NUFORC Sighting 38232

Occurred: 1997-07-18 02:00 Local
Reported: 2004-07-20 18:27 Pacific
Duration: 30 Minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Salem, NH, USA

Shape: Unknown

My husband had been sitting the computer in our den when he noticed rotating red, white and blue lights in our back yard. It was a hot, dark summer night and the windows were open. He did not hear any sound and although he looked up into the night sky to see where the lights were coming from, he could not see anything. He came to bed and woke me up saying, "Look out the window and tell me what you see." I had to put my eyeglasses on to see. I got on my knees and looked one of two windows that overlook our back yard. I could see the rotating lights. The lights moved continuously from one side to the other along our neighbors fence. They also ran perfectly between two sheds in our back yard. The lights stayed inside the space between the sheds and only shone on the tall picket fence. My first thought was that the police were in his yard shining their lights but his fence pickets are close together so that much light would not be able to shine on our side of his fence like they were. I then looked out a third window in our bedroom which looks over our driveway onto the main road near our home hoping to see a police car or a fire truck. I saw nothing. My heart was pounding and I was curious as to what was causing these lights to shine in our back yard. I then walked into our son's bedroom in the front of the house. His room has two windows, one over the driveway and one in the front overlooking the entire front yard. I pulled up the blinds and looked from left to right seeing absolutely no police or fire trucks. What was going on? I was getting scared now. I walked to the other side of our home into the dining room. The windows in the dining room face the front yard and the side yard facing our next door neighbor. It was pitch black outside. Although we have trees surrounding our home we can still see moonshine if the moon is up. I have never checked any almanac to see what cycle the moon was in on July 18, 1997 but I bet there was no moonlight. It was pitch! I saw no police or fire trucks. I cannot imagine what other vehicle could be emitting these lights except a police car or a fire truck. No other lights that I know of rotate like the kind on top of a police car and these lights were closer to that type of fast rotation but they were faster. So now the only place I could go to get a last look would be into the den where my husband had originally seen the lights. Mind you, he never told me what he saw ... he only told me to look up from the bed I had been sleeping in and tell him what I saw! When I got to the sliding doors, I was afraid. I froze! By this time I had been thinking about where these lights could be coming from and since I had not seen or heard anything from the opened windows that would give me a single clue as to where these lights were coming. The only logical idea I could come up with was, "What if there is a burglar in our yard with some sort of "spectacular" flashlight or something along those lines?" "What if this burglar sees me in the den?" "He might see me seeing him and I live here ... I was so scared." I could not open the sliding door to enter the den to look out those windows. Instead I walked back to our bedroom. I asked my husband if he thought maybe we had left the light in the sunroom on ... maybe we had left the light and the fan on." I wondered out loud if that would make the lights in the back yard. I was grasping at straws, I admit that now but then I was just trying to figure out every conceivable idea that might make some sense. I asked him if he wanted to go downstairs with me to check the sunroom. He did not want to go. So, I just kneeled on the bed and strained my eyes and ears to hear anything. I may have kneeled that way for another ten minutes and then the lights just stopped. I waited to hear crunching sounds on the ground and there was not a single sound of any kind. I lay down and my heart was pounding out of my chest. We eventually went to sleep. In the morning I went downstairs to open the curtains to the sunroom to see if the lights and ceiling fan were on. They were off! I walked into the room and went right up to the glass windows which run from the ceiling to the floor to see if there were any footprints in the grass. It's a stretch but I wanted to look for any clue that might make the whole incident more "earth bound" than unidentified! About a month after this event, I was reading the Eagle Tribune and in the Sound Off portion of the paper where folks can call in a question or voice an opinion, I read a short story where a caller wanted to know if anyone had noticied the rotating lights that were shining for about an hour one night over the dump in Derry. I have never seen or heard anything else about these lights in this area. We never told our neighbors or called the local authorities to report. That was seven years ago just this past Sunday and I finally feel that enough time has elapsed that I can write about it. It would be interesting to know if anyone else in Salem, NH has ever seen lights like this or had a similar experience. Thanks!

Posted 2004-07-25