Original subtitles

Tonight on "The Proof Is Out There."

Did A UFO follow two UFO researchers home?

It came up on us so suddenly and it was so huge.

Did a trucker's dash cam

capture a legendary Native American monster?

Could this be somehow related

to the skin-walker phenomenon?

How did this piece of modern technology

get buried alongside these ancient fossils?

It's a strange historical anachronism

that should not exist.

And what made this mysterious formation

at the bottom of the ocean,

Whatever made such a detailed design

must have some type of higher intelligence

Around the globe are videos-

What are those things?

It's moving

Photos and sounds that defy explanation.

We don't know where they come from,

who made them or how they operate.

What are they?

Some sort of bizarre mutation.

What's exciting is nobody really knows.

Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof.

I'm Tony Harris,

and as a journalist for more than 30 years,

I've followed the facts where they take me.

Now I'm bringing that spirit of investigation

to the world's strangest sounds and images.

We'll analyze each one with top experts.

It's a credible case, it's a credible video.

And pass a verdict on what it is.

This video was clearly faked.

The proof starts now.

Good evening everyone,

and welcome to "The Proof Is Out There."

There are individuals who have devoted their lives

to chasing down proof of UFOs,

but as you're about to see this pursuit of the unknown

can be terrifying and potentially dangerous.

It's August, 2022 at Robert Moses State Park

on Long Island in New York,

two UFO researchers,

brothers Gerry and John Tedesco

are getting ready to film late at night

with infrared cameras.

Their footage shows two spherical objects

appearing off in the distance.

One of the brothers begins painting the UFO

with a device which emits infrared lights.

Moments later, there seems to be a response

as a purple light flashes in and out

coming closer and closer to the shore.

The brothers panic and decide to flee.

You know, it was a kind of a flight or fight response.

It came up on us so suddenly and it was so huge.

Then one of the brothers

turns his infrared camera back towards the water

and captures a remarkable arc of light.

An electromagnetic interference

appears to strike their cameras

and both brothers feel they can't use their legs.

I can't move, you know, I can't get myself,

you know, away from the water's edge.

They recover after a few minutes

and continue to record what are actually three points

of infrared light all invisible to the naked eye.

Two of the lights are stacked one on top of the other

and then the other light is off in the distance.

So they're under the impression

that what we're dealing with is potentially three craft

or one larger craft with more points of light.

The lights soon disappear.

But in the following days,

the brothers say they experience swollen lymph nodes

and extreme fatigue.

Banias says this is similar to what happened in May of 1951

to some Korean war soldiers

after they allegedly saw UFO,

They started to see this strange light

moving down the mountainside towards this village

and they can hear their bullets

pinging off of the exterior of this object.

Shortly thereafter,

they start to experience some bizarre symptoms

and basically they're treated for radiation sickness.

That was the end of the story for those soldiers.

For the Tedesco brothers, however,

it seems that whatever they encountered may have latched on.

Months later in the driveway next to John's house,

a camera mounted on the RV they use on investigations

captures footage of what may be

the mysterious object's return.

Once these streetlights went out,

you see a growing blue source of light.

It went from blue to white light

and the white light grew

almost as though there was an object that was overhead.

And once it had descended to a certain altitude,

the streetlights came back on,

and then this object had gone away.

The Tedesco brothers believed they experienced

what is known as The Hitchhiker Effect,

where people encounter a UFO that follows them home

and makes them sick.

So could we really be seeing

multiple UFO sightings in these videos.

We turn to our experts to find out.

First, Dr. Ed Hope explores if radiation exposure

may be behind the brother's temporary leg paralysis.

Now for radiation to stop you in your tracks,

you are gonna have to have an extremely high exposure,

like being within one mile of an atomic bomb,

but they had no systemic symptoms after the event.

Radiation isn't the only potential cause

of the alleged paralysis,

it could also be plain old fear.

In a stressful situation,

we get our fight or flight response.

Now typically this gets us ready for action,

but it can do the opposite.

It can make us feel like we can't move

so called being scared stiff

Still, Dr. Hope believes

that both brothers experiencing paralysis

makes it unlikely that fear alone provoked this response.

And the executive director of the UAP Medical Coalition,

Ted Roe, who personally interviewed the brothers,

says paralysis is common in encounters with UFOs,

also called UAPs.

