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Can you solve this UFO mystery?

by Brian Dunning, Apr 16 2009

I was visiting my friend Jim (name changed to protect the embarrassed) when he happened to mention that for a few weeks now, his neighborhood had been receiving regular UFO visits.

At first I wasn’t sure if he was pulling my leg or what. I knew Jim to be a reasonable guy, not given over to the supernatural. Moreover, he was the UFOlogists’ favorite type of witness: A pilot. (Because, as we all know, pilots cannot be mistaken about anything seen in the sky.) But I also knew that Jim could be pretty darn stubborn once an idea got into his head. I realized he was quite serious, and from what he said, a lot of people in the neighborhood were equally serious about it. Well, quite obviously, I had to see it.

So he took me outside into the dark, and what a surreal experience that was. He simply said “Let’s go,” and had the mannerism of every expectation that we’d see the UFO. Like it’s always right there for the taking.

As we walked down the little street in his condo complex, he greeted a couple of neighbors standing by the dumpster. “You’ve got to stand right here,” he said, indicating the area in front of the dumpster where his neighbors, cocktails in hand, were already watching. The line of sight was straight back up the street we’d just come down. About a hundreds yards away the street dead ended into a cross street lined with carports along its far side. Beyond the carports were some trees and other regular neighborhood stuff. Far in the distance was a range of low hills, which I knew from experience, though they were not visible in the darkness. The sky was a little murky, there were very few stars visible, and no moon. The condo complex did have streetlights, but they were relatively dim and did not really affect our visibility much.

Jim and his neighbors described the UFO to me. It would always appear as a little squadron of two or three lights, bigger than stars, but not very bright. They would simply appear out of nowhere at the end of the street, above the trees. They’d hover around for a moment, and then shoot off to the left. The UFOs would appear and do their thing once perhaps every few minutes, and would keep doing it for as long as you wanted to watch. The neighborhood had been in contact with their local newspaper, but nobody had seen an article yet. I also gathered that the UFOs only appeared at night.

The woman neighbor believed someone was trying to tell us all something. Her husband was quite curious about what they were and had been trying all sorts of theories that didn’t pan out, everything from cars driving along the hills in the distance to airplanes to laser projections in the clouds. He liked the laser projection theory best, but even it did not fit the observation very well. Jim didn’t seem to have a theory. He accepted the UFOs calmly. I’m pretty sure he believed they were alien spacecraft and just didn’t want to say so. But whatever his idea was, he seemed satisfied with it, and kept it to himself.

We watched and watched. A few times someone said it didn’t usually take this long.

Soon my enthusiasm waned, and I was ready to head back inside.

And then the damnedest thing happened. Two lights, dull gray or orange, appeared in the sky instantaneously. One was above the other and slightly to the left. They wavered for perhaps five long seconds, just slowly moved side to side ever so slightly, in perfect unison. And then, before I had a chance to study them, they shot to the left, like they were launched from a sling, and were out of sight in probably half a second.

So I stood there with my jaw hanging open, wondering what they hell they could have been. The security guard drove up, paused and hung out his window and chatted with Jim and the neighbors. “Seen our friends again?” They shot the bull, I marveled at what I’d seen.

That night I thought and thought and thought. I had a theory. The next morning I looked outside, and solved the mystery. I discussed it with Jim. And later that night, we confirmed it.

In this narrative I’ve given you, I think, all you need to know to figure out what the UFOs were. You know as much as I did on the night I saw them. What was the theory I came up with?

90 Responses to “Can you solve this UFO mystery?”

  1. Martin says:

    Interesting one… from the information given, I was going to guess cars in the hills distant, but I’m less sure given that you’ve mentioned that explanation in the post.

  2. Gib says:

    Interesting! I like it.

    It sounds from your explanations that the lights were not necessarily above the distant hills – that the lights could be something on those hills, although you say your friend somehow figured out it wasn’t cars…

  3. Reed Braden says:

    Renegade angels who like screwing with people?

