Eyewitnesses 21 Testimony

Interview with Eyewitnesses 21 conducted by NIDS October 2, 2001
Re: Carteret, New Jersey Sighting of Orange Lights July 15, 2001

NIDS: You're in Staten Island?

EW 21: I'm in Staten Island, yeah.

NIDS: OK, can I get your home address, please?

EW 21: ******

NIDS: OK, in Staten Island, New York. What's the zip?

EW 21: ******

NIDS: OK, and what do you presently do for a living?

EW 21: I'm a telephone company employee, actually. But I DJ at the ******.

NIDS: And do you DJ at night?

EW 21: Yes.

NIDS: OK. And how old are you?

EW 21: 24.

NIDS: OK. At the beginning, tell me what you saw, what happened? Where were you, what time was it, and what was going on?

EW 21: The time ... hmmmm, had to be around 12ish, I believe it was. Between 12 and 12:30, I believe it was. I wasn't working that night, it was a Saturday, I'm not the Saturday DJ, I had just passed by to pick up pay actually, or whatever - I had to talk to the owner for some reason - and I was by the DJ booth and the owner came in and said '******, come outside, look, there's UFOs outside!' And before I, actually I went outside and I saw these lights, like on a, kind of like a, about a, not a 45-degree angle, maybe like a 33-angle, one at the bottom of the angle closer, low in altitude I should say, and closer. It was kind of like, it's hard to explain, maybe like - I know in astronomy they use a, like a V for your fingers, it's 5 degrees-

NIDS: Um-hmm.

EW 21: Am I correct?

NIDS: Yes.

EW 21: Maybe 5 to 10 degrees above the treeline. And it was-

NIDS: They were over the water then?

EW 21: Yeah, they were over the water, it's, you're right down on the water, this place has a front porch facing the water, you can actually see the gas tank over in Jersey, Edison, New Jersey. And I just looked at it, and I was 'yeah, whatever, it's some kind of military flying formation or something', or the Newark Airport's right there, I figured it was, whatever - I didn't think anything of it. I went back inside, then as a joke I got on the microphone, I said 'Hey anybody wanna see a UFO, go outside.' So, there was like 30 people, or 30 to 40 people I couldn't, [s/l that was already] outside. And I went back out there and everybody just started looking a little bit, like, and all of a sudden, boom, one started going away.

NIDS: How did they disappear?

EW 21: Just, boop, gone. Just gone. It's like they, they, they shut off their light and was just gone.

NIDS: Now ****** is your boss?

EW 21: He's one of the owners, yeah.

NIDS: And did he go out at that time too?

EW 21: He was outside, he was outside the whole entire time. I believe he was one of the first people that saw it. They saw more than I did. I saw about, or what was it? About 4 of them, on an angle, and the top one, at the top of the angle, that went away, then the other one. And I was like, 'oh man, what's going on? I don't want them to go away, I want them to fly over.' And then the last one, it was the brightest one obviously 'cause there's, you know, probably the closest one, it just - was gone. We didn't hear anything, it was just gone.

NIDS: You know, this array of all these lights, how big would you say they are compared to, compared to an object you know about? Like, the size of a building at that distance, or an airplane up in the sky, or something-

EW 21: It was probably about the size - oh, I honestly thought they were like, like 747 planes, really. My first initial thought was they were military jets. You know, like a Stealth bomber or something like that, whatever. 'Cause I know that there is an Air Force base in Jersey, I know that, but then, I don't know, it just, just disappeared, just didn't look right.

NIDS: Well, what did the color of the lights look like to you, what did they remind you of?

EW 21: The one on the bottom seemed more white, the ones on the top had more of an orangey tinge to it.

NIDS: And how big were these lights? Like, if you held an object at your arm's length, what would they be compared to? Like, a baseball, a dime, a penny, or-

EW 21: I'd say more of like a, like a softball.

NIDS: As big as a softball in your hand at arm's length? They'd be that big, at that distance?

EW 21: Yeah, I'd say like a softball, maybe even a little bigger than that. No smaller than a softball though, even a volleyball.

NIDS: And how many lights did you say, were you able to count?

EW 21: I saw 4. When I first went out there I knew there was more, but like I said, I just went out there, I looked up and I was like 'oh you guys are nuts.'

NIDS: So you think maybe they were attached to a vehicle?

EW 21: They were too far apart. It didn't seem physically possible the way they were forming to be one thing.

NIDS: Was there any stars in the back of them, or any city lights?

EW 21: Not at that eye level.

NIDS: And, now you said they were a few degrees above the water?

EW 21: Above the tree line.

