. 74 is a fairly new highway, the new one they put in for the bridge [to East Cape Girardeau, IL] that they haven’t completed yet. Basically it went right over the Budweiser Distribution Center, up on the hill. Pretty much right over that Budweiser building.

 

JW: Was there a lot of traffic there at that time?

 

PW: There was just, the average amount.

 

JW: There were other cars in the area then.

 

PW: Yes

 

JW: Did you notice anyone else if anyone else saw it at all?

 

PW: Not that I noticed. Of course, once I saw it I really didn’t watch the traffic anymore; I was just staring at this object. But as far as I know, nobody stopped. I think if you were driving, you probably wouldn’t have saw it, just for the fact that it didn’t have lights on it. You would have had to have been kind of off at an angle like I was to see the lights from below reflecting on it. I think from a vehicle, it would have been difficult to have spotted if you were driving.

 

JW: Is this the first time you’ve seen anything like this?

 

PW: Yeah

 

JW: You were at a complete stop?

 

PW: Yeah, I was parked with my engine off, and my window down.

 

JW: Did you notice any noise what so ever with it?

 

PW: No, no noise at all. Then only noise I could hear was from traffic going by.

 

JW: Were there any animals in the area? Could you hear any dogs barking or anything like that?

 

PW: I didn’t notice. The area I was at, you really wouldn’t have too many animals. It’s not a big residential area there.

 

JW: What was the weather like when you were observing this?

 

PW: It was clear that night. It was kind of humid, and warmer than usual for this time of year.

 

JW: Was there a wind blowing?

 

PW: I don’t really recall, if there was wind or not.

 

JW: You called your dispatcher, and they tried to call the airport tower?

 

PW: Yeah, they tried to call the airport tower and they didn’t receive an answer. After they advised they did not receive an answer, I replied that I had just seen a low flying object flying over the city. Just wanted to let them know about it in case we got any more calls, especially after Sept. 11. We are a little bit more cautious about noticing anything, uh, odd.

 

JW: Was there any entry made on the blotter for the evening about this?

 

PW: I don’t think so. Really, we don’t take reports on incidents unless it involves a crime or accident. Just on things like this, we don’t actually take reports. I didn’t make a pass down entry on it so…the only thing I did was wrote a one page, just an unofficial report to give to our public relations people in case they received a call.

 

JW: You did call dispatch. Do you know how long those tapes are kept?

 

PW: I don’t know…probably forever. Everything is recorded.

 

JW: Do you think it would be possible to get a copy of the tape from that time?

 

PW: I don’t know if they would…I don’t know what the procedures are. I know I can’t authorize that. It would take a supervisor to release any tapes.

 

JW: Would it be easiest for one of us outside to start that process?

 

PW: That would just cause me a bunch of problems if I tried to do it.

 

JW: Ok

 

PW: But any citizen can make any request, if they wanted to.

 

JW: Well we don’t want to cause you any problems,

 

PW: Well, you know if I tried to initiate something like that, it would cause me a problem. Uh, Corporal [DELETED] is the, uh, kind of one of our main PR type of people that usually handle special requests like that from citizens.

 

JW: Who was the officer in charge that night?

 

PW: Sgt [DELETED] was…I didn’t have a supervisor on that night. I’m with the traffic division, and I was the only traffic officer out. My Sgt was home, but Sgt [DELETED] was the patrol Sear gent that night. He was supervising everyone on the street.

 

JW: What kind of radar do you have? Was it Doppler or laser?

 

PW: It was a Doppler. It was just an old handheld that I had, because I wasn’t in my usual car that night. It’s an old hand held for officers that want to use radar in a car that doesn’t have one.

 

JW: Do you know the last time it was calibrated?

 

PW: Monthly

 

JW: Had it already been done for January?

 

PW: Yeah, they do it something at the first part of the month, so it had just been a few weeks. Of course I was clocking cars with it, I know it was working ok.

 

JW: So it was working before and after the incident?

 

PW: yes

 

JW: Is it the type that has an audible reading as well as the number read out?

 

PW:  Yes

 

JW: And when you pointed it at the area, it had no sound or anything?

 

PW: Nothing at all. It didn’t reflect off of anything at all.

 

JW: If that had been an airplane at the same distance and altitude from you, would it have registered anything on the radar unit?

 

PW: Yes. Definitely. It was closer by several hundred feet than the vehicles that are coming around the curve eastbound on 74, and I always get a reading on cars as soon as they get around that curve. And it was closer than that.

 

JW: Has anyone else contacted you about this at all?

 

PW: No

 

JW: How did you get the number to report the sighting [to the National UFO Reporting Center?]?  How did that all that part happen?