    Were they clearly in the sky or could the lights have been on the hills? You weren’t too clear on their exact position.

  4. Chris says:

    Was it the reflection of the street lamps onto a (double-glazed) glass door or window, behind the carports? When the door/window is open, the lights are reflected, when it closes, off they shoot to the left.

    Am I close?

  5. bluegray says:

    Since you have to be in the right spot to see the lights, I assume that the lights are not visible from other angles, which could indicate a reflection of some kind. The regular interval (assuming it is not really UFO’s) would indicate some periodic event that either emits light or causes some constant light source to be reflected at the viewer. The previous comment about the carport windows/doors sound plausible. Or maybe the reflection of the security guard’s car headlights?

  6. Peter says:

    Does it have something to do with the appearance of the security guard? Reflections of his headlights or flashlight?

  7. Rogue Two says:

    There were some metallic cables (power/telephone/whatever) hanging over the street. Some of them probably perpendicular to the neighbours’ POV. When a car comes nearby, tiny reflections from its headlights appear in the cables, and when the car keeps moving, or takes a turn, the reflections “run” over the cables. Of course, you can’t see the cables at night… hence the illusion.

  8. Gib says:

    Ah, yes, the security guard!!! I like the cables hypothesis, although I suspect it’s something subtly different than normal cables, which aren’t that reflective I would think. And I wonder why the lights are different colours.

    I also thought of the window one, but why is a window opening like that so regularly, and above the trees ?

  9. Courtney Franklin says:

    My question is, Has no one bothered to walk towards the the sighting? It may not solve the mystery but you should be able to narrow it down some what.

  10. Gib says:

    I suspect that if you walk towards it, the illusion disappears, and since the occurence is so fleeting, it’s hard to know if the UFOs have gone because they’re flown off, or if they’re still there and it’s just because you have moved and can’t see them.

    You’d have to have communications with someone who stays put, and it’s just all too hard, and people would prefer to stay and watch them with drinks in hand, socialising with their friends….

  11. Rogue Two says:

    In dark nights, when I walk by streets where streetlights are switched off (or broken), I often see lots of “quick flashes” and “flying lights” in the sky. In closer observation, I always find out that they are reflections from car lights in those metallic streetlights.

    (It can cause you a scare when you watch those fast flashes… while driving your car! Look ahead, drive carefully and don’t get distracted: no UFO there ;-) )

  12. Ranson says:

    The cable idea seems closest to what I’m thinking. The behavior of the lights is very much like that of a light source travelling toward the group that suddenly turns perpendicular. Sounds like headlights to me.

    I’m not sure of the original observer’s ability to reasonably rule out plain old headlights in the hills, though. When “Alien Visitor” is on the list of options, I don’t usually count on the observer doing a thorough investigation.

    Wait, hold on. The lights com in sets of two or three. The street dead ends onto a cross-street. This sounds like tail lights, but a distance that short, how could someone mistake them? I’d need to see this thing to make a solid guess, but there’s too much here to jump to “aliens”.

  13. Matt says:

    At that distance reflections off a stationary object or a sliding glass door would not move much, the observable angular motion would be minimal. Therefore unlikely. I like the cable theory, but as stated previously not reflective enough. Unlikely to be off clouds unless the clouds were low or the lights were at a serious distance, indicating some high power. Also cars would not move fast enough for the lights to disappear that fast. Mentions “out of sight”, indicating that they are not just disappearing, but actually getting too weak to see indicating that they are getting further away. Still pondering, but nothing sticks in mind yet…

  14. Nicole says:

    After reading this post twice, I also came up with car headlights which “fly off” as the car turns perpendicular to your line of sight. But for a car to be close enough to resolve two headlights and not realize it’s a car is strange. Also you said it was above the trees beyond the carport. So they are reflecting off something that you saw in the daytime. Appearing every few minutes corresponds with the security guard’s rounds…

    Wild story. I can’t wait to see what it was you saw in the daytime.