NIDS: Above the tree line, to about, what was it? Ten degrees? I thought you said 10 degrees, though I wasn't sure.

EW 21: Above the tree line, about, you know, 5, I'd say like 5 to 10 degrees. I should take a picture actually and send it to you.

NIDS: That's with respect to trees real close to you then?

EW 21: The trees are about 60 feet away.

NIDS: So this struck you as very different then, than what you would expect to see?

EW 21: Yeah, it was odd. 'Cause I was like, I was searching for answers, I don't have a very vast knowledge of astronomy, I took an astronomy course in college-

NIDS: Is that how you know ******?

EW 21: Excuse me?

NIDS: Is that how you met ******?

EW 21: No, no, no. I went to a different college. I was trying to rationalize anything that I knew because I have, in college I happened to take a liking to astronomy, and I had actually went home and got out all my, my old textbook actually, and I was like, there was no clouds, it was a clear night, we didn't anything, there wasn't, I don't think there was anything, any, you know, any shooting stars or anything, nothing was due that week or anything like that. Because it's, there only so much sky in New York we don't see much.

NIDS: Yeah. How was the weather that night?

EW 21: The weather was clear. Maybe 80 degrees.

NIDS: Any wind? Breeze?

EW 21: It was a crystal clear, beautiful night.

NIDS: OK. Did these things move? Did they move away, move left and right, up or down?

EW 21: They were coming at us, from Jersey, so they would be heading, I'd swear that would be west- I mean east. They were heading east, maybe southeast.

NIDS: Southeast?

EW 21: Yeah, 'cause that's just the way we're facing.

NIDS: And they were moving in unison, at the same time, southeast?

EW 21: They were, yeah, they were all moving together, and then one went out, then another went out, and another went out. And finally that last one, just boop - gone. You didn't see anything take off, I didn't see anything, a black object in the sky, just gone.

NIDS: Was it a steady movement? Or was it jerky?

EW 21: Steady. Yeah.

NIDS: Did you notice any physical traces in the air, or any electricity blacken out in the building or nearby?

EW 21: Uh, no. I didn't even think to look for that.

NIDS: No gases or glows left behind these things?

EW 21: No trails, no tails, nothing.

NIDS: And you guys weren't affected, no electrical feeling or tingling, missing time or anything-

EW 21: No, no, nothing like that. It's a bar, technically maybe people were drunk!

NIDS: All right. Well, it sounds like you pretty much provided me some pretty good, excellent detail there, which I really appreciate. Did you see the light reflected off the water from underneath those things?

EW 21: You know, I didn't even think to look. I was looking up, just trying to figure out, I'm like, why are these, how'd they just, I'm looking for clouds, I'm seeing, I'm expecting them to come back. I'm expecting them to be a high cloud up there, that I'm not seeing and expecting them to come back, and they just didn't come back. And I also heard that a State Trooper in New Jersey had seen it, that's how all this came about. It was in the paper, and according to the news article, they were on the New Jersey Turnpike, which, you know, directly is not that far away from us, and a Trooper had pulled over and they said they saw 12!

NIDS: Do you know who the Trooper is?

EW 21: No, it was in the Staten Island [s/l Advance], the professor should know the article, and that-

NIDS: That was in the article, yeah, that's right.

EW 21: - people called the professor and that's the only reason - I didn't call anybody about it, they came to the ****** and they contacted us.

NIDS: Did you ever see a UFO before this, or was this your first time?

EW 21: Yeah, that was the first time. I haven't seen really anything besides a shooting star.

NIDS: What was the general reaction that you, did you note the reaction of everybody at the ******? Were they stunned, or surprised, or really puzzled or did people think they knew what it was-?

EW 21: It was like, well, what is that? No, everybody was like, oh my - oh, holy ******, you know!

NIDS: What was going on? Was there a party there, or you just normally-?

EW 21: No, it's a, like a loungey type bar, type scene, with, you know, and a little later in the night there's a little music, so a bunch of people outside and everybody's like, whoa, what's going on?

NIDS: Now you described these lights as being steady, right? They were like a glow, or were they emitted, like-?

EW 21: Like that, just coming right at you, steady, slow, smooth, you know? Just, like, like I said, just like a light.

NIDS: Were they bright, like a spotlight? Or like flashlights at a long distance?

EW 21: -spotlight, just maybe, just a light. It wasn't that bright, it didn't light up anything, no lights came on us, we didn't get any brighter, everybody was just sitting there, just trying to figure out what it was.

NIDS: OK, well listen, thanks again, and you take it easy.

[End of Interview.]