2011-07-30 - Bethlehem, GA - Cigar

This report is regarding an incident that occurred just over two years ago. I only recently learned of your site and, until now, had no idea there was such a place to file a report of this particular sighting.

On July 30, 2011, my girlfriend and I decided to have dinner at a restaurant called La Luna Mexican Grill, located in Bethlehem, GA. It was a warm summer’s evening, with a perfectly clear night sky. This particular restaurant had rooftop dining, which we opted for on that particular evening.

Bethlehem, GA is one of many small, lightly populated areas that are found all throughout Georgia. As a result, there was very little light pollution, allowing for an amazing view of the thousands – millions of stars overhead.

We were about half way through our meal, enjoying some light-hearted conversation, when my girlfriend pointed up to the sky and asked, “do you see that light?” I looked towards the area of the sky that she was pointing towards, just in time to see a very bright light wink out. For the second that I saw it, it appeared to be an extremely large, very bright spotlight.

“Oh my God,” she exclaimed, “what is THAT?” I continued looking in the same area of sky in which I had seen the light and, as my eyes adjusted from the candlelit table to the dark of the night sky, I realized what she was asking about. Almost directly above us, there appeared to be an enormous, solid black object. It’s shape, defined by the area of stars that its massive form blocked out, was of a very long, very wide rectangle, with rounded ends. Much like the shape of a cigar, but broader.

The object seemed to just hover in place as we both continued staring at it (about 2 minutes), at which point, my girlfriend then claimed to be able to see another, similar object floating next to the first. As my eyes frantically searched the night sky for the second object, my attention was drawn back to the first, as it suddenly shot away. Just like that, it was gone. Not a sound. No engine sound. No sound of propellers. Nothing. And, it was still completely black. No light shone from it at all.

That was it. We spoke about the objects throughout the remainder of our dinner, and both agreed that what we saw was some sort of UFO. What neither of us could get over, and what my mind still struggles with today, was the sheer size of the object I saw. I have never seen an object as large as that in the sky. I’ve seen blimps, and I’ve seen some of the largest airplanes in the world, first hand. I can honestly say that nothing compares in the enormity of the object I saw that night. If I had to give a size to the object, the only thing my mind can come up with is to say that it must have been at least a mile or two in length. That size of an object had slipped away with such speed, and in complete silence, AND had hovered in one spot for I don’t know how long (no idea how long it had been there, before my girlfriend had originally noted its presence). It was amazing.

The one question I can not answer is how high up the object was. My mind perceived it to have been a good distance up in the night sky. Perhaps somewhere between 5,000 to 10,000 feet up? It was hard for my untrained eye to tell, especially at night.

Again, the night sky was perfectly clear. The temperature that night had been somewhere between 78-85 degrees Fahrenheit. There were only a few other people dining on the rooftop, in addition to us, and none of them seemed to have noticed our brief moment of excitement.