And it's very consistent in the literature

that UAP witnesses experience paralysis.

You have to ask yourself,

what is this and where does it come from?

Because it's very exotic.

So what could we be seeing in this video?

We've got an object

or objects that are visible only in the infrared.

So I really find this case compelling

as an unexplained encounter of some kind.

And when you factor in

the other anomalous behavior,

Szydagis says these two encounters

could be the most convincing evidence yet

of the infamous Hitchhiker Effect.

It turns out that their sensors had to be replaced

after this incident.

Now to me, that's remarkable corroborative evidence

that something unusual happened here.

Our verdict, these lights came from a genuine UFO.

With videos this strange.

We still need to gather and analyze more data

before we can make an identification here.

As for the Tedesco brothers,

we can report that they're fully recovered

and have no lasting symptoms from the incident.

Now, a mystery from the animal kingdom.

Did you know that in China,

zookeepers sometimes dress in panda suits

in order to soothe panda cubs while they're being handled?

So it's established that people can act like bears,

but what happens when bears start acting like people?

August, 2023, China's Hangzhou Zoo in the eastern province

of Zhejiang has the internet in a spiral.

All thanks to one of its longtime residents.

Meet Angela, the 4-year-old bear

that's got everyone talking,

thanks to some peculiar behavior.

Watch as Angela stands upright on her hind legs

using her arms to wave at spectators.

Let's take a closer look.

She stands completely straight.

Her back paws flat on the ground, sidestepping,

and waving in a calculated manner just like a human.

In fact, she's so human-like

that many have asked is that even a real bear

or just somebody in a suit?

These folds on the creature's, shoulders and bottom

and its overall bizarre appearance

have many people yelling hoax.

Twitch streamer, Zack Zeenigami Nguyen,

was one of the first to post videos about the bear

here in the States.

When I first saw the video with the bear,

it looked like it was a man in a suit.

And I think that's what a lot of people felt

is that gut reaction of obviously this is fake.

The speculation goes that

that blonde hairy patch you see here

is really a screen covering an actor's face.

Sounds silly?

Well, Chinese zoos have a record of such chicanery.

There's actually precedent of this in China itself.

In 2013, they actually had a mastiff dog

that was trying to be passed off as a African lion.

And then that happened again in 2021,

but this time it was a golden retriever of all things.

An even more far out theory is that this creature

is part of a growing trend of humans

who are spending small fortunes to look like animals.

Some guy named Toko-San spent $15,000

basically changing his body metamorph into a Collie dog.

Another guy named Toro Ueda spent $23,000

to change himself into a photorealistic wolf.

These elaborate costumes

allow their human inhabitants

to live and breathe as an animal of their choice.

However, employees from the zoos

swear that Angela is in fact the real deal.

Is it possible that Angela is an actual bear

with the intelligence to mimic human behavior?

Bears are really smart.

They problem solve.

They've used some tools at times,

Indigenous people from many places in the world

actually think that bears are our ancestor.

Some people are wondering like is this the first sign

of a highly evolved bear?

In New Jersey, there was a black bear named Pedals,

who became internet famous

for walking around on his two hind legs.

He learned the trick After sustaining injuries

to his front paws.

Pedals was adored by the neighborhood

with the exception of a local hunter

who eventually shot him.

And while Pedals' story didn't have a happy ending,

we at least know he was a real bear.

Let's hear what our experts think about China's Angela.

Biologist, Floyd Hayes,

is doubtful that this is some elaborate costume.

We're not really seeing any seams

or zippers along the costume.

Also, this area in China tends to be very warm

at this time of year,

often over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

It would probably be rather hot for a human to be inside

one of those for any extended period of time

during the summer.

For Hayes, the dead giveaway

to the creature's real identity

is this patch on its upper chest,

which marks it as a sun bear.

Sun bears look very different than the black bears

and brown bears we have in North America.

They are smaller, their skin is more loose,

and they had that big white crescent patch

that goes across the chest.

And those loose folds

are actually an evolutionary adaptation.

It's like this way so that when a predator grabs onto it

that its organs aren't damaged.

Its skin is also tougher because it eats honey and bees

so it can withstand the sting.

