Sphere over Houston, TX

The report, as filed

I lived near an airport for a couple of years. Planes and helicopters were something I was used to, and I had come to learn the flight patterns and pathways, how each craft looked, what lights it displayed, how it traveled, etc. At IAH the planes never come from the West, as they only enter and exit going North or South, with a quick, sharp turn here or there. And you could always hear them since we lived right across from the airport. The planes took off straight over the apartment (could feel the walls vibrate sometimes). That’s how I knew this was something strange. After dinner one evening, I let my dog outside to do her business. I was standing out there watching her, when I looked in the sky and saw a floating, white orb on the West side (almost directly across from me), above the treetops. It almost looked like a star, but was too big, too bright, and too close to convince me of such. It had a shine to it like a diamond. It was NOT solid white, and the “shine” would get brighter and then dim back down. If I had to guess, it wasn’t but a few miles from me. There was no sound, and it wasn’t stationary. It very slowly travelled left to right to left to right again. The object also staggered in movement, and moved up and down as well. Which then convinced me this was no star or planet, since the Earth travels in a directional orbit. Aside from that point, even during the clearest weather, it’s extremely difficult to see stars when you live in the city, especially in a city as big as Houston. This sighting lasted for about 15 minutes until I got a strange feeling that I was being watched. I became so weirded out that I went back inside. I later (don’t remember what time) mustered up the courage to go back outside, and the orb was gone. But there was now a helicopter (with an obvious red-blinking light on the tail) looking around the same area with a spotlight. It circled around the area several times, moving its spotlight around, as if searching for something. I have never seen anything like it since then.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #152696). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.