UFO ROUNDUP
 Volume 3, Number 5
 February 1, 1998
 Editor: Joseph Trainor
 
 FIREBALL UFOs DOMINATE
 COLORADO SKIES
 
      Colorado's UFO flap roared into its second
 week with multiple sightings in the central and
 southern portions of the state.
      On Friday, January 23, 1998, Jim Roberts spotted
 "an orange or salmon-colored globe" hovering above
 his ranch in Cotopaxi (population 75), a small town
 on Colorado Highway 50 about 148 miles
 (248 kilometers) south of Denver.  He reported,
 "The object was hovering, dimming and brightening,
 over the western horizon."
      Four days later, on Tuesday, January 27, 1998,
 Marshal Steve Ford was driving in his cruiser near the
 intersection of Blue River Road and Colorado Highway 9
 in Breckenridge (population 1,285) when he spotted
 "a large fiery object trailed by a plume of smoke."
      Breckenridge is in central Colorado approximately
 83 miles (133 kilometers) west of Denver.
      "It was a fairly large object that was on fire with
 smoke that was spiraling off the back of it," Ford told
 the Denver Post.  "My first thought was that it was
 a meteor."
      "Ford said the object plummeted more than
 1,000 feet.  He lost sight of it at tree level."
      "'It was a vertical shot toward the ground, and
 I'm sure it impacted the ground,' Ford said."
      "Leigh Pezzicara, a spokeswoman for Breckenridge
 Ski Resort, and several guests reported seeing a flare
 in the area of Peaks 5 and 6.  'However, we really can't
 confirm what it was,' she said."
      Rancher "John Fisher was in Breckenridge when
 he spotted the object.  According to Fisher, it created
 a visible trail that covered a quarter of the sky."
      Fisher spotted the object just past noontime as
 he was driving north on Highway 9, near the
 Breckenridge Building Center.  "Although no one saw
 where the object landed, Fisher believes it hit near
 Good Pasture Tarn, just west of Breckenridge."
 (See the Denver Post for January 28, 1998, "Several
 Report Seeing Its Blazing Path.")
      Eight hours later, "hours after a 'daytime fireball'
 was spotted streaking earthward near Breckenridge...
 several people reported seeing another blazing object
 south of town that night."
      "Breckenridge resident John Sperber was driving
 south on Main Street at about 10:45 p.m. when he
 and a friend saw a bluish-green fireball streak east
 to west across the sky."
      "'It looked like an egg and was so bright we
 could see some smoke behind it,' Sperber said."
      "The object was so close, Sperber said, it must
 have landed up on Peak 9, near Beaver Run Resort.
 'It turned out to be not as close as we thought it was,'
 he said."
      "Mike Tukewicz was also driving south into
 Breckenridge on Colorado (Highway) 9 when he and
 his wife spotted the fireball.  His description of the
 fiery object was similar to Sperber's, except the
 Tukewiczes witnessed it at 8:45 p.m." about two
 hours earlier.
     "'It was blue and gleaming, with a hint of orange
 at the rear heading from east to west,' Tukewicz said.
 'I must have seen it for three seconds before it either
 disappeared or headed west.'"
      "John and Monique Derwyn also viewed the
 fireball around 9 p.m. from their home in Summit
 Cove."
      "'I thought it might've been an airplane going down,
 but my husband said, no, it's a meteorite,' Monique
 Derwyn said."
      "All of those who say they witnessed the fiery
 object were facing almost due south and saw the
 fireball cross the sky from east to west.  Sightings
 of the fireball began about 8 hours after several
 witnesses said they saw a fiery object plummet
 from the sky near Breckenridge around noon Tuesday."
 (See the Denver Post for January 30, 1998, "Fireball
 Lights Mountain Skies.")
      Meanwhile, in Salida, Colorado (population 4,737),
 125 miles (210 kilometers) south of Denver, Laray
 Edwards, 17, was sitting in the family's computer room
 at about 9 p.m. "when she viewed a moon-sized ball
 of green light for a couple of seconds racing at top
 speed and disappearing to the southwest."
      At the same time, Mrs. Kathy Ralter and her four
 children were driving into Salida when they saw the
 green UFO "down the road a half-mile to the south...
 No tail was observed by any of the witnesses.  They
 were extremely excited and some were scared."
 (Many thanks to Tim Edwards and Christopher O'Brien,
 author of THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY, for forwarding
 these reports.)
 
