Eyewitness 12 Testimony
Interview with Eyewitness 12 conducted by NIDS August 23, 2001
Re: Carteret, New Jersey Sighting of Orange Lights July 15, 2001
NIDS: For the record, this is NIDS and it's Thursday, August 23rd, at 12:25 p.m. Pacific time. And I'm on the phone with Eyewitness 12, and what's the name of your restaurant?
EW 12: ******
NIDS: And how long have you been in business?
EW 12: Oh, about six, eight months.
NIDS: Oh, not too long. What do you specialize in?
EW 12: We have a big bar crowd, really. You know, we, we serve everything but it's mostly a bar.
NIDS: And you're the business owner?
EW 12: Yes.
NIDS: OK. And do you spell your last name ******?
EW 12: Correct.
NIDS: OK. And, so I guess your occupation is restaurant owner?
EW 12: Uh-huh.
NIDS: OK, and what's your address?
EW 12: ******
NIDS: OK, and can I ask your current age?
EW 12: Yeah, 35.
NIDS: OK, 35. All right, and how about if you begin by telling me where the location of the sighting took place.
EW 12: Um, over the Arthur Kill.
NIDS: Which direction is that from your restaurant.
EW 12: ...the water. Oh, I don't know what that-
NIDS: East?
EW 12: I guess, East, West, nah, Northeast maybe.
NIDS: OK. And what was the date of the sighting?
EW 12: Oh, I don't know what date it was.
NIDS: OK. Well, we all recollect it was July 15th.
EW 12: Somewhere around there.
NIDS: OK. Did you see it, in that, past midnight?
EW 12: Yeah, it was around midnight, um, I think between twelve and two, somewhere around there.
NIDS: OK. And, how long did the sighting last before it disappeared?
EW 12: Um-
NIDS: From when you first saw it, how many, how long do you think, in minutes, or-
EW 12: Five minutes, five minutes.
NIDS: Five minutes total?
EW 12: Um-hum.
NIDS: What was the weather conditions like?
EW 12: Clear.
NIDS: Clear?
EW 12: Um-hum.
NIDS: And you could see the stars?
EW 12: Oh yeah.
NIDS: OK. Well, so you're, now how did ****** (another investigator) find you?
EW 12: You know, I don't know, I really, I don't know.
NIDS: You happen to call him?
EW 12: No. I didn't.
NIDS: Then he called you?
EW 12: Yeah, he called me.
NIDS: OK. And he interviewed you. Did he interview any of your staff?
EW 12: Yeah, he did.
NIDS: OK. Have you ever had any previous UFO experience prior to that event?
EW 12: No.
NIDS: OK. How many witnesses do you think were there, altogether? Your best estimate.
EW 12: Fifty.
NIDS: OK. And among which, how many of your staff saw the UFO?
EW 12: How many? You know, I'm not sure how many of them saw, I don't even remember who was here that night, who wasn't here.
NIDS: Oh, OK.
EW 12: Maybe like 5, 6, 4, something like that. I'm not sure.
NIDS: Is there a way you could be able to find out, to help me-
EW 12: I mean, I could ask them, yeah, I could ask them-
NIDS: OK, because I'd like to interview them.
EW 12: [inaudible] couple of them might know, couple of -
NIDS: OK, how many UFOs did you see?
EW 12: How many? I don't know how many it was. I don't know if it was one, or a few of them, you know, it was like in a formation and at first it looked like it was one big thing, but then it looked like part of it left.
NIDS: OK. Well, how about we do this, how about if you tell me in your own words what happened that night - that morning, I guess it was that morning, is what I should say, just after midnight. And then we can try to trace down aspects of what you saw. Go ahead, and just tell me, what were you doing, what was going on.
