NUFORC Sighting 69410

Occurred: 2009-01-15 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2009-03-28 10:05 Pacific
Duration: 2 seconds
No of observers: 3

Location: Commack, NY, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Bright green, meteor-like object travelling at high rate of speed over residential neighborhood.

This happened back in January, 2009. I don't recall the exact date, but I have seen a couple of reports on your website of similar sightings, so I thought I would report it.

My wife, my daughter and I were travelling home at approximately 9:00 pm. We were heading east on Jericho Turnpike, in the eastern portion of Commack, approaching Smithtown. My wife was driving, I was in the front passenger seat and my daughter (17) was in the back seat. Traffic was light, as it was a cold winter evening. We were stopped at a red light when suddenly I saw, above and ahead of us, what looked like a shooting star....except it was very large, and bright green! The first thought that entered my head was a meteor. It was heading in a northerly and downward direction, so it passed in front of us from right to left. It was only visible for a couple of seconds, as it was moving very fast, but as it flashed by, it momentarily lit up the sky around it in a bright green color. As I stated , it was moving in a downward trajectory, so much so that it looked like it might crash in the neighborhood to our north, and I silently braced myself to hear some sort of explosion. But nothing more happened. After the object had passed, I waited a few seconds and then asked (trying not to sound too excited) "did anyone just see that?" To my relief (that I wasn't having hallucinations), both my wife and daughter replied, tentatively, "ummm...yeah". I then asked whether either of them had any idea what we might have just seen. My wife, almost too quickly, blurted out "oh, it must have just been a shooting star". I could tell by her voice that she really didn't believe this, but my wife is someone who does not like to engage in any discussions about anything paranormal, etc. So, I just let this go, and didn't bother to comment that I've seen many shooting stars in my lifetime; that they are not this BIG; and that they aren't BRIGHT GREEN! I tried to make more light conversation about what we'd just seen, but I ! got the distinct impression that both wife and daughter were a bit creeped out by it, and didn't want to talk about it, so I dropped the subject. However, one last postscript to this....about a mile east of our sighting, we encountered a County police car coming in the opposite direction toward us. The officer was not using his siren, but had all of his emergency flashers on, and was driving at a high rate of speed. He was obviously making a silent response to something urgent, and as he approached us, he made a screeching right turn onto a side street and headed north into the neighborhood where I thought our "shooting star" might crash. (He made the turn almost on two wheels, and was drivng so fast that my wife commented, "Whoa....where's HE going?") I don't know if the two events were just coincidence....or if the officer saw the same thing that we did! I have no idea what it was that we saw...I am not saying it was a "flying saucer"....just that it was NOT an ordinary shooting star. I won't say it was unlike anything else I've ever seen, because I did have a similar sighting several years ago, late at night, while sitting on my deck. In that instance, however, the same type of green "shooting star" went directly overhead, travelling west to east, and did not appear to be travelling downward. I don't wish to identify myself, just to say that I consider myself a qualified observer, as I am a 24-year-veteran law enforcement officer.






NUFORC Note:

Source of report indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD


Posted 2009-04-14

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