1992-05-09 - Cedar Rapids, IA - Triangle

Dark triangular object with light on "nose" and 3 underneath at the points.

I’m not exactly sure of the date, but this is a reasonable guess.

At the time I worked every other Saturday night and I was going downtown into work traveling east on 16th avenue. As I drove down the road, in the distance I saw what I thought were spotlights from a sale of some kind, yet they were facing toward my direction. As I got closer I noticed it was one bright light and there was an object. There is a stoplight at the intersection of 16th Ave and 18th Street. The object was on the west side of 18th street (41.962633,-91.696363).

I would guess approximately 40 feet in the air was a dark triangular object with the light on the end facing west (I was traveling toward it). As I was stopped at the stoplight there were others around, but I can’t say if anyone saw it, but it could not be missed. I rolled down my window and it was not making any sound and was not moving. There were three less bright lights underneath at each “point” of the triangle. The edges were slightly rounded. I could not see any detail beyond the dark shape and the lights.

I drove on as the light turned green watching it in my rearview mirror. It did not move. I wish now I would have stopped and waited to see what it would do, but I had only been at my job for a few years. It was also an odd excuse to be late in a production environment. I arrived to work approximately 15 minutes later and told a few people, who responded with joking, and then called my girlfriend at the time. I asked her to go down the road as it was not far from my apartment and see if it was still there. I called her back after a little while and she said she did not see anything, so it was have been gone approximately 30-45 minutes after I saw it.

At the time I thought it was an odd shape, but later I saw the reports from the Belgian Air Force and the Illinois Police sighting and it was very similar. My friends know that I am open minded and have an interest in this. I would never fake information as it does nothing to help people be objective on this subject. I also never thought something like this would happen to me. As I tell people now - it was truly an unidentified flying object. I won’t say it was definitely extraterrestrial, though I’m not saying it wasn’t. It could be of earthly but unknown origin, but it was something that I have never seen or heard reports of other than in the context of other UFO reports; even to this day.

It’s funny that when something like this happens, you are just incredulous. I can see how more people don’t make better notes or document better as the reality of it does not hit you until later and then it’s too late, and I’m someone who should have known better or accepted the consequences of being late for work.