  15. Courtney Franklin says:

    Gib I see your point but I raise you a question, would you stand outside your house pondering on how mysterious the mysterious lights are or would you try to suss it out?

  16. Will says:

    Maybe I didn’t read carefully enough but was it a plane or some sort of jet from a ways away that caused the light?

  17. Canadian Curmudgeon says:

    I’ll go along with the reflection hypothesis. The fact that you need to be in one place to see them really points in that direction. Perhaps off a satellite dish.

    If nothing else, it seems like a great opportunity to socialize with your neighbours and have a drink or two. Most likely, if enough alcohol is consumed, some one might get abducted and probed.

  18. Eric says:

    I also think it was car headlights. I’ve seen this before.

  19. Kyran says:

    It is something reflecting off the hills in the distance. You can see the hills in the day but not at night so if there are any objects on it capable of reflecting light at night it will be invisible. I’m not sure if the security guard arriving is a red herring or important.

  20. Tik says:

    I’d be inclined to go with the electric/phone cable idea. Assuming that the car on the hill idea was properly and completely ruled out.

  21. Doubting Foo says:

    Almost everyone today has a video camera and nobody recorded it?

    The guard making his rounds. Driving the same route every night. Circling the neighborhood and causing whatever reflection at a regular interval.

    It didn’t start on time that night because he was late leaving the house, he couldn’t find his wallet or his keys. On his way to make his neighborhood rounds he seemed to get stopped by every red light. When he finally arrived he asked the neighbors if the friends had arrived and was happy to hear that he hadn’t missed them.

    Was I close? ;-)

  22. SeanJJordan says:

    Sounds like cars on a hill to me: the sudden appearance and disappearance, the movement of the lights, the way they move together, the way they veer off to the left…

    It’s a convincing optical illusion when it’s unknown, but once you understand what it is, it doesn’t throw you anymore.

  23. MadScientist says:

    This seems like a series of challenges: can you solve X? Is this some sort of googlish gauntlet cast in search of a minion for Randi? (Hey, I’ll volunteer to be a minion.)

    In Australia one of the longstanding spook stories were based around a peculiar form of the Fata Morgana. The phenomenon was well known for decades and many explanations had been proferred until, as legend goes, someone in a pickup truck confirmed the cause of all the mystery. The story was of strange lights appearing, moving in some direction, then suddenly disappearing. The sensible explanation was confirmed, as legend has it, when someone got onto a radio and enquired if anyone was in radio contact and somewhere in the vicinity. There was a response from a truck driver and the driver was asked to drive back some distance then drive back along his route and stop at a particular moment. Then the driver was asked to turn his lights on and off. The mysterious lights blinked on and off as the driver of the pickup truck instructed. The phenomenon appeared in that case to be a form of Fata Morgana in which only a few meters of air above the surface played a part – a peculiar atmospheric optical waveguide. I had seen an incredible Fata Morgana on one trip; a severely distorted cab of a Mac truck was headed right for me and suddenly disappeared; a few seconds later the real Mac appeared over a rise (and was on the other side of the road). However, the blinking lights effect is said to occcur over far greater distances (as with most cases of Fata Morgana).

    So – this *could* be such an optical effect. OR it could simply be an intermittent light programmed to switch on and acan an arc of some sort; aerosols (dust, sea spray, etc) could scatter the light like an invisible projection screen. Since the reproducibility seems to be impeccable, I vote for a projection on aerosols. It could be something as mundane as a car turning in a multi-storey carpark.

  24. Dave Wiley says:

    I like cars, too. Just because the people considered and rejected this theory doesn’t make it wrong. I picture a road or driveway, perhaps with a slight camber (to explain on of the lights slightly above the other.) Okay I like driveway better. A person goes slowly down their driveway until they get to the main road where they turn and accelerate. The seeming acceleration of the lights would be enhanced by the beams sweeping through the dust or fog.