EW 12: Oh, I walked out towards the front and I seen the security guy that works here looking up with a few people. And I was like, 'what are you looking at?' They were like, 'look' and they pointed up to the sky and right over us was these, oh, like 1, 2, so maybe 6 red lights in like a V-shape, big bright lights. They just came from the water and they came like pretty much almost right over us and they hovered there for awhile and then they just disappeared.
NIDS: OK. Were you, did you see the object shine a light on the ground?
EW 12: Um, no.
NIDS: Do you know who that was? Because somebody reported that, from your restaurant, they saw that.
EW 12: No. Maybe they said that you could see the light coming down, 'cause the light was pretty close to us, I mean you could see the light actually over the water-
NIDS: Oh, oh, I see. Can, can you describe the lights? Give me, you know, how big they were, what their shape was, their color-
EW 12: They were round, they were round and they were like red-orangeish. Mostly red.
NIDS: OK. How big do you think they were from - do you have a way - did you have a good guess as to how big they were, even if, in the dark?
EW 12: No, but they were big, like maybe the size of a car, each one of them. They were big and round, they were very big.
NIDS: OK. Where over the water, so if you could see the light reflecting off the water, how far was that reflection from your location, can you give a best guess?
EW 12: I'd say maybe about 800 feet.
NIDS: Wow, OK. How high above the water do you think they were floating?
EW 12: You know, I don't know how to estimate. I was maybe a quarter mile, maybe, you know, I really, it was hard to tell.
NIDS: Well, let me ask you this: Do, are you familiar with angles, on a protractor?
EW 12: Yeah. . . .
NIDS: You know, like horizon is zero and you take your arm and put it toward the horizon, it's zero degrees.
EW 12: Right.
NIDS: And put your arm straight up over your head, and that's 90 degrees.
EW 12: Right.
NIDS: And then half-way between those is 45. What angle would you say those lights were when you first viewed it?
EW 12: Maybe 70 degrees.
NIDS: 70 degrees. Did it stay that way? Or did it change angle?
EW 12: Oh, it just came straight, pretty much straight over us.
NIDS: OK, OK. And can you describe the motion of these array of lights? How they moved?
EW 12: Just smoothly.
NIDS: Smoothly?
EW 12: Not sharp, just at a, like, pretty slow, not too slow, like a medium paced speed. Very smooth, and then just stop.
NIDS: OK, and where, and they stopped over the water?
EW 12: Um-hum.
NIDS: And what happened after that, when they stopped?
EW 12: Well, they stopped, they just stood there for awhile, and everybody came out and was just looking at them, and a girl took a picture of it and she took it with a disposable camera, that didn't come, it didn't come out.
NIDS: Do you know who that girl was?
EW 12: Yeah, her, her and her friends, they're here every week, they come all the time.
NIDS: And she got, she got film on this thing?
EW 12: Yeah, she went and got it developed, and it didn't come it.
NIDS: It didn't?
EW 12: No.
NIDS: Oh, OK. Well, when it was stopped in the sky, what was happening with the formation? Did the formation change in any way?
EW 12: The formation didn't, but then the light, a couple of lights disappeared.
NIDS: OK. In what way? Did they look like they just turned off? Or did they fade away, or did they fly away?
EW 12: No, it was hard to tell. They just kinda disappeared.
NIDS: OK. And what about the rest of the lights in the formation?
EW 12: They stood for awhile and then they kinda went off to the side and disappeared.
NIDS: Which direction did they move?
EW 12: Um, they came straight in, and then, I think half of them went to the right of me, and half might have went to the left, but only for like a split second, and then they just disappeared.
NIDS: Well, what compass heading is right, to the right of you? Which way would that be pointing?
EW 12: Um, let's see, I think west.
NIDS: And which, and so to the left of you they'd be going east.
EW 12: Right.
NIDS: OK. Did you, what was the overall impression you had and the people around you while you were all watching this?
EW 12: We didn't really think much of it, to be honest with you. And then after awhile, we were thinking about it, thinking about it and so we called, we actually called Channel 7 News but they didn't know.
