Guest, Sam Maranto, Ufologist/Investigative Researcher: August 21st marks the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Tinley Park Mass Sighting. Hundreds witnessed and recorded this event on video. Was it one massive object with multiple lights hovering over this populated Chicago suburb, or a fleet of separate objects? One thing’s certain – it defied easy explanation. In the days leading up, similar reports and videos flooded in worldwide to the National UFO Reporting Center. Police, radio, and TV stations in Chicago were swamped with calls from concerned citizens. Tinley Park wasn’t alone in experiencing something unusual. Incredibly, another occurrence happened on October 31st that year. Featured in several UFO TV series, this remains one of the best-documented mass sightings in recent history, offering evidence of the event and details about the objects themselves.
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I too saw a UFO that night,however I live and witnessed this in Jefferson Park on the northwest side of the city. It was twilight just before 8 p.m. , I was sitting in my backyard with three friends facing east,when all of a sudden I saw a craft moving through the sky. I quickly yelled out and pointed “look,look, look” the person sitting next to me saw it too,however the others were facing to the west and did not see it in time. It was a dull metallic disc shaped object,no wings,no tail,no sound ,I’d say about twenty feet in diameter. I would say about 50 to 75 feet in the air over street level(Melvina Ave) moving about 50 miles per hour.But what really got my attention was how it moved, it did not move in a smooth motion,it stopped and moved,like a pulsating motion in the air. I then heard about the Tinley Park UFO the next day. However almost all streets in Chicago are on a grid scale with N,S,E,W compass headings this craft was travelling parallel to the street and if you draw a straight line at a compass heading of 180 you’ll end up right in Tinley Park. You might ask what qualifications I have about aircraft? Well, I worked at O’Hare Airport for over (at that time) 17 years, I have a friend in the AirForce that had me as a guest on the military bases, so I’ve seen and heard and worked on all sorts of aircraft,commercial and military, yet this object to this day I can’t explain. I’ve mostly only told this story to a few people out of fear of ridicule, but now as I’m getting older and retired I feel I should share it