UFO Case Report:

Cigar-shaped object with portholes seen by 7 witnesses over Northern Texas

Date: May 13, 1981
Location: Denison, Texas, United States

At least seven persons spotted an unidentified flying object over Texomaland last Wednesday morning. Jim Shelton, mechanic at Jim Graham International, described the sighting and drew a sketch. "It was a flying object with lit portholes. Fire was streaming in sparks from the rear, and it had green and yellow pulsating lights," he said. "It was real. I saw it, and if they lock me up, I still saw it. It was long, a cigar-like shape."

Drawing by witness Jim Shelton of the object he had seen. (source: Denison Herald)

Classification & Features

Type of Case/Report: PressReport
Hynek Classification: ND
Shape of Object(s): Cigar
# of Witnesses: Multiple
Special Features/Characteristics: Portholes/Windows, Silent, Witness Sketch

Full Report / Article

Source: Irene Flaherty, Denison Herald (Denison, TX), May 17, 1981

By IRENE FLAHERTY Herald Staff Writer

At least seven persons spotted an unidentified flying object over Texomaland last Wednesday morning.

Three of the UFO spotters give corresponding visual sightings and are certain they saw what they saw.

Jim Shelton, mechanic at Jim Graham International described what he saw for the Herald and went a step farther.

He drew a sketch.

Shelton said he's been laughed at, poked fun at, and looked at like he was crazy, but won't back away from a single word.

"It may have been for only five seconds, but I saw what I saw," Shelton said.

"It was a flying object with lit portholes. Fire was streaming in sparks from the rear, and it had green and yellow pulsating lights," he said.

"It was real. I saw it, and if they lock me up, I still saw it. It was long, a cigar-like shape."

Karen Robinson, Calera. employee of Texas Instruments, saw it too.

She described it to her friend Linda Tingle as moving in a straight line across the Texas-Oklahoma skies like a Roman candle, only much bigger — like fireworks trailing behind a falling star. Karen was enroute home from her job at Texas Instruments. She got off at midnight.

Linda Tingle saw it too. She described it as a big ball of light. "I thought it was the moon at first glance. But it was coming downward like it was falling. I thought it might be a falling star or something, but it was flashing a light green color, then it turned light yellow, and I screamed to my husband, 'Mike, Mike look."' She and her husband were driving home from work. She works at Texas Instruments. He works at Johnson & Johnson. He was driving north on Loy Lake Road. They live in West Denison and were enroute to pick up their child before going home.

He couldn't see anything but the sky because he couldn't look around much while he was driving. He said the sky lit up. "It seemed to glow."

But Linda said she did not notice the sky "I just saw that ball glowing and flashing as it streaked downward real fast. Like I said, it first flashed green, a light green, then it turned a light yellow, and it disappeared like it fell to the earth."

Tingle said he talked with a co-worker at J&J who also saw the strange lights.

Shelton's account is the most exacting: "My wife and I were watching television. Channel 13 had that show about the German ship, Graf Spee. The movie had just ended. My wife had gone to sleep. Hold her, 'It's time to get up and go to bed.1

"Channel 13 was going off the air. I know it was right at 12:30 a.m. Out the living room window, I saw a bright light. The whole pasture lit up. I raised up off the couch, turned toward the window and was looking out when I saw the long cigar-shaped ship. I thought it might be a plane crashing, or a helicopter, but there wasn't a sound. Not a motor, a humming or a bit of noise."

Shelton said he got his knees on the couch, leaned over and raised up the window to get a better look as the object got partially behind one of the big oak trees in the pasture just behind his trailer "I hollered at Judy. my wife. She woke up and said she saw the pasture all lit up, but she did not get to the window in time to see anything else.

"I expected it to come back into view, but just poof. It was gone. I thought it crashed, and I called the Denison Police. Shelton said. "I know they thought I was crazy, but they humored me and said since it was outside the city limits they would notify the sheriff's office. They never contacted me, so I know what they thought too."

Shelton is positive about what he saw. "If they think I'm crazy, that's their problem. I did see it," he said.

He didn't go to the pasture immediately. "I thought about it, but I was scared. What if it was a flying saucer, something from outer space. I just couldn't see myself walking out and shaking hands with any green men. I'd be too scared. I reported what I saw," he said, "and it is up to someone else to investigate."

Shelton couldn't just ignore it, though. He went out the next morning and walked every inch of that 15-acres and couldn't find a thing. Then he decided someone ought to know about his UFO sighting.

"I was an Air Force brat, and dad is retired and living n Fort Worth. I called him, and he said he would tell the Air Force, and they would contact me. But I haven't heard a thing from anyone — except you."

Shelton said he is an average person who has heard of people seeing UFO's and never thought much about them. He is a mechanic, has three children, is 37 years old and been on.the same job for five years.

"I'm not prone to making up things, and I can understand someone being skeptical of what I've said," Shelton added. "The thing I saw was about 20 feet long. It was coming down at a fairlv steep angle. Its glide path was about 100 yards out in the pasture, and it was moving about 30 to 40 miles per hour, not hovering, or trying to land. Then poof — it was gone. I thought, My God. It scared me. It wasn't a plane, a helicopter or the Goodyear blimp. It was bright as day — then pitch dark again ."

A neighbor of the Shelton's who didn't want to be identified also saw the "bright as day" light.

"I had gone to bed. It was well after 10:30, as far as how late. I didn't look at a clock. And my room lit up. It was bright and I woke up. It was that bright. I thought it might have been a car pulling in the driveway, and I was imagining the rest, but I pulled up the covers, closed my eyes again and went back to sleep.

At the police station, the dispatcher didnt record the telephone call from Shelton.

Alton Taylor, day dispatcher, said he knew what it was. "We get a lot of those calls. People are seeing the weather balloons and think it's something else. It was here just last week, and I saw it myself when I was coming to work."

Shelton said he didn't see a weather balloon.

"There's no way what I saw could have been that. It just couldn't have been. It was strange. For one thing, there was a silvery white glow and orange-red flames coming out of the rear of that cigar or saucer-shaped thing."

Case ID: 948 edit: 948

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