    I imagine whatever this mystery is a good pair of binoculars could clear it up.

  25. Gib says:

    Courtney, I would try to suss it out, but, well, aren’t us skeptics different from other people ? ;)

  26. Frank says:

    This reminded me of the post of the lights over the sea. Brian, did you ever figure out what those were?

  27. Max says:

    I’ve seen car headlight reflections off powerlines behave this way.

  28. Patrick says:

    So when do we get the answer? This so cool, like a SGU Science or Fiction. I hope Skepticblog can do more interactive brain exercises in the future. I vote for the overhead wire theory.

  29. I’m going with “alien scout ship”.

  30. Brian M says:

    Probably the headlights of the security guards car on something. When he turned a corner, they quickly shoot left as the angle changes.

  31. jbrydle says:

    Kinda sounds like a mirage effect. Shimmering light just at the crest of a hill, with the source just behind. Since you aren’t seeing the source itself, the light can jump all over the place in a seemingly unearthly manner.

  32. Look, we’ve been promised for decades that final Disclosure of the fact of an alien presence on planet Earth is imminent, and now it is here, using Mr. Dunning as the vector for revelation. Clearly Mr. Dunning is highly placed in this nacent New World Order.

    Silly skeptics, always seeking complicated naturalistic explanations.

  33. aaron says:

    there are cables in the distance, the effect is from car lights hitting the cables directly on assent of the the hill, then the lights kinda ride along the wires till out of sight maybe?

  34. I think the row of carports has something to do with it.. at that time of the night people are arriving home.. and with some kind of large panel lift door with a reflective surface on the carport it would cause quite a reflection for 2-3 mins as the door is opened, the car is moved in and then the door is closed again..

    Duncan.

  35. Max says:

    Found a photo of power lines illuminated by headlights.
    http://www.worldofstock.com/closeups/TRC4925.php

  36. Bob says:

    Drawing from some of the previous ideas, I do like the idea of carlights hitting cables. But what about the observation that the lights appeared instantaneously? Shouldn’t the lights have zipped in from the right side, just as they zipped in from the left side if it were just a reflection off the cables? Or was there something blocking the light(s) before they appeared, which could explain their sudden appearance. No one has said anything about the dumpster being directly behind Brian, which could have blocked the light if the angle was right.

    (Again drawing from some of the previous ideas) I’m thinking that the UFOs were the guard’s carlight reflected off cables in front of Brian. The lights appeared suddenly because the dumpster was blocking the light, and disappeared because the guard turned. I think that Brian was focused on the area directly ahead of him, so I don’t think he would’ve noticed anything behind him.

    Btw, I’d be a little leery if my friend asked me to “hang out near the dumpster” at nighttime!

  37. Brian Hart says:

    I am thinking of a parabolic mirror mounted on a pole that was installed to give drivers better vision around “blind” corners. Not so easily seen at night, it could explain the very quick “shot to the left” as carlights got reflected into it.

  38. bob: “But what about the observation that the lights appeared instantaneously?”

    Light reflected off cables or anything else would be a constant reflection in many directions. The ‘instantaneous’ aspect would be only from the perspective of the percipient. It reflects (heh, heh) the ‘instant’ the reflection reached the observer’s eye.

  39. PS: The speed of headlights reflecting off a distant surface would accelerate comensurate with the distance. In other words, the headlights off a slow rolling car making a normal speed turn would move very fast indeed across a surface hundreds of feet or yards away.

  40. Zed says:

    How about a security gate with lights on it or with reflectors. Either by reflection or direct view slightly obscured. That is how the lights would move in sequence, and move side to side. A

  41. The mirage of car headlights resolving as their real image as the car passes the crest looks like the most likely candidate so far as it is the only one that matches the scale of the phenomenon. I’d also like to see a full post with the answer to this and to the previous one abut lights on the sea.

