December 28, 2025 • 7 mins
by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear ~ This past week, I found myself in the position of having two co-workers who are UFO witnesses and decided to take advantage of this and have them tell their stories for this blog.The first story is that of Ilya Vett, 54, who has been with the organization for over three years, and he first told it to me not long after I met him. He grew up in the area of New Paltz, New York, which is near Pine Bush and the Hudson Valley. Both of those areas are notorious for UFO flaps in the 1980s (Ilya and I went to the 2022 Pine Bush UFO Fair where I met up with Martin), which is when Ilya said he had his sighting. Ilya also told me that his wife, prior to their marriage, had a sighting of a UFO with her family while they were driving. According to him, when they got home, it was over their house.As for Ilya’s story, he recorded it for me on his own time not prompted by any questions from me. According to him, he and some friends were riding their bikes on Prospect Street in New Paltz sometime in the fall (school had started) “in the early 80s.” It was dark, and they were heading north towards Henry W. Dubois Drive. The area was undeveloped at the time, and there were “a lot of trees” on both sides of the road. They heard what Ilya indicated through vocalizations was a combination of a whoosh and a hum, though he settled on it not being “distinct.” Read more →
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Two co workers share their UFO stories by Charles Lear.
This past week, I found myself in the position of
having two co workers who were UFO witnesses and decided
to take advantage of this and have them tell their
stories for this blog. The first story is that of Iliavett,
who has been with the organization for over three years.
(00:33):
He first told it to me not long after I
met him. He grew up in the area of New Poults,
New York, which is near Pine Bush in the Hudson Valley.
Both of those areas are notorious for UFO flaps. In
the nineteen eighties, Ilia and I went to the twenty
twenty two Pine Bush ufofair where I met up with Martin,
which is when Ilia said he had his sighting. Ilia
(00:55):
also told me that his wife, prior to their marriage,
had a siding of a UFO with as family while
they were driving. According to him, when they got home
it was over their house. As for Ilia's story, he
recorded it for me on his own time, not prompted
by any questions from me. According to him, he and
(01:15):
some friends were riding their bikes on Prospect Street in
New Paults sometime in the fall. School had started in
the early eighties. It was dark and they were heading
north towards Henry W. De Boy's Drive. The area was
undeveloped at the time, and there were a lot of
trees on both sides of the road. They heard what
(01:35):
Illy indicated through vocalizations was a combination of a woosh
and a hum, though he settled on it not being distinct.
He and his friends stopped and looked up. They saw
some lights through the trees that were on a ship
with a shape they couldn't make out that proceeded to
move slowly from east to west over their heads. They
(01:56):
checked with each other, do you see this? I see this?
Do you see this? We're all seeing this, right, he said.
We were all confirming with each other that we weren't mad.
According to Ilya, they sat frozen and watched as the
craft moved off towards Mohawk Mountain. It went out of
their sight line, and they rode to the end of
(02:17):
the block where they expected to see it, and it
was gone. The second story is that of Michael Brooks,
thirty three, who has only been with us for a
few weeks. He came up to me and said he
was told that I have an interest in UFOs, I
said I not only have an interest, but that I
write about them. He then told me he'd had a
(02:37):
sighting and proceeded to show me footage he took with
his phone that was posted by a friend of his. Unreaddit.
It was intriguing, and he agreed to be interviewed. I've
written about how frustrating it is to see U fou
footage on social media posted by an anonymous source with
no way to follow up, and this was an opportunity
(02:57):
to do just that. As brooks Is footage was taken
at two thirty fifth rooftop bar in Midtown Manhattan. As
a responsible investigator, I felt it was important that we
do the interview there and arranged to meet him with
my field recorder. When we got there and went to
buy drinks, we were informed by the bartender that happy
hour would be over in five minutes. Well, it took
(03:20):
me a moment to process this. I came to my
senses and ordered a second vodka and soda. Brooks stuck
to just one rum and coke I was buying, which
is a detail I include to support Brooks's claim that
he wasn't drunk at the time of his sighting, we
sat down amidst some loud and terrible Christmas music and proceeded.