So that explains Angela's appearance,

but what about her behavior?

Are we looking at some type of hyper evolved specimen?

Bears are naturally curious,

so they'll go up on their two feet.

So the bear probably starts jumping up to get food

and then realizes that it can just stand

to reach the food easier.

And then the people also probably think it's cuter

and they give more food.

So the behavior is reinforced.

Our verdict,

we have to agree with the zoo's official statement.

Angela is in fact a real sun bear.

We're also happy to report

that since this viral sensation,

Hangzhou Zoo's attendance has gone up 30%,

which will hopefully allow them

to continue their important conservation work.

We have all been startled by animals

on the side of the road at night,

but when one trucker spotted something unexplainable,

apparently hitchhiking along the highway,

we knew we had to go along for the ride.

It's 2:30 AM on March 11th, 2023,

and a truck driver was making a haul along SR87

between Phoenix and Payson, Arizona.

The driver's dash cam is rolling when it captures this.

Did you catch it?

Look again.

Seemingly out of nowhere,

a translucent figure appears on the side of the highway.

It's shaped like some sort of humanoid,

standing upright with what could be arms

dangling at its sides.

Field researcher Ken Gerhard,

says phantom creatures like this one

can be connected to the area's Indigenous folklore.

When talking about Arizona,

we have to consider the traditions

of the Indigenous Navajo people

and perhaps the scariest mythology or legend

involves the so-called skin-walkers,

known as a yeenaaldlooshii,

essentially believed to be a shaman

who actually takes the form of an animal using witchcraft.

And considering what we're seeing in the video

has an amorphous and indistinguishable form,

could this be somehow related

to the skin-walker phenomenon?

In other words, is that a skin-walker

in the process of changing its shape?

The legend, skin-walkers must continually kill

other life forms or they will die themselves.

But Gerhard suggested there could be

a more extraterrestrial explanation to this video.

Considering this same area is also home

to one of the most infamously debated UFO abductions

ever reported.

Where this video is filmed is very close to the location

of the so-called Travis Walton abduction,

which occurred in 1975.

Now Travis Walton claims that he was zapped

and then brought aboard an alien craft.

Travis disappeared for a number of days

and then eventually turned up completely disoriented

and unsure about what had happened.

Travis's story was even adapted

into a major motion picture, 19993's "Fire in the Sky."

And while many firmly believe in his account,

there are those who think it was nothing more

than an elaborate hoax.

Could this also be some kind of stunt or is it for real?

Believe it or not, this isn't the first trucker story

that's come down the pike.

Longtime viewers may remember when a long haul trucker

encountered this strange purple light

on a desolate Wisconsin highway.

That phenomenon ended up being the reflection

of purple UV lights used to grow plants.

Let's see if our experts find something

more extraterrestrial on this stretch of blacktop.

Let's start by exploring the Navajo skin-walker legend.

This area is very well known for skin-walker sightings.

The Native people have a long history with skin-walkers.

However, skin-walkers generally take over the bodies

of animals.

According to the Indigenous peoples,

skin-walkers can appear as coyotes, wolves,

foxes, even bears.

And although they come in a variety of shapes and sizes,

there's one important factor

that seems to be missing here.

The purpose of skin-walkers is to bring fear.

There's nothing here that would make me afraid

or make me fearful.

So this doesn't appear to be a skin-walker to me.

However, Strain doesn't rule out the possibility

of an other worldly origin.

This is very near the Tonto National Forest,

and this area has had many alien sightings in the past

and rumors of a secret UFO base

being built somewhere on the forest.

If that's true, could this be related to that?

Could this be one of the grays

that maybe escaped from that location?

But hang on.

Before we jump to the conclusion

that this is one of the famous great aliens

described by alleged abductees over the years.

We need to rule out the local fauna.

It's not immediately identifiable as a coyote,

or jack rabbit, or a deer caught in the headlights.

The fact that it is translucent might turn to another,

perhaps a more otherworldly explanation.

However, Meldrum isn't convinced

this is evidence of a gray alien gone rogue.

That large dominant head seems to be missing altogether.

So I don't think it's an alien.

But then the fact that it is translucent

such that the white line on the shoulder of the road

can be seen through it

begs the question of whether the driver

actually witnessed what appears on the dash cam

With the visual image being so hard to decipher.