  42. I think everyone has overlooked the most logical answer. The other night, myself and bigfoot were sitting at home watching DVDs when the leprechaun knocked at the door. He, with his friend the Tooth Fairy (I don’t know why he hangs out with that tramp). They both told me about the lights in the sky. So we all went inside and had Pizza and Coronas until we passed out. When I woke the next morning, I found myself lying on the floor half naked using a slice of Mexicana as a pillow and missing a kidney. I was startled by the cold, wet nose of my 75kg Rottweiler who had decided to sniff my butt. I got up, turned on the TV…and that’s when I saw it! A free cookie with every six inch at Subway.

    That, my fellow skeptics, is why these lights form in the sky.

  43. EspressoFrog says:

    It’s because Brian is in a Night Shyamalan film were he is in a coma and from time to time a medic comes in to check on him by flashing a pen light at his retina and the rest of us are just a figment of his imagination and… NAH, sorry, I’ll go with the cars.

  44. Rogue Two says:

    Wouldn’t it be nice to show a quiz like this one in each episode of the series? The answer, in next episode!

  45. Anonymous Coward says:

    The sudden appearance could be accounted for by a vehicle climbing a hill and entering your view when it reaches the apex. Then the road or railway curves. Perspective can make that change look very sudden, just look by day at a curve in the road from a distance. What puzzles me is that the second light is above the first one, but perhaps it is a reflection or mirage. In case of a train, it could be reflected of the power line.
    The wavering could be explained by slight, normally unnoticable, curves in the the road or railway.
    On rereading the article, I think that the lights appearing above the trees puts them in the hill range, so that would be consistent with a bobbing and weaving road or railway.
    That you’ve got to stand at a specific location could mean that you’re not looking at the object directly but in reflection, or that something (not necessarily something big) blocks your view if you’re not standing in the right place. Or it could simply not be true.
    That the lights only appear at night could of course indicate vampiric activity, or it could just be because people don’t turn on their headlights during daytime, or if they do, that they’re too faint to see in the bright sunlight.
    Without any actual pictures, I don’t think there is enough information to make a hard call. Regardless of what you tell us, we don’t have quite as much information as you. How lights look cannot be adequately described in words, and even if I had seen them I would probably prefer whipping out some binoculars (or perhaps a friend’s telescope) or testing the hypothesis in another way (like consulting the timetable of the local railway) over guessing. In a way, asking us to give a surefire answer to this is exactly what you shouldn’t do. Instead you should encourage us not to jump to conclusions before all the facts are known.

  46. Armando says:

    Jim being a pilot could mean there’s a landing strip on the otherside of the far hills. The lights could then be an aircraft’s landing lights reflected on the roof of one of the garages on the cross street. The murky skies could prevent a direct view of the lights. On the other hand, overhead cables is a good guess, I think.

  47. Wylielea says:

    The way you describe the motion – it sounds like a kite with LEDs on it.

  48. Jim Shaver says:

    I agree with many posters that light reflecting off of hanging wires seems to fit the descriptions fairly well. However, I think the source of the light would have to be fairly linear, confined to a relatively narrow strip with sharp edges, to produce a single small spot on each of the wires. Car headlights and security search lights have too broad a pattern to directly account for the linear light. So maybe the car lights or security lights are shining through a narrow slit of some kind, which then casts onto the highwires.

  49. Gib says:

    So, when will you put us out of our misery ?????

  50. Michael says:

    Dragsters in the middle of a race reflecting off some swanp gas in the light of venus.

  51. Michael says:

    Actually, something is screaming race track because of the constant left turns. But then you would think it happens more often than not.

  52. aaron says:

    Liking the Shyamalan theory… reminds me of that South Park where he is asked for ideas by the government and spouts such ridiculousness, and the general is all ‘no, that’s not an idea, thats a ‘twist”…

  53. Love this story, Brian. It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend after spotting a UFO once. They were shocked to find out I was a firm believer in UFO’s. That is, until I explained the difference between an Unidentified Flying Object and an alien spacecraft, the latter of which is Identified (and I don’t believe in) rather than Unidentified.