 DAYLIGHT FIREBALL CRASHES
 IN SOUTHERN WYOMING
 
      On Tuesday, January 27, 1998, shortly after
 noontime, local ranchers saw a "brilliant fireball"
 touch down on the prairie in Hanna, Wyoming,
 near Rawlins (population 9,830).
      Rawlins is a small city on Interstate Highway 80
 approximately 156 miles (249 kilometers) west of
 Cheyenne, the state capital.  The area is also
 about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of
 Breckenridge, Colorado.
      "Carbon County investigators have been unable
 to find any debris associated with a 'ball of fire' that
 reportedly crashed to the ground near Hanna."
      "The ball of fire was reported after noon Tuesday
 by the pilot of a passing airliner."
      "'He said he had seen a ball of fire, which he
 believed may have been a meteorite or space junk,'
 said Tim Patton of the Federal Aviation Administration
 (FAA).  'He reported he had gotten some (air)
 turbulence from the object."  (See the Rocky Mountain
 News for January 28, 1998, "No Debris Found from
 'Fire Ball.'")
 
 TRIANGULAR UFO SEEN NEAR
 ZANESVILLE, OHIO
 
      On Thursday, January 29, 1998, at 7:07 p.m.,
 a Bellville, Ohio woman was driving east on a two-lane
 road east of Zanesville, Ohio (population 26,788)
 when she saw "a V-shaped object which had a bright
 light at the front and center.  The rear of the object
 could not be seen due to the brightness of the
 twin lights.  The witness also observed a 'reddish
 glow' across a portion of the rear which could have
 been the edge.  The object hovered at a high altitude
 for 25 minutes."
      Zanesville is located on Interstate Highway 70
 approximately 55 miles (88 kilometers) east of
 Columbus, the state capital.
      At 7:30 p.m., the woman telephoned a nearby
 friend, who said she "had also been watching the object
 'for a period of time' using binoculars.  Through the
 binoculars, she described smaller objects 'maneuvering'
 near the large object, seemingly to merge with it."
      "A third witness...was also contacted and also
 described the object.  Its size was said to be one mile
 (1.6 kilometers) across (wide) near the edge of the
 'craft' and said to be an estimated six to seven
 thousand feet (altitude).  The soundless object
 disappeared from sight as clouds moved into the
 area, hiding it from view."
      The case is being investigated by local
 researcher Jim Donohue, publisher of Equinox
 newsletter.  (Many thanks to Kenneth Young, public
 information director of Tri-state Advocates for
 Scientific Knowledge (T.A.S.K.) for this report.)
 (Editor's Comment:  Zanesville, Ohio was the site
 of a big UFO flap in March 1967.)
 
 SPHERICAL RED UFO SEEN
 IN VENICE BEACH, FLORIDA
 
      On Friday, January 23, 1998, just after 11:15 p.m.,
 a woman living in Venice Beach, Florida, on the Gulf
 of Mexico approximately 65 miles (104 kilometers)
 south of Tampa, spotted a strange spherical red UFO
 just outside her house.
      At first the witness thought it "might be an airplane
 crashing.  She quickly changed her mind when, after
 falling straight down, the object stopped just above
 treetop height and hovered.  As it came down out of
 the sky, it left a flame trail behind it.  Once it started
 to hover, the trail disappeared, and 'it also appeared to
 get wider.'  It changed into an elliptical shape."
     "It hovered for approximately one minute and then
 sped off to the south-southwest," over the Gulf of Mexico.
      The woman then went to bed.  Two hours later, she
 awoke suddenly and, feeling a little anxious, went
 outside to check the sky.  "The object appeared again
 and did exactly the same thing it did the first time...
 Sky condition at the time was very clear."  The witness
 "heard no noise while witnessing the object."  (See
 Filer's Files #4 for 1998.  Many thanks to Nancy Dunning
 and George A. Filer of MUFON for this report.)
 
 CHUPACABRA BLAMED FOR
 PUERTO RICO CAT MUTILATIONS
 
      On Monday, January 26, 1998, three cats were found
 dead and mutilated at the home of Melvin Rosado in
 La Parguera, Puerto Rico.  A fourth cat "vanished
 mysteriously."
      Parguera is in the southwest corner of the island,
 on Highway 119, approximately 55 miles (88 kilometers)
 southwest of San Juan, P.R.
      Police believe the killings occurred during the early
 morning hours of January 26.  "One of the cats had its
 skin separated by a precise, bloodless incision.  Sr.
 Rosado noticed that the three slain felines had identical
 incisions on their heads and backs.  No one in the
 Rosado household heard any unusual sounds during
 the night."
      "'The cats weren't attacked by dogs,' Rosado stated,
 'because our house has gates, and no dog would be able
 to reach the cats where they were."
      Many people in Puerto Rico believe the Chupacabra
 (Goatsucker) was responsible for the bizarre slaying.
 (See the newspaper El Vocero of San Juan, P.R. for
 January 27, 1998, "El Chupacabra Ahora Chupa Gatos."
 Many thanks to Scott Corrales, author of CHUPACABRAS
 AND OTHER MYSTERIES, and Lucy Pla of the Puerto
 Rican UFO Research Group for this report.)
 