(03:42):
According to Brooks, he and his girlfriend moved from California
to New York in April, and he had been working
with our organization since just before Halloween. His sighting was
prior to this. On October fourth, he was attending his
best friend's bachelor party. His friend and a group in
New York for the occasion and had only had a
(04:03):
couple beers. He was sitting in the northeast section of
the bar and at around eleven thirty p m. While
he was talking with his friend, his girlfriend said, it
looks like there's a UFO in the sky, and in
his words, we all looked at once and we all
saw it, and I immediately pulled out my phone and
started filming it. I later asked him how many people
(04:26):
constituted all, and he told me there were seven, including him.
I asked him to describe the UFO and he said
it was floating and kind of gyrating and was a
doughnut of light. He added that this was how it
looked to the naked eye. As far as size, he
said that the light of a plane he saw in
(04:48):
the distance, which he estimated was at thirty thousand feet,
could have fit in the circle of the doughnut. According
to him, it was either not too big or far away.
He shot for a little over a minute and stopped
because they were getting ready to leave. He said, right
as I stopped filming, it actually sped up and left
(05:11):
towards the northeast. According to him, the initial acceleration was
caught on film, and it accelerated even more after the
film stopped. I asked Brooks if he had any emotional reaction,
and he said he was excited and felt nothing negative,
and that the bier was hitting at that point. He
(05:33):
explained that he had never seen anything so definitively myself
that was a UFO. He added that he'd seen lights before,
but could possibly explain them as satellites or shooting stars.
When asked if he'd had any other strange experiences recently,
Brooks said he hadn't, and when asked about his knowledge
of the UFO subject, he said he knew very little.
(05:56):
Brooks's footage was posted on Reddit about a week after
by his friend under the user name mind melder eight.
Responding to positive comments, he provided these details. Location, NYC,
rooftop of two thirty fifth rooftop, Bar eleven forty six
(06:16):
p m. Saturday, October fourth. Video was facing northeast. My
guess based on a map is about forty degrees from north.
And for those saying balloon or plastic bag, it was
emitting light constant reflecting light would fluctuate. The camera does
not catch what our eyes saw. It looked like two
(06:38):
to three orbs chasing each other in the loop, and
the whole loop was gyrating. Charles Lear is the author
of The Flying Saucer Investigators, available in its second edition
at Amazon dot com. Five
Two co workers share their UFO stories by Charles Lear.
This past week, I found myself in the position of
having two co workers who were UFO witnesses and decided
to take advantage of this and have them tell their
stories for this blog. The first story is that of Iliavett,
who has been with the organization for over three years.
(00:33):
He first told it to me not long after I
met him. He grew up in the area of New Poults,
New York, which is near Pine Bush in the Hudson Valley.
Both of those areas are notorious for UFO flaps. In
the nineteen eighties, Ilia and I went to the twenty
twenty two Pine Bush ufofair where I met up with Martin,
which is when Ilia said he had his sighting. Ilia
(00:55):
also told me that his wife, prior to their marriage,
had a siding of a UFO with as family while
they were driving. According to him, when they got home
it was over their house. As for Ilia's story, he
recorded it for me on his own time, not prompted
by any questions from me. According to him, he and
(01:15):
some friends were riding their bikes on Prospect Street in
New Paults sometime in the fall. School had started in
the early eighties. It was dark and they were heading
north towards Henry W. De Boy's Drive. The area was
undeveloped at the time, and there were a lot of
trees on both sides of the road. They heard what
(01:35):
Illy indicated through vocalizations was a combination of a woosh
and a hum, though he settled on it not being distinct.