  54. Rokas Zinkevichius (1337) says:

    I figured it out! i think.

    The cars in the carports must be projecting their headlights through a window or some kind of opening from inside the carports onto the hills behind the building. When someone gets inside of their vehicle, they turn the headlights on, hence the instantaneous appearance of the lights, as they appear on the hill which looks just like the sky because it is too dark to make the distinction between the hills and the sky itself. The car then backs out of the carport. If you ever flash a flashlight on a wall and proceed to walk backwards, the projected light on the wall will mostly stay, but it will slightly sway due to you moving backwards in a not so perfect perpendicular to the wall line. Same idea for the cars backing out and the swaying lights they produce. When the cars go into the street, the drivers cut the steering wheel to the right to back out into the right street lane. The turning of the steering wheel makes the headlights shoot to the left and disappear. The car then probably drives away and you are left with nothing until another person decides to take a ride in the night.

    If this isn’t it, then at least it’s a reasonable explanation for alien spacecraft. Cheers!

  55. Drew says:

    I think the whole power line theory makes the most sense to me so far. When do we get the answer?

  56. Mark says:

    Simply, staring into a low lit environment, the introduction of any light source (oncoming highbeam fash fom headlight etc)is puzzling enough to warrant staring at for some small amount oftime, effectively burning an image on your vision. This follows your eye movements, both slowly desending with quick reflex. I imagine if you had closed your eyes you would have still seen the image (most likely afterglow from the lights of the township)but only brighter…a common occurrence everyone is aware of bet with the air of expectancy contrived by the mind as a real night mirage.

  57. Petrucio says:

    If Brian doesn’t follow up on this just like Shermer didn’t follow his up before, I swear I’ll stop reading this blog! :)

  58. Cambias says:

    I’m betting that it’s related to a door or window somehow. The hovering in one place and then rapidly shooting off to the left (and only to the left) sure sounds like a reflection from a swinging door.

    What Mr. Dunning’s description doesn’t make clear is what the lights were shining against. Clear sky? Was there anything which could act as a “movie screen” for reflections or images?

  59. “Was there anything which could act as a “movie screen” for reflections or images?”

    Depending on the distances involved, practically anything. The hillside. Trees. The side of a distant building, perhaps partially obsvured by trees (so that it’s not obviously a building). An abandoned truck trailer.

  60. Rokas Zinkevichius says:

    Brian responded to me on twitter with an implication that the answer will be revealed eventually.

  61. Feralboy says:

    1. Refractions in the atmosphere;
    2. Plastic bags filled with marsh gas;
    3. Mass insanity.

  62. Brian indicated all the necessary information is in his article. Anybody reread it to look for hints? Seems like the presence of the security guard is extraneous to the story unless his mention (or the mention of his car) is necessary for the solution…….

  63. tmac57 says:

    Devil’s Advocate – I think the security guard is in the mix for this reason: “a little squadron of two or three lights” two lights for the headlights, and add a third for the mounted spotlight at times.

  64. Max says:

    I’d guess that the two or three lights are from the two or three cables, and the effect would be the same with a single light source.
    Brian’s other hint was that the next morning he looked outside and solved the mystery. He saw the cables that weren’t visible at night.

  65. tmac57 says:

    It would be cool if we could see a video of this before the reveal, and then later a daytime picture followed later by the answer. That way we would experience it the way that Brian did.

  66. I still think what’s gonna happen is Brian is going to pop the Final Disclosure on us – aliens are HERE, he is their Earth Ambassador, and we’ll soon be interacting with them via this comment section.

    I’d like to point out that nothing in physics prevents this, so it’s practically a done deal.

  67. tmac57 says:

    D.A.- Have you been talking to pec again?

  68. Science is a whole lot easier when you throw out the rules and eliminate standards of evidence, at least drastically lower them. Those things have been holding us back for centuries.

