Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 23/02/2023
In January 2023 Val Raizola, a member of our Facebook community group BUFOG Truthseekers, commented on a post mentioning that he’d had a UFO sighting in his childhood. Intrigued by what he saw, I reached out to him via Facebook Messenger to go over the details of what happened.
Sighting Details
Back in 2006 when he was 12 years old Val lived on Withering Pine Street in Las Vegas with his mother, stepfather and sister. His family had moved to the city from Jackson Town the previous year.
It took him a while to settle in but by summer time he had established a number of good friends in the area. At the time his mother used to work until late into the evening. She was fine with him going out with his friends while she was at work. They would regularly invite him to come out and play at Silverado Ranch Park or the arcade of South Point Casino.
One clear and warm evening, when the sun had almost set in the sky, he was invited to come and join them at South Skate Park which was situated in the North East corner of Silverado Ranch Park. This would be their regular place to initially meet up. All of his friends were skateboarders. Val did not skateboard himself, but he dressed like a skateboarder so fitted right in!
He would head East from his house, and then South along Gilespie Street to reach the skate park. Since the incident housing and apartments have been built in the area, but it used to be surrounded on either side by open desert ground.
As he walked South along the road he was able to make out the skate park ahead of him and off to the right. There were about 10 other children already there.
The skate park has a number of standing lights around its edges to light it up after dark. Val decided to count these lights to pass the time as he walked. As he counted, he noticed that one of the lights did not seem to have a pole connecting it to the ground. As he continued to focus on this light, he realised it was larger than the other lights and also appeared to have smaller white lights at the base of it.
At this point he had been staring at it for about 20 seconds. He realised that it was not a light at all, but instead a floating disc shaped object a bright white light around its centre. It had a flattened base around which numerous smaller white lights could be seen. At a distance it had been hard to spot initially due to its similarity in shape and colour to the skate park lights. It was hard to tell whether it was literally in between the lights, or whether it was further away and just visible between them.
Suddenly without warning the object began to slowly and silently ascend vertically. As it did the white lights at the base began to rotate. Once it got to about twice the height of the lights it then came to a halt again. About 3 seconds later it instantly accelerated and shot away to the West! It was gone in less than a second due to the distance. The speed was so fast that it seemed to stretch it out momentarily into a line.
Val was astounded by what he had just witnessed. He continued the walk to the skate park. When he arrived there he met up with his friend. There was no indication that they, nor anyone else at the park, had also witnessed the UFO. He was amazed by this fact, but decided to keep the sighting to himself as he thought that they would not believe him.
It wasn’t until he got back home 2-3 hours later that he started to really think about what he had seen. Looking back at the incident Val feels that he must have been in shock. He says before this point he acted like nothing had happened, almost like he’d temporarily forgotten about it. But when he got home it “hit him like a train”.
He did not associate it with being an alien craft as he had no knowledge of UFOs back then, however the way it had left the vicinity reminded him of the way the ships warped through space in Star Wars. He knew that whatever it was, it was something highly unusual.
Val did not tell his parents or his sister about the sighting. He says his mother had gone to bed early that evening, and he did not have the opportunity to speak with her at any length of time in the days immediately following the incident as she was very busy with work. He did not get on well with his stepfather, and his sister kept to herself with her own group of friends. By the time he did have the opportunity to speak with his mother or sister a number of days had passed and it seemed less relevant to discuss it with them. He says that he has confided in a few close friends since then.
Sighting Analysis
This appears to be a stunning sighting of a disc-shaped UFO, which exhibited some extremely advanced manoeuvring capabilities. The witness comes across as very believable and I have no issues with the authenticity of the case. Val said he is happy to be able finally get the incident down on record.
The object could not have been an aeroplane as they cannot hover still for a period or time or perform vertical ascents. Val says that he is 100% sure it was not a helicopter as, aside from the incredible speed that the object left the area, it was the wrong shape and had the wrong lighting on it for a helicopter. Due to the location, he would often see helicopters patrolling the skies, so knew exactly how they looked after da.
Back in 2006 drones were not readily being utilised by the public for non-commercial purposes. Companies had started to use them for security measures or inspections, however the object looked too large to be a drone, and was the incorrect shape. Some kind of radio controlled model would be possible, but the speed at which it shot away seems much too fast for either of these explanations given the distance it was at.
Due to the fact that this sighting took place in Las Vegas, there is obviously the possibility of brightly lit advertising balloons. However the manoeuvres were seemingly too controlled for it to have been a drifting balloon, and once again the final manoeuvre it performed means it cannot have been an inflatable.
With these explanations discounted, I feel that there is certainly the possibility this was a genuine sighting of an advanced craft. I have investigated many sightings before where similar extreme flight capabilities have been observed, and the shape would certainly fit in with it being a craft, possibly of extra-terrestrial origin.
It may seem bizarre that Val was the only person who seemed to have seen it. However the other children at the park were playing so were probably too distracted to look up into the sky and notice it. It is unknown how long it had been there for before Val initially spotted it, and it may have been further back over the parking lot or beyond instead of hovering directly at the edge of the skate park.
I would like to thank Val for passing on the details of this fascinating sighting. If you have any information relating to it please get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023
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