1984-08-12 - Columbus, OH - Rectangle

Football field sized gunmetal gray rectangular craft with bright lights and "windows" hovering silently 100 ft or so above parking lot

It was 1984 or 1985 (I’m very bad with dates) and I was living with my ex-fiance on the north side of Columbus, Ohio.. We had planned to take a short trip across town to visit my mother that evening, and our only vehicle at the time was his motorcycle. As we mounted the bike in the driveway we looked up and in the distance saw three blinding white lights. They weren't far from the ground; two below and one above in a tight triangle configuration. My fiance was in the Air Force at the time and worked at Wright Paterson on the weekends. "What the Hell is that?" he wondered aloud. "It's probably just highbeams on a crane" I suggested. We would know soon enough since we had to head in that direction.

We drove for about a mile, all the while my ex was saying "What the Hell is that??" Eventually we came close enough to be able to tell that it was too high up to be lights attached to a crane, but they were dead still. Suddenly we noticed that a large rectangular space behind the lights was far darker than the sky around it. My ex yelled "WHAT THE FUCK IS IT??! Then slammed on his brakes as about six African American kids ranging in age from about ten to sixteen dashed in front of our bike. Their eyes were also fixed on the monstrous craft. And it was bloody huge. Not "Independence day" huge-but easily as large as a football field or larger. It was gunmetal gray; like a giant monolithic slab about the proportions of a thick cereal box or box of cigarettes with slightly raised and depressed geometric shapes of various sizes on it's surface (it was not smooth at all). It hovered over a large empty parking lot that stretched out in front of an abandoned Rink's department stor! e. The road we were on was busy, but I didn't notice if others had stopped to look. The craft had the three painfully bright lights mounted on what looked like it's front. There were smaller amber/ red and bluish green lights underneath it that glowed steadily, and as we kept driving we came around to the "back" of the craft, which featured three (maybe four) flat, glowing rectangular panels in a horizontal row that were tilted slightly downward. They looked like large observation windows to me, and I felt-or perhaps even saw-figures moving around inside. I didn’t want to see anymore and looked down. My former fiance finally said "We have to get closer!" and I completely flipped out -and I'm not one who is given to "flipping out". He turned the bike toward the craft and I hit him hard and told him that there was no way in hell that he would take me any closer. I was in tears I was so frightened. Just as this was happening the group of boys that had crossed in front of us co! uld be seen running across the expanse of the parking lot towa! rd the a rea under the craft. As they neared it I glanced down for a second time, not wanting to see what was happening, and as I did I heard my ex exclaim "Holy Fuck!!" I looked and the kids were standing there, but the craft had disappeared. Ken said that it had shot straight up into the sky at a speed that was simply unbelievable. I begged him to keep driving and we continued on.


((NUFORC Note: Date may be approximate, although source of report does not indicate that fact. PD))