  69. Heeey, wait a minute. Remember the Brian Dunning post on Mystery Lights At Sea? He never came back on that one either.

    I bet he puts these ‘solve it!’ posts up while the Skeptologists, giggling and cackling all the way, take bets on how long we’ll post before we figure out ain’t nobody coming back to reveal the answer……

  70. Sean says:

    I’ll never give up! Even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary… oh, wait… crap.

  71. It hasn’t been that long yet, plus it takes some people weeks to come off a binge, so I say we hang with it for another, oh, six months.

  72. James says:

    Cigarettes

  73. Well, I don’t smoke, but yes, others might want to stock up six months’ worth.

  74. BillDarryl says:

    No answer yet, but I’m thinking we’re all off on car headlights…

    There’s nothing for a while, then suddenly there’s the pattern, which stays “for as long as you wanted to watch.” If it’s a regularly travelled road, cars wouldn’t just start showing up late at night, then never stop from appearing at regular intervals. It would be ongoing since dusk, and decrease in frequency as the night went on.

    I’m thinking a more regular light source, that flips on at some point, then does a regular, timed pattern. Some kind of rotating neon sign in the hills, maybe? (Could Brian be giving us a clue to this when he wrote, “The woman neighbor believed someone was trying to tell us all something?”)

    Why 2-3 pinpoints in the sky, I don’t know… I’m working on it.

    I can’t figure the placement, though… they’d only be “in the sky” if that were the source’s location (like a plane or star) or if there were a surface to reflect/project onto.

  75. Good thinkin’ Bill. Maybe a new airport beacon light in the area? Flips on after dark, rotates at a regular pattern. If the lights are reflected off cables, there’d be as many lights as cables. 2 or 3 are common.

  76. Damian says:

    If this were Scooby Doo it would most definitely be the security guard (they always had a natural explanation) but the twist would be that Brian would have walked over to the car and ripped off the mask that we thought was the guard’s face, revealing an old man in a dressing gown who lives just down the road.

  77. BillDarryl says:

    And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling host of Skeptoid.

  78. Richard Smith says:

    All for a bunch of Spanish doubloons buried in the bottom of the Dumpster…

  79. We realize Brian isn’t coming back and is laughing his ass off, right?

  80. Kyran says:

    I prefer the ignorance of believing he is coming back.

    I think he is priming us with the car and now we’re all thinking “CARCARCARCAR” when in fact it was something insubstantial like… the orange/grey light meaning it was the amber light on a set of traffic lights.

  81. Mat in Sydney says:

    I say we boycott any further comments until Brian at least comes back and tells us how long we will need to wait for the answer.

  82. UFOManiac says:

    They shot the bull?
    The meatmen dit it they came to round up the cattle for market, and what was seen by all, was just the local meatman putting down the mad cows of course.
    Unbelievable isn’t it, just like your story.

  83. Dan O says:

    My best guess is someone smoking out their window behind double glazed glass then flicking their cigarette away, but I’m not sure how far away that would be visible and I would have thought someone would walk towards it…

    Are we ever going to find out?

  84. will says:

    car going uphill then downhill and lights reflecting off the low clouds or mist.as the car or vehicle reaches the brow of the hill the lights move along very quickly as the angle changes.

  85. William Mook says:

    The security guard had a spotlight on his car and projected it onto the foothills beyond the dead end street.

  86. Joe says:

    I’d say its just flies of somekind and the reflection is from some spotlight lighting them up, either that or theyre glowflies, i dont know if you get them there. Moths have a pretty high reflectivity.

  87. Joe says:

    Or more likely its a false story and Mr Dunning is seeing how easy it is for people to come up with an explanation for anything. Id say power lines too however you said 2 – 3 lights. Must be flies.

  88. Nayr says:

    April fools day prank by Brian? August now, and still no answer, I think we’ve been punk’d.

  89. Nayr says:

    Nevermind, I just saw the answer in another post. Oops.

  90. Great advice, Clearly explained and easy to follow. Thank you