 WEIRD FLASHES LIGHT UP THE
 SKY OVER IRONWOOD, MICHIGAN
 
      On Thursday, January 15, 1998, at 6:50 p.m., Brian M.
 was walking home from work in Ironwood, Michigan
 (population 6,700).  "Upon reaching my driveway, I stopped
 and checked the mailbox.  When I looked up again, it
 seemed that a number of stars had decided to start
 blinking on and off."
      "The blinking appeared random, unsequenced, and
 each time the objects lit, they moved to a new location
 and seemed to wander erratically," Brian reported.
 "Because of the on-off sequence, and large trees near
 the horizon, I am unable to give an exact count, but I
 would estimate that there had to have been six UFOs
 scattered across the southern sky, below 45 degrees
 and as bright as any other celestial objects in the sky."
      He estimated that the UFOs were "tens of miles"
 to the south, past neighboring Hurley, Wisconsin and
 the Gile Flowage (lake).
      "I walked down the drive to the south side of my
 house, where it was darkest.  The objects continued
 their flashing and motion.  Each time one 'lit,' it was in
 a slightly new position.  At last one worked its way
 towards the southwest.  The rest grouped together
 within 15 degrees (of arc) and headed into the
 horizon" near where "Orion was rising in the southeast."
      Brian said the flashing "lasted ten minutes," and
 the UFOs "were as bright as Sirius--magnitude one...
 as bright as a flashbulb popping.  I am an expert
 skywatcher and this incident was unlike anything I have
 ever witnessed."
      Ironwood is Michigan's westernmost city, located
 in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) on U.S. Route 2,
 approximately 605 miles (968 kilometers) northwest
 of Detroit.  (Email Interview)
 
 PURPLE SKY FLASH CAUSES
 BLACKOUT IN KENTUCKY
 
      On Tuesday, January 27, 1998, at 6:40 p.m.,
 two young men driving in a pickup truck on
 Nicholasville Road in Lexington, Kentucky
 (population 225,336) saw a strange "purple flash"
 light up the sky.
      For five minutes, electricity in Fayette Mall
 and in homes near the Jessamine County line
 between Highway 27 and Clay Mills Road "was
 flashing on and off and finally went off" completely
 after the mysterious flash.
      A power outage was also reported at the
 Southpoint subdivision, located between Fayette
 Mall and Nicholasville.
      The young men "were coming home about
 6:40 p.m. when a purple flash above the clouds
 happened.  His friend's truck lost its power, and
 a 'neon thing' he has on his gearshift.  It didn't glow
 any more during the flash.  After the flash went
 away, he tried to get power back, and the
 electricity came back on."
      Lexington is in north central Kentucky on
 Highways 27 and 68 approximately 79 miles
 (126 kilometers) of Louisville.  (Many thanks to
 Steven L Wilson Sr. for this report.)
 (Editor's Comment:  Those aliens had better not
 mess with the beer cooler or the jukebox at my
 favorite roadhouse, the Original Dew Drop Inn
 on Highway 22 in Brooksville, Kentucky.  Or
 there's going to be hell to pay!)
 
 BROWN GOOP FALLS ON
 PENNSYLVANIA HOME
 
      On Sunday afternoon, January 18, 1998, 
 hundreds of gallons of a weird brown wax-like
 substance fell on the home of the Snell family
 in Paradise Township, not far from York,
 Pennsylvania (population 42,192)
      "A mysterious brown substance fell from
 the sky...It splattered the house, the roof, the
 windows, the barn, the stone driveway."
      "Police can't figure out what it is.  Neither
 can anyone else.  It's the color of mud but it's
 not grainy.  An insurance adjuster has ordered
 tests on the substance."
      Rose Snell discovered the weird substance
 when she returned home at 7:30 p.m.
     "'It's mystifying,' Snell kept saying as she
 walked around her house."  She said "she noticed
 the brown splash on her door as she entered the
 house."
      "Great, she thought, I bet those boys were
 having a mud battle."
      "Her 18-year-old son, Marc, had been hanging
 out with several of his friends during the day.  She
 was prepared to have a few words with him as he
 walked in the door."
 (Editor's Comment: Isn't it strange how the
 teenagers get blamed every time a weird event
 occurs?)
      "But his comment took her by surprise.
 'What's going on here?' Marc asked."
      "Marc said he returned home about 6 p.m.
 He, too, noticed the brown splashes on the door."
      Marc Snell also found brown splashes on
 his car.  "He tried to wash them off his windshield
 with cleaning fluid.  They were hard to remove."
      "He said, 'Mom, it's like paste or wax on there.'"
      The Snells called the Northern York County
 Regional Police, who dispatched a cruiser to the
 scene.  When the trooper switched on his heavy-
 duty flashlight, "that's when they realized that the
 brown splashes covered everything on her property."
      "'It's everywhere,' Snell said."
      "'It appears as though it came from the sky,'
 Northern Regional Police Lt. Mark Bentzel said."
 (See the York, Pennsylvania Daily Record for
 January 21, 1998, "What's My Slime?"  Many thanks
 to Rudy Alfano and Errol Bruce-Knapp for this news
 story.)
 (Editor's Comment: Charles Fort would have had a
 field day with this case.)
 
