Rectangle over Lancaster, SC

The report, as filed

Between 12:30 and 1:00 A.M. on July 3, 2019, I saw weird lightening-like lights high in the sky above the 30 acres of woods behind my house. My first thought was that it was some sort of freaky heat lightening. I told my friend to check it out and he looked up but the sky was dark again. When it happened a second time, I realized it was not heat lightening and had no idea what it was. The sky was dark, then suddenly I saw several lights that formed a vertical rectangle—but not a perfect one. The lights were visible for a few seconds, during which time several pulses of electricity zapped from one side of the rectangle to the other sporadically and simultaneously. Then the sky went dark. My friend confirmed that it was definitely not lightening. It happened again several seconds later, only this time it happened slightly lower in the sky and a little to the left of the first two pulses. The next time it happened it was even lower and more to the left, but in an arc from the initial sighting. We weren’t sure what it was or what to do so we kept watching. After several more appearances, it was 90 degrees from the initial sighting and just above the trees, then lower than the trees, then all we could see was a patch of pulsing light through the trees where it had landed. Now terrified, we grabbed our belongings and I headed into the house as my friend drove out of my driveway. I shut the lights and stayed away from the windows hoping I did not have any surprise visitors. At 2:30 I went to bed. I was too scared to go near the windows so I don’t know if it was still there and/or still is.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #147272). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.