We brought this footage

to our forensic video analyst, Michael Primeau.

So upon examination of the dash cam video,

we ran it through our authentication tool.

It did indicate that the file

has been recompressed or converted.

So does that mean this video is a fake?

Not exactly.

Compression may have introduced additional anomalies

that can explain what we're seeing here.

I don't see any evidence

to support malicious intent to deceive.

Something was within that scene

that was being illuminated by the semi-tractor trailers.

But you've got a camera technology

that just couldn't capture it accurately.

Our verdict, unknown dash cam anomaly.

According to Primeau,

there is definitely something on the side of this road,

but its odd appearance

can be attributed to poor recording equipment.

If aliens have visited Earth, when did they first arrive?

Well, some claim the earliest recorded accounts

of alien encounters date back to 1440 BC.

But one strange object discovered

near some ancient fossils

might be archeological evidence

that dates back much farther.

It's the 1970s near Aiud Romania,

construction workers are digging on the banks

at the Mures River when they uncover

some seemingly ancient objects.

One, this large hammerhead like piece looks manmade

and very old with a thick patina

or layer of film produced by oxidation.

Known as the Wedge of Aiud.

It weighs nearly five pounds,

it's close to eight inches long, five inches wide,

and three inches thick.

And what's really weird,

it appears to be connected to some very old bones.

The fossil remains that were located alongside this wedge

were mastodon fossils.

So the Wedge of Aiud kind of became this odd mystery object

found next to an extinct animal.

Romanian authorities examine the items

and estimate that the mastodon,

or prehistoric elephant fossils, are 2.5 million years old,

suggesting the wedge is from the same era.

That's strange since modern humans

have only been around for about 200,000 years.

So it was sent to Romanian archeologists

and a Swiss lab for further study.

They figured out that it was artificially created

because the holes in the shape were machine made.

What's more the Wedge of Aiud is 90% aluminum

and has the properties of 11 other metals.

The fact that the wedge is aluminum is especially peculiar

because while aluminum is a naturally occurring element,

it has to be extracted from ore in a complicated process

that wasn't discovered until the 19th century.

So given all that,

is it possible this object wasn't made by early humans

but by some other intelligent being?

Ufologists have come to the conclusion

that perhaps the Wedge of Aiud is part of UFO landing gear

that ran over the mastodon and killed it on purpose.

Cattle mutilations that have occurred in the past

indicate at least to them that aliens

will purposefully kill mammals for scientific study.

So could this wedge be proof

that aliens have been studying life on Earth

since even before there were modern humans?

It's a strange historical anachronism

that should not exist.

There's a name in archeology for these kinds of finds

or rather an acronym.

They're called ooparts for out of place artifacts.

So could the oopart known as the Wedge of Aiud

be proof of an extraterrestrial exploration

or something we haven't considered yet?

Let's turn to our experts to hammer this one out.

First, anthropologist Kathy Strain

explains that if the wedge was made by modern humans,

it being found near prehistoric fossils

would seem to defy the archeological concept,

of superposition.

Superposition means that when you find two items

at the same level, the same depth,

they're likely associated with each other.

However, aluminum wasn't capable of being smelted

and created into an object until 1825.

So the superposition theory would suggest

the wedge and the mastodon existed at the same time,

deepening the mystery.

But hold on, there's one important missing clue

we need to consider.

It's on a river.

Rivers bring things from far upstream

and deposit them in banks and flood episodes.

This is disturbed context,

and you cannot equate things time-wise

in a disturbed context.

So if a location can't confirm anything,

how can we date this wedge?

Barnhart says the patina can be a good indicator of its age,

but maybe not in this case.

Metal very quickly becomes oxidized

and then processes like being buried in sand

can turn that oxidation into patina.

But that kind of patina can grow in just a few years,

it doesn't take thousands of years for the kind of patina

that grows on aluminum to form.

So maybe it's not as old as originally thought,

but that still leaves us asking who made it.

Is it possible it's from an alien spaceship?

Aluminum is often used on aircraft

instead of steel or iron,

'cause even though it's weaker than those two metals,

it's also more lightweight.

But one Romanian historian believes the wedge

is from an earthbound craft,

specifically the landing gear

of a World War II German Messerschmitt

ME 262 fighter jet.