 UFO HOVERS OFFSHORE
 NEAR MADEIRA ISLAND
 
      On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1997,
 reporter Cristina Marto de Pimental and her
 husband were at a seaside party in Funchal,
 a port city on the south shore of Madeira
 island, a Portuguese territory in the Atlantic
 Ocean 912 kilometers (570 miles) east of
 Morocco.
      "We were watching the New Year's
 festivities, all the fireworks in the sky," she
 reported.  Then several people at the party
 called her attention to "a red and motionless
 light above Funchal."
      "The OVNI (Portuguese acronym for UFO)
 suddenly made a very tight circle, returned to
 its initial position, and, a few seconds later, it
 accelerated at great speed in a vertical direction."
      She added that a British couple at the
 festival videotaped the UFO as it hovered.
      Sra. Marto de Pimental telephoned the
 Fuerzas Aereas Portugueses (FAP) headquarters
 in Lisboa the next day.  The Portuguese air force
 told her that they'd had no flights, neither planes
 nor helicopters, over Madeira that night.  (See
 Jornal do Madeira for January 2, 1998.  Muito
 obrigado a Bruni Barros para eso caso.)
 
 BLACK HELICOPTER SPIES
 ON DUTCH UFOLOGISTS
 
      Dutch ufologist Geert van Haalem announced
 his resignation from UFOIA recently, claiming that
 he'd been under surveillance lately by unidentified
 government agents and a black helicopter.
      Van Haalem conducted an investigation into
 repeated UFO sightings in and around Gorinchem,
 a town in the Netherlands 77 kilometers (48 miles)
 south of Amsterdam.
      Following the most recent UFO sighting in late
 December 1997, van Haalem reported, "I have been
 the subect of overt harassment and mind-control
 techniques."
     "One day, as I was leaving home (on van
 Beethovenstraat in Gorinchem--J.T.), I saw two
 people...standing on a little bridge with a clear view
 of my street.  It was a man and a woman.  The man
 was fishing with a brand-new fishing rod, and the
 woman was accompanying him.  It was clearly not
 a good day to fish because it was rather cold.  The
 woman was very large and muscular, and the man
 was small and thin."
      Van Haalem told a fellow researcher about the
 couple and was asked if he had ever seen a black
 helicopter.  His answer was no.
      "The next day, I was in town (Gorinchem) and
 a black helicopter flew right overhead," he reported,
 adding that it might have been a SIGINT (Signals
 Intelligence) chopper.  "This is how we believe
 they've been tapping our phones."
      At any rate, van Haalem reportedly told UFOIA
 associates that he is through with the UFO business.
 (Many thanks to Danielle Seijmonsbergen for this
 report.)
 
 JAPANESE PORT INVADED
 BY WILD MONKEYS
 
      On Sunday morning, January 28, 1998, "a pack
 of wild monkeys swooped down and attacked
 passersby" in the seaside town of Ito, Shizuoka
 prefecture, in Japan.
      Six monkeys injured 26 people during the
 morning attack.  "The monkeys appeared in
 gardens and streets, biting people in the back
 and legs."
      "Local authorities using loudspeakers warned
 residents to beware of the monkeys as the town
 organized a hunt for them.  'The people here are
 scared to death,' an official said."
      "The injuries were slight, and the victims
 received injections for rabies after the waves of
 attacks by six monkeys between Sunday morning
 and Monday evening (January 26, 1998)."
      "'This is the first time this has ever happened,
 and we're not sure why it happened,' the official
 said.  'We've had a lot of snow in the mountains
 (just west of Ito--J.T.) the past couple of weeks, so
 maybe the monkeys were looking for food below.'"
      Ito is located on the western shore of Sagami
 Bay approximately 120 kilometers (75 miles)
 southwest of Tokyo.
 (See the New York Daily News for January 28, 1998,
 "Wild Monkeys Go Ape in Japan," page 26.)
 
      A strange week, eh?  And not only for President
 William Jefferson Clinton of the USA.  Our regular
 features, from the UFO Files and Fun UFO Websites
 will be back next week.  I figured that you readers
 wanted ALL the dish on this week's uncanny sightings
 and events.
 
      So join us next Sunday for more saucer news
 from "the paper that goes home--UFO ROUNDUP."
 See you then!
 
 UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan
 Productions, all rights reserved.  Readers may post
 items from UFO ROUNDUP on their websites or in
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 and its editor by name and list the date of issue in
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