NIDS: Oh, OK. Well, was this like, everybody including - did you see the Coast Guard guys and talk to them yourself?
EW 12: Oh yeah.
NIDS: What was, what did they think? I mean, did they think that these were typical military flares, or-
EW 12: No, no. They said they never seen anything like that. It wasn't a flare or anything, I mean, it was - I guess you had to see it to know.
NIDS: OK, well, their reaction was what? Did they - what was their reaction? What did they say?
EW 12: Nothing, they just never seen anything like it before.
NIDS: OK. Do you know if they were officers, or noncommissioned officers?
EW 12: No, I don't know.
NIDS: Yeah, Dennis told me he had given them report forms to fill out and he hadn't gotten them back, and I don't know how he found them, or how he got those reports to them, and I'm trying to trace that down. That's why I asked if you might have known them.
EW 12: No, I don't know them.
NIDS: You haven't seen them back in your restaurant since, huh?
EW 12: You know, if they was here I wouldn't recognize them. The only way I even knew that they were Coast Guard guys was because we don't let people in with sneakers on, and they had sneakers on and the security guy said 'they're with the Coast Guard' so we let them in anyway, it was like, oh.
NIDS: OK. So basically, the formation was moving - what? Which direction was it moving before it stopped?
EW 12: Straight.
NIDS: No, I mean which direction was it going? East, North, South-
EW 12: It was coming straight at me, I guess it would be coming from like Northwest, I think.
NIDS: OK. And it stopped and then you had the 2, then you had 2 disappear, and then you had some that went East and some that went West.
EW 12: Right.
NIDS: And then that was the end of it?
EW 12: That was the end of it.
NIDS: OK, did you see any atmospheric traces, like glowing gases or trails or anything like that?
EW 12: Um, no.
NIDS: What happened with the electricity in your restaurant and all around you? Did you have any power outage, or was there-
EW 12: No, not that I know of.
NIDS: OK. Did you guys experience any physiological reactions? Anything that happened to you that felt weird?
EW 12: No.
NIDS: OK. I gather you didn't have any missing time event on this?
EW 12: No.
NIDS: OK. So it passed overhead? And is that where it stopped and hovered?
EW 12: Yeah.
NIDS: And these things were as big -
EW 12: [inaudible] not directly overhead, in front of me, like, like I said, like 70 degrees, like, you know.
NIDS: To 90, yeah. Did, you said that the lights in the array, in the formation, were as a big as a car?
EW 12: Yeah, they were big, they were round, they were very big.
NIDS: How did they compare to maybe, like, putting your thumb out at arm's length, if you put your arm straight out - were they bigger than your thumbnail?
EW 12: No, it wasn't bigger than my thumbnail.
NIDS: Smaller than your thumbnail?
EW 12: I would think so. I don't know, I'm probably too tight.
NIDS: Was it hard to judge that night?
EW 12: [inaudible] with my thumb.
NIDS: Well, how many, tell me, can you describe the lighting around your restaurant, how bright it is, or how it's arranged?
EW 12: Yeah, I mean it's just red, yeah red lights, all the lights outside are red.
NIDS: But, I'm talking about the street lights and the signs. You know, did the lights from the street and the signs and the buildings, that they had kinda given you a hard time judging?
EW 12: There are no streets, and there really isn't anything except the, the canal of water. And you know, some woods. There's no houses or really anything around.
NIDS: OK. Is there anything else you can add?
EW 12: No, that was about it.
NIDS: That was about it, huh? But, you're pretty sure that it happened just after midnight on the 15th?
EW 12: Uh-huh. I'm positive about that.
NIDS: OK. Do you remember precisely when? I know when, but I just need to know if it was different with you or not.
EW 12: No, I don't, I don't know.
NIDS: OK. How many people, I mean, have you had people talking about it since then, up until now?
EW 12: At first, a lot of people, but now I really haven't. Once in awhile we talk about it, but not many people, no. Nobody really talks about it.