 

PW: When I got back I told Sgt. [DELETED]  it and he said “You know actually people are supposed to report that. There are people who, uhm, want to keep up with things like that. They document that.” He looked around and found in one of our station commanders books that had a number for Mufon or something like that. We tried to call that, but we

weren’t getting an answer or it was asking for some kind of code or something like that, so it wasn’t working out. Dispatch looked in their Rolodex it said a number for the UFO Reporting Center. It had a number and that was the number I called.

 

JW: So there is no set protocol for handling this type of event?

 

PW: No, we don’t have any procedures for that. It was just that Sgt. [DELETED] said there were people that keep up with that and lets see if we can find the number for them. Maybe they can tell us what it is or if they are getting other calls on it.

 

JW: Have you happened to go back to that site, during the day or anything, since that evening?

 

PW: Yeah, I was there today.

 

JW: Did you notice anything out of the ordinary at all?

 

PW: No.

 

JW: Did you notice anything else flying around Saturday evening?

 

PW: I don’t recall seeing anything No, the normal air traffic we have around here is the air traffic to the airport. It always goes west of the city; the only aircraft that typically travels directly over the city is the two hospitals both have helicopters. They will fly right over town, but that’s the only thing we really ever see actually right over the city. Off-hand I don’t recall if I saw either Medivac unit in flight. I know I didn’t right at that time [of the sighting.] I would have remembered that.

 

JW: Tell me a little about your background. Have you lived in the area long?

 

PW: Originally I was an officer in [ANOTHER STATE] for about 7 years and I recently moved here after finding the job online. I had never even been to Cape Girardeau until the interview, but I’ve been here for about a year and a half now.

 

JW: What kind of feedback have you been getting at work since this?

 

PW: Typical. [teasing] People are asking me about it. Of course as the story spreads around it is getting exaggerated. People are saying “Oh he saw something touch down” or “He saw things zipping around in the sky.” But that’s not at all what I saw.

 

JW: Did anyone else relate to you anything they may have seen in the past?

 

PW: No, no one has mentioned seeing anything else.

 

JW: You turned in written report to your public relations people?

 

PW: Yes, just an FYI really. Nothing that will be kept, just something to give to him to have some info straight from me, you know how the rumor mill goes. If anyone asked him about it I wanted him to be briefed straight from me.

 

JW: Were you asked to not talk about this to anyone or get any guidance on that from your bosses?

 

PW: I was told that I probably shouldn’t have said anything over the radio.

 

JW: Ok. What is your feeling about if anyone from the general public asked the police department about this? How would they react?

 

PW: Well they probably would just, well I don’t know. I don’t think they would take it seriously.

 

JW: Would it be possible for you to draw a little sketch of what you saw.

 

PW: Yeah, it would be kinda hard because it wasn’t lit. This kinda sounds weird, but I was describing to somebody and I thought of this analogy: If you took a dark room and you took a little bit of light, laid a flashlight on the ground or a night light and you took a paper plate and you held it up and you looked at the bottom of it. That’s about what it would look like. Something white, round and the only way you could see it was from the light below. That would be similar to what it looked like. If that makes any sense.

 

JW: Was it a uniform color or ?

 

PW: To me it did. A very light color.

 

JW: Could you see any stars around it at all?

 

PW: Yes, I think it was a clear night, cause I think someone asked if it was clouds. It seems like we looked and said well that couldn’t be it because there weren’t any.

 

JW: Did you notice if you had any kind of static or feedback on your radio.

 

PW: No I don’t think so. There wasn’t any radio traffic at that time. I think I was first on the radio after that happened with me calling in.

 

JW: At what point did you call it in? Did you call it in while you were observing it or after it was over?

 

PW: I called it in when I lost sight of it. Just as I was losing sight of it is when I pointed my radar at it and couldn’t get a reading. I set the radar down and called it in. When I called it in I was still at intersection of 74 and Minnesota. When dispatch called me back I was southbound on Kingshighway , trying to get ahead of it.

 

JW: Did you notice any kind of smell associated with this?

 

PW: No

 

At this point I went through our (MIG) checklist asking for yes or no questions that applied to this sighting. Only the non-no answers are listed.

 

Spin: I don’t know. It could have been but there was no reference to be able to tell that or not. There were no lines or anything on it to be able to tell that. It didn’t immediately appear to be spinning.

 

Over power lines: It would have crossed over power lines, it wasn’t staying over power lines but it would have passed over some.

 

Appear solid: yes

 

Fuzzy edges: PW: Yes in that it wasn’t lit and all I was getting was the glare from below. There wasn’t definite, defined edges able to be seen. It could have been a little larger, but I think if it had been larger I would have seen it easier. I am fairly confident that the part I saw was all of it. This is assuming my estimate of altitude is correct. If it had been a lot higher that I estimate then it would also have to be much l

 

End of Interview.