NUFORC Sighting 106291

Occurred: 2013-12-25 22:38 Local
Reported: 2014-01-14 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 25-35 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Saint Paul, MN, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Red and Green light bars seen at low elevation.

This sighting occurred on 25 December 2013 at 22:38 hours Central Time (I have changed the other witnesses name for this record) I am a taxi driver in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I was dispatched to pick up a regular customer at a popular large night spot near Grand and Victoria Avenues. I pulled into the long driveway that goes from Grand to the alley between Grand and Summit Ave. I was facing north seated in my cab. I saw John, the regular I was sent to pick up, standing in the patio area. He was smoking a cigarette and talking to someone. He held up his finger indicating I should wait a moment. No problem, John is a very generous and regular customer so I had no problem giving him a moment to conclude his activities.

I looked through the windshield and saw at about 25 degrees up two horizontal bars of light. The upper one was red, the lower was green. They were of equal length. There appeared to be 8 or so "bulbs" in each bar, however the both bars were uniformly illuminated their respective colors so they may not have been bulbs. There appeared to be a small reflection or dim light situated between the two bars. The space between the two bars (where I saw the dim reflection/light) was about 2/3ds the height of the bars. I cannot say the length of the bars but If I had to guess I'd say 20 feet, but since I didn't know how high up/far away the bars were dimensions are hard to speculate about. I did not seem very high up in elevation.

I could not detect any body or outline behind the light bars. The sky was the darkest navy blue/black it can probably be. I have checked, and the moon was on the other side of the planet.

So while I am noticing these lights John has made it around and clambered into the cab. I immediately ask John, "John, what the hell is that?" while pointing through the windshield at the light bars. At first he glanced and said, "An airplane." I then said,"Doesn't look like any airplane I've ever seen." Then there was a very brief pause. John then said,"OH, WAIT." as he gathered in what he was looking at.

Just a second or so before John got in the cab, the red light bar turned off, then turned on. The green light bar followed suit. John witnessed the second round of the bars turning off and on in turn. Once again - red off, red on, green off, green on. At this point we are both just staring. This is when the really odd bit comes in.

The light bars moved off to the northeast and disappeared behind the giant trees on Summit Ave. Now, I was in the Navy and I have seen, and even once, been on a helicopter. This did not move like a helicopter. There was no gradient in the speed. By this I mean it went from completely stationary to moving off at, I'd say 40 mph. I heard no noise at all. John audibly gasped when it moved, I expect it is because it just didn't look right in terms of that kind of instantaneous movement; it was at speed immediately. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when those bars moved off like that.

I have done some checking and no aircraft I can find has such illumination. In fact using these color lights in this fashion is a violation of FAA regs. According to my understanding green is meant to indicate the right wingtip/side only.

John and I looked at each other with a HOLY S**t look on our faces. I shook my head and put the cab in gear to take John to his destination. We both scanned the sky to the north as we proceeded toward downtown. We didn't see anything else in the sky the rest of the way to John's. I dropped John off, he didn't say anything. He looked a little disturbed by our sighting.

About 15 minutes or so after we saw the lights a low bank of clouds rolled in over the city. This bank of clouds had a very distinct leading edge. I thought these clouds a bit odd too.

I sit here now wondering what it is I saw. Any ideas would be appreciated greatly.

Posted 2014-01-16