He and his friends stopped and looked up. They saw
some lights through the trees that were on a ship
with a shape they couldn't make out that proceeded to
move slowly from east to west over their heads. They
(01:56):
checked with each other, do you see this? I see this?
Do you see this? We're all seeing this, right, he said.
We were all confirming with each other that we weren't mad.
According to Ilya, they sat frozen and watched as the
craft moved off towards Mohawk Mountain. It went out of
their sight line, and they rode to the end of
(02:17):
the block where they expected to see it, and it
was gone. The second story is that of Michael Brooks,
thirty three, who has only been with us for a
few weeks. He came up to me and said he
was told that I have an interest in UFOs, I
said I not only have an interest, but that I
write about them. He then told me he'd had a
(02:37):
sighting and proceeded to show me footage he took with
his phone that was posted by a friend of his. Unreaddit.
It was intriguing, and he agreed to be interviewed. I've
written about how frustrating it is to see U fou
footage on social media posted by an anonymous source with
no way to follow up, and this was an opportunity
(02:57):
to do just that. As brooks Is footage was taken
at two thirty fifth rooftop bar in Midtown Manhattan. As
a responsible investigator, I felt it was important that we
do the interview there and arranged to meet him with
my field recorder. When we got there and went to
buy drinks, we were informed by the bartender that happy
hour would be over in five minutes. Well, it took
(03:20):
me a moment to process this. I came to my
senses and ordered a second vodka and soda. Brooks stuck
to just one rum and coke I was buying, which
is a detail I include to support Brooks's claim that
he wasn't drunk at the time of his sighting, we
sat down amidst some loud and terrible Christmas music and proceeded.
(03:42):
According to Brooks, he and his girlfriend moved from California
to New York in April, and he had been working
with our organization since just before Halloween. His sighting was
prior to this. On October fourth, he was attending his
best friend's bachelor party. His friend and a group in
New York for the occasion and had only had a
(04:03):
couple beers. He was sitting in the northeast section of
the bar and at around eleven thirty p m. While
he was talking with his friend, his girlfriend said, it
looks like there's a UFO in the sky, and in
his words, we all looked at once and we all
saw it, and I immediately pulled out my phone and
started filming it. I later asked him how many people
(04:26):
constituted all, and he told me there were seven, including him.
I asked him to describe the UFO and he said
it was floating and kind of gyrating and was a
doughnut of light. He added that this was how it
looked to the naked eye. As far as size, he
said that the light of a plane he saw in
(04:48):
the distance, which he estimated was at thirty thousand feet,
could have fit in the circle of the doughnut. According
to him, it was either not too big or far away.
He shot for a little over a minute and stopped
because they were getting ready to leave. He said, right
as I stopped filming, it actually sped up and left
(05:11):
towards the northeast. According to him, the initial acceleration was
caught on film, and it accelerated even more after the
film stopped. I asked Brooks if he had any emotional reaction,
and he said he was excited and felt nothing negative,
and that the bier was hitting at that point. He
(05:33):
explained that he had never seen anything so definitively myself
that was a UFO. He added that he'd seen lights before,
but could possibly explain them as satellites or shooting stars.
When asked if he'd had any other strange experiences recently,
Brooks said he hadn't, and when asked about his knowledge
of the UFO subject, he said he knew very little.
(05:56):
Brooks's footage was posted on Reddit about a week after
by his friend under the user name mind melder eight.
Responding to positive comments, he provided these details. Location, NYC,
rooftop of two thirty fifth rooftop, Bar eleven forty six
(06:16):
p m. Saturday, October fourth. Video was facing northeast. My
guess based on a map is about forty degrees from north.
And for those saying balloon or plastic bag, it was
emitting light constant reflecting light would fluctuate. The camera does
not catch what our eyes saw. It looked like two
(06:38):
to three orbs chasing each other in the loop, and
the whole loop was gyrating. Charles Lear is the author
of The Flying Saucer Investigators, available in its second edition
at Amazon dot com. Five
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