NUFORC Sighting 15742

Occurred: 1988-05-15 15:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2001-01-03 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 45 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Edgewood, MD, USA

Shape: Sphere

Edgewood, MD boy sees a chrome sphere move laterally across sky and change directions near the Edgewood Arsenal Army base.

I had just gotten home from school when I threw down my backpack and did my usual thing as a kid by running outside to play kickball. I lived a stone's throw from the Edgewood Arsenal in Edgewood, Maryland so I was familiar with their routine paratrooper drops and helicopter activity around that area. It was a sunny, beautiful day with bright blue skies and cottonball-like, low cumulus clouds. I was standing on my front porch about to run over to play with friends when a bright reflective-like flash caught my attention. I looked (east?) over the railroad tracks and saw a chrome-colored ball just sitting in the air. I would guesstimate that it was approximatly 500-750 feet above ground. I remember freezing in complete silence as I immediately knew that I was observing something peculiar. I would best describe it as a ball bearing that was highly reflective, probably 30 to 40 feet in diameter. I remember standing as still as I possibly could, because even as a kid I must admit that I was intrigued by UFOs. I remember thinking, "oh my God, just be still and watch it and don't blink your eyes!!" My parents were not home as my mother got back from work usually and hour after me, so I couldn't call for anyone. I'm sure that if someone else had been outside nearby I would have called for them to look at it with me, but strangely nobody was outside in earshot. The object stayed completely still for approximately 30 seconds. I remember thinking maybe it was a balloon or a Radiosonde, because I had found one of those in a nearby patch of woods years prior. I remember feeling almost paralyzed with an anxiety-like fear. I knew I was seeing something I wasn't supposed to. It's almost as if my body reacted to it also. After remaining still, the object began to move laterally, from right to left. It was almost like it was being pulled sideways on a string. That made me even more scared because balloons usually drift up, ya know? As it was moving to the left, it stopped,(like putting on the brakes)an! d slowly moved back to the right, and then I had this weird feeling that it knew I was watching it beacuse it changed direction again and disappeared behind a thick cloud. I kept watching and the strangest thing happened. I continued staring at the cloud in hopes of seeing it come out the other side, but it seemed to poke out barely from the right edge of the cloud, almost as if it were peeking to see if I was still there watching. I got the feeling that it knew I was there. (Weird!) I continued watching to see if it would come back out but it never did. The whole episode was probably less than a minute in duration. The object never moved up or down, just perfectly sideways. I never told my parents because they wouldn't have believed me anyway.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD

Posted 2001-01-03