Remember, it was found in the former Axis power of Romania.

We were using aluminum in aerodynamics at that time.

We know that aircraft flew across this area many times

during the War

and I think it's just a piece that happened to fall off

and then over time worked itself down into the sand.

Our verdict based on the material and the design.

This is likely a piece of landing gear,

though from a German military plane rather than a UFO.

It probably ended up next to the fossil bones

when the high waters from the Mures River

disturbed the surrounding soil.

But since we can't accurately date the aluminum,

the Wedge of Aiud could be much older

and more mysterious than we can even imagine.

According to the British newspaper, The Independent,

nearly 1000 UFO reports were made in the UK

from 2021 through the first half of 2023.

The country's not that big, so that's saying something.

And when one photographer claimed

to have captured evidence,

it was time to dispatch the Proof team.

June 19th, 2023.

A photographer is strolling about the countryside

in Devon, England

when a glint of light in the sky suddenly catches his eye,

he grabs his camera to get a snapshot of this.

A strange metallic looking object

is captured above the hills,

close up it appears trapezoidal.

Some people who see the photo

claim it has what looks like rocket boosters

or even landing wheels on the bottom.

But journalist MJ Banias explains that's not all.

According to the report.

The man says that when he saw this object,

it was surrounded by a force field,

and to claim that this object

shot off into the sky shortly after

at a thousand miles an hour.

It's very reminiscent of a sort of an old school,

1950s flying saucer.

It's got the rounded bottom, it's got the dome on top.

In fact, it does remind me a little bit

of the famous 1952 photo of the Passaic New Jersey UFO.

In July, 1952, George Stock and a friend

were near Stock's home

when they spotted a strange craft approaching.

Stock said the object eerily made no sound,

came to a complete stop,

and floated about 200 feet above them.

In fact, Stock said it was so close,

he could have shot it down with a rifle,

but instead he shot it with his camera.

That photo captured what looks

like a solid metallic disc shaped craft in flight.

It had a dome on top

and was estimated to be about 30 feet in diameter.

But whether the Passaic craft

or this one in Devon are actually extraterrestrial,

that's the ultimate question.

UFOs do exist in the sense

of we cannot simply identify everything

in the sky in a given moment.

We do not have enough data,

therefore it remains unidentified.

It turns out that extraterrestrials

aren't the only ones

interested in utilizing flying saucers.

In the late 1950s,

a company called Avro Aircraft Limited

began constructing one

for the US military called the Avro Car.

The project was eventually dropped,

but perhaps these new photos can finally show us

what real UFOs are made of.

We begin with astrophotographer, Andrew McCarthy,

who has an immediate gut reaction to the photo.

My first impression is it's an authentic photo.

I don't believe this was doctored in any way.

And he believes there are some revealing clues

in the picture.

For one, we can see it in front of the cloud

so we know whatever it is,

it's probably within a few miles away.

So is this object simply something ordinary

flying in the skies above England?

Drones today can come in all shapes and sizes,

but when I look at this closely,

I don't see the usual telltale signs

four struts holding propellers.

So I don't think it's a drone.

Does it even look like it's something

that could fly at all?

It certainly doesn't seem like it fits the profile

of an aircraft.

So that leaves a lot of mystery

to what this object could be.

Some have speculated it's a Mylar balloon

which can be formed in strange shapes like this,

but physicist Matthew Szydagis isn't so sure.

It's possible that this is some sort of balloon,

but I don't think that this is a Mylar balloon,

because Mylar, it's pretty reflective,

and this is pretty dark in color.

It looks to me like this could potentially be a bird

or maybe a pair of birds

where you have these wing-like formations coming out.

But again, it's really hard to say

when you've zoomed in on just a few pixels

on a very large field image.

So could it be a UFO?

I don't see any evidence of wheels, or rocket boosters,

or force fields or anything else

that has been claimed about this picture.

All of those features

can simply be brought on by the extreme amount of zoom

on this very distant or small object,

making it really hard to claim

that any of these features are distinctive

like cockpits or windows or things like that.

And despite the eyewitness testimony,

Szydagis notes the old adage,

extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

It is conceivable for a UFO

to zip away at a high speed.

However, we only have the eyewitnesses claim of this.