NIDS: Did you have a, did you have the press come down and interview?
EW 12: You know what? They called me to, and I didn't bother calling them back.
NIDS: Oh, OK. And ******'s the only one you talked to then?
EW 12: Yeah, he came down so I talked to him.
NIDS: How about any people who said they were from an organization called ******. Have you run into them?
EW 12: You know what, a few people have called and I just, I never really returned any calls.
NIDS: Oh, OK. Well, I'm trying to get a fixture for this - so the weather was clear. Can you tell me if you remember that there was any wind or breeze?
EW 12: It couldn't have been too windy out, I really, I don't remember. You know what, I don't think there was very much wind, I would have remembered that maybe, but I don't think there was at all.
NIDS: OK, OK. I'm trying to think of any other questions I wanted to ask you. So you really didn't report this to anybody, so that takes care of that. And you described the speed of it, and there's no basic interesting feature about the lights, you said they were mostly red, round. Did they have smooth texture, or did they look like they were turbulent, or anything unusual about their-?
EW 12: Glowing, glowing.
NIDS: Glowing? OK, let me get that down. OK. So basically - did you think that these lights were flying in a rigid formation? Or were they loose and kinda moving around independently?
EW 12: Can you hold on one second?
NIDS: Sure.
EW 12: [unrelated conversation with someone else] Hello?
NIDS: Yes, I'm here. Gee, I had a question I was gonna ask- oh, so the lights were glowing. Now my question is, did the lights move together as if they were rigid on something else? Or did they look like they were moving about independently a little bit?
EW 12: They looked like they were all together.
NIDS: Do you think they were on something, like a craft? Did you, were you able to see the outline of anything?
EW 12: No, the only thing I could see, the only way I made out the shape was from the red lights.
NIDS: Well, how bright were these lights? Can you compare how bright these lights were to maybe, like -
EW 12: Really bright.
NIDS: Were they as bright as a police spotlight? Like on a police car?
EW 12: It wasn't, it was a different type of, like a red, deep red, glowing.
NIDS: And you could see the reflection of that glow off the water?
EW 12: Uh, yeah.
NIDS: And you didn't see any beam of light come down at all?
EW 12: Um, no, I didn't see a beam of light from it.
NIDS: OK, OK. Well, that's about all I can think of to ask you, you pretty much covered the weather, I already know about the moon and all that stuff so that's not a factor here. But your best impression is that you didn't see any smoke or pieces falling from this stuff, so-
EW 12: No.
NIDS: -it didn't look like flares at all?
EW 12: No, definitely wasn't flares. It was big.
NIDS: OK, well, what's the best way, I want to be able to interview your employees who did see it. So you need to ask around so you could find out who they were? How would this work, would you have them call me, or could you give me -?
EW 12: Yeah, I'll have, I'll have them call you, or I'll get their home numbers which is even better and I'll let you call them at home.
NIDS: Yeah, I'd like to do that because sometimes it's hard to get people to call you back when they're busy and stuff, and it's easier if I can make the call, then I'm paying for the long distance. Do you have my number?
EW 12: Uh, yeah, I have your number.
NIDS: 702-798-1700?
EW 12: Yep, it's in my caller ID.
NIDS: OK. Yeah, just, basically, just give me a call and give me their names and their phone numbers and I'll call them.
EW 12: OK.
NIDS: Wait, how long would it take, you think, about a day or so?
EW 12: Yeah, after, you know, everybody who works here usually is in the for the weekend, so-
NIDS: OK. Well, listen, I thank you very much and if I have any other questions that I didn't think of, is it, can I call you?
EW 12: Sure.
NIDS: Well thank you. I appreciate you taking your time, and you have a good one.
EW 12: You too.
NIDS: And I look forward to hearing from you about your, about the other witnesses. Thank you.
EW 12: Bye.
[End of Interview]
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