Group /Category 4
Animal Effect Cases

Case Directory
Victorville, California
February 24, 1959

Animal Behavior Feature:
A bright light shown into a young man’s bedroom.  The family’s pet dogs were howling and running around in the yard, and he let them indoors.  As he did so, to the west, he saw an object so large that his spread hand did not cover it top to bottom, and it was about twice as long as thick.  It emitted a sound similar to the hum of a transformer, but higher in pitch, or similar to a whip swishing through the air must of vastly greater volume.  The object passed over his front yard at an altitude of 8-10 feet going NE, and over the next 15 minutes, the object passed over the yard/house 4 more times at a variety of speeds.  On the final pass, the vibration of the object could be felt throughout the house.  On each pass over the house, the witness heard a sharp cracking sound like from a spark plug but of much greater volume.  The dogs continued whimpering, shaking, and hiding under the furniture and were still doing so when the witness’s parents arrived home at 11 P.M. [Interesting that the pets were still exhibiting fear 45 minutes after the event appeared to end.  Commonly when the fear-producing stimulus is gone, the animal calms quickly—jw] 

The radio reception, clear before 10 P.M. and after 10:15 P.M. was blocked by static during the 15 minutes of the sighting. Two neighbors also reported radio/TV interference during this time.

Joan Woodward, Animal Behavior Specialist:

A young man was baby sitting his brother while his parents were at night school when these events occurred.  The bright object was lens shaped from the front, and more cone shaped from the side with one end rounded and the other tapered.  The object was bright but had a dull red color with purple waves moving through its extremities.  The witness was puzzled that he could not see the object from the rear (after it passed him).  When he could not see it, he could not hear it either.

The witness’s younger brother saw the object through a living room window covered by a split bamboo blind on its second pass.  The figure on page 168 shows George AFB control tower 8 miles from the witness’s house, probably explaining why the witness said he was familiar with sonic booms and that was not what he heard during these events.

No physiological effects were reported.

Source:
Hynek, J. Allen, 1977, The Hynek UFO Report, Dell Publishing, New York, pages 167-170.

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