We see no evidence of high speed of course,

from what is just a single photograph.

So my final verdict is genuine UFO,

but that verdict comes simply from a lack of information.

Our verdict for now, without any definitive details,

we agree with our experts, we've got a genuine UFO,

but remember that doesn't mean it's an alien spacecraft.

So here's hoping that photographer keeps

his camera handy to capture another strange object

that we can identify.

We spend a fair amount of time

at the bottom of the ocean on this show

because that's where we find

some of the most inexplicable stuff we've ever come across

and that's certainly the case

with this next uncanny discovery.

We couldn't tell if it was made by nature, by humans,

or by another intelligent species.

Can you?

It's 2012, off the island of Amami Oshima in Southern Japan.

Underwater photographer Yoji Okata is diving

in search of a strange phenomenon

that he first encountered in this area back in 1995.

This time he's got his camera ready.

Yoji's photo captures a bizarre geometric formation.

Ridges in the sand make a uniform concentric pattern

that stretches almost seven feet across the ocean floor.

Journalist Erin McCarthy says,

the internet wasted no time

stirring up other worldly theories.

People pretty much immediately dubbed them

underwater crop circles

for their resemblance to the crop circles

that pop up in fields on land.

The term crop circle was officially coined in the 1980s.

But in an earlier incident from the 1960s,

a farmer in Australia claimed he saw a flying saucer

rising up from his lagoon

before finding a nest like circular mark,

30 feet in diameter in the lagoon's floating reeds.

And if you believe the rumors,

this wouldn't be the first time,

a circular object of alien origin appeared in our oceans.

In 2022,

there was actually a 4.2 mile diameter circular object

that appeared off the coast of Lima, Peru.

And some people believe that it could either be

a submerged alien ship or a submerged alien base.

However, others have suggested

these artistic designs have a different purpose.

Some believe that crop circles,

whether they're on land or in the ocean,

contains some kind of hidden alien messages in them.

In fact, one scientist claims to have decoded

some of the circles,

which he says provide descriptions of the future

from aliens or human time travelers.

He also has a theory that they act as directional markers

for these travelers.

Take another look,

the neat repetition of those ridges

all forming an apparently perfect circle here,

here, and then right here.

It looks too precise to be natural, don't you think?

So who or what could be behind it?

First, NASA geologist Dr. Bob Anderson

looks into whether or not this formation

could be connected to the crop circles we find on land.

This has a very elaborate design,

but it's the opposite of a crop circle

because a crop circle basically removes the material

and leaves it behind,

whereas this is actually building the material

and building up.

So this may be structurally

different from a circle of flattened crops,

but archeologist Dr. Ed Barnhart

considers if there's still a possibility,

this is a site where a UFO landed.

It's really only five or six foot wide,

a vessel that could do that,

it's gear that would touch the bottom

would probably make a much larger imprint

than this simple circle.

Also something like that

that would land on the ocean floor

eventually has to take off

and that would cause a lot of disturbance

right at that point

and likely wash away any kind of footprint.

Anderson adds that the formation structure

also seems to rule out this landing site theory.

This is actually a buildup.

And so therefore if you had a UFO

that was landed on the bottom,

it would give the impression downward, not upward.

Yet it could still be

some kind of extra terrestrial message, right?

This is a very transient area.

There are currents in this area

that are gonna eventually erase this away.

So if you're trying to use it as a marker,

it should be down in the rock.

This is in sand that's very dynamic, it's moving,

and so whatever the reason is,

this was a very temporary type of situation

for building this structure.

Well, with continued observation,

Yoji discovers this temporary situation.

A fish making a sand sculpture?

Marine biologist, Dr. Shea Steingass,

thinks that's exactly what happened.

The fish that created this pattern worked tirelessly

for about a week to make this design

just to find a female fish

that wants to lay their eggs in the center of this design.

Apparently it works like this.

The male puffer fish swims back and forth,

carving out the radial pattern

with the flapping of his fins.

Then he decorates the circle with seashells.

Finally, he perfects the look and coloring

with the addition of fine sediment.

And the more intricate the design,

the more likely it will attract a mate.

The beauty of it is that these ridges and hills

actually buffer the eggs

from the motion of the sea floor,

but there is universal geometry that's taking place here,

which makes me wonder

to what degree animals actually understand

the concept of art and abstract thinking.

