Police witness UFO over Highland Illinois

January 5th, 2000  – Highland Illinois : at around 4am miniature golf course owner Melvern Noll, was checking on his business when he noticed some lights in the sky and decided to stop and observe the phenomena. Melvern described the craft as “Looking like a two story building with a small square penthouse room on top”. Stunned by what he was witnessing, Melvern decided to drive to the local police station and make report. The report was received and communicated via dispatch to an officer on duty.

At approximately 4.20 am Lebanon police officer Ed Barton observed two bright lights in the sky over Highland. Officer Barton described the object as ” Two lights changing shape and then forming in to 1″, he then witnessed the lights turn in to a cigar shape.  The object seemingly hung around briefly and in that time the officer confirmed the vessel was triangular in shape, it then did a flat methodical turn. Officer Barton then proceeded to lean into his patrol car to make a report, this very brief distraction caused him to look away and in those mere seconds the craft had sped away in the direction of Shiloh…some 7 miles away.

Shiloh officer David Martin then picked up observation of the object, which he described as triangular in shape and 100 yards wide. The object then proceeded at great speed in the direction of Millstadt.

Millstadt officer Craig Stevens was the police officer who got the most detailed look at the vessel, even being able to attempt to photograph it with his polaroid camera. The details of the object as officer Stevens described:

• Floating very low, about 500 to 1000 feet off the ground
• Three lights at the rear, right, left and centre
• Centre light seemed to be strobing and there appeared to be a red light on the undercarriage of the vessel at the centre
• A low frequency buzzing was heard emanating from the craft
• Looked as though it was projecting the night sky on to the undercarriage of the vessel as some form of camouflage.
• Other than low buzzing noise, was not making any sound when hovering or moving
• Speed off towards Dupo

Dupo police officer Matt Jany’s description was similar to the other witnesses except he managed to catch a more detailed glimpse of the crafts underside. Officer Jany described it in the following way: ” The underside looked as though it was sectional as if it was built in parts and then put together”. During this time contact was made to Lambert airport which could not dtect the object despite Officer Jany seeing it at that very moment.

The UFO is described as being bigger than a 731 jet and all witnesses claimed it as being totally silent when moving. Therotecially the lights were considered a part of the objects propulsion system. On a side note local Scott air force base claimed it had no knowledge of the craft due to radar not being funcional at the time, even though police officers witnessed cargo planes flying out of the base merely an hour or so before the UFO was sighted.

In popular culture:

A TV movie called UFO Over Illinois was created in 2000, but locating the film online is difficult. Recording artist Sufjan Stevens wrote about the incident in his 2005 song “ Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois” which featured on the Illinois album. 

 Concerning the UFO sighting near Highland Illinois – Sufjan Stevens 

Sources:

The Debrief: https://thedebrief.org/the-st-clair-triangle-ufo-incident-of-2000-a-fresh-look/

YouTube – Is it real?