Our verdict, fish love.

Yes, these markings were created

by a puffer fish flapping his fins along the ocean floor

to attract a mate,

and we like Dr. Steingass's thinking,

if a fish can be artistic,

who says it can't be romantic too?

In a previous episode,

we investigated instances of UFO sightings out of California

during an Independence Day firework celebration.

Our experts were unable to explain some of them.

And now on the opposite side of the country,

we found a similar 4th of July phenomenon.

Could this new evidence help us finally solve the mystery?

It's Independence Day, 2019,

Desiree Lian is sitting at home

enjoying the holiday with her mother

in Port Richey, Florida.

Everything was really normal,

just random fireworks around my neighborhood,

and then we saw the light that stood out,

and it kind of hovered a strange pattern

Intrigued, Desiree heads to the backyard

for a better view

and captures this.

Three bright lights in a triangular formation

appear to be slowly moving in sync.

Desiree doesn't know what she's seeing,

but she does know what it isn't.

It wasn't a plane.

If it was a helicopter, it would've made noise.

But they moved, I feel, with intention,

like it was doing something or going somewhere?

Could that intention mean that we're being watched?

Some believe that aliens have been gathering data

and observing humanity during times of cultural importance.

In fact, historian and author, Amy Teitel,

says one of those times appears to be

during Independence Day.

The National UFO Reporting Center is more likely

to receive a call on July 4th

than any other day of the year.

And Teitel notes the phenomenon goes back decades.

On July 4th, 1947,

United Airlines Flight 105, leaving Boise, Idaho,

captain Emil Smith saw five disc-like objects,

one larger than the other four heading towards the plane.

Then they changed their course and flew parallel to him.

He said he flashed his landing lights

at whatever he was seeing

and they responded intelligently by changing formation.

The idea that aliens like watching us

for their own amusement or research

is sometimes called Galactic Zoo theory

similar to the interest today's anthropologists have

in Neanderthals.

But before we go too far down those rabbit holes,

let's see what our experts say about this footage.

On an average clear night away from a city,

a person could see between 2000 and 3000 stars.

So are these just lights we see in the sky all the time?

Albeit subtle.

We can see movement from them,

but stars appear to move with the Earth's orbit.

They don't move as fast as what we see here.

So definitely not stars.

What about Starlink satellites?

And lift off.

Starlink was established by Elon Musk

as a network of satellites that can provide internet access

anywhere on the Earth.

The plan is to ultimately have up to 42,000 of them

circling the globe.

Is that what we're seeing?

Starlink appears in the night sky like a stream of lights,

almost like pearls in a long row

moving across the night sky.

You don't see that here at all.

These objects, their movement is very subtle, and slow,

and not consistent with what we see as satellite.

So are we looking at genuine UFOs?

Rich Hoffman of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies

has his doubts.

If there were strong evidence that indicated

that this was flying in some sort of an intelligent fashion,

I can maybe accept the fact that it is an unknown,

but I don't see it being into the world

of being an alien spacecraft.

You've got a lack of significant movement

for a period of time.

You don't have anything instantaneous acceleration.

Instead, McMillan believes

what we're seeing is impressive technology,

just not the alien kind.

A couple of things that lead me to believe

we're possibly looking at drones here.

One is the height in terms of altitude.

We can see the horizon there.

We can see from the other houses.

These objects are are relatively low to the ground

or within the ceiling cap

that commercial drones are allowed to operate on.

But why would drones fly in triangle formation?

McMillan says it's an illusion.

Looking at this from a distance,

you can make out shapes,

'cause our brains want to detect those patterns.

But in reality we don't have an idea

of how far away the objects are from each other.

McMillan adds that drones

filming 4th of July fireworks is not only a common event,

it's been done before over Port Richey,

like this celebration in 2016.

It's just very common nowadays

for people to film fireworks from the drones

and get a cool perspective that we hadn't seen before.

Our verdict, drones.

So it looks like the aliens aren't studying us

as we celebrate our independence,

at least not in this case,

but maybe at the next Super Bowl someone should look up.

And that's our show for tonight.

Thank you so much for watching

and remember to keep those cameras rolling.