Fireball over Anaheim, CA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
At 00:19 I saw first what looked liked sparks coming off of a white dot that lasted about a second, then there was a flash of light, like lightening but it didn't illuminate the whole sky, just a flash of a ball of white light around the object quite larger than the small streak of sparks and then the most unsettling part, it looked like there was a tear in the sky that then closed like a zipper being zipped up this object disappeared into. There are no stars out tonight and very little clouds so this sighting was very clear and had to be witnessed by others in the area by anyone outside at the time. I'm compelled to report this when I haven't reported other strange sightings in the night sky because it was so much to see and I think other reports of this will come in and corroborate the event.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #160707). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2020-11-17 → 2020-12-04
From the same sky
Related entries
April 4, 2023 · 9:17 PM · OTHER
Anaheim, CA
I just purchased a Samsung S23 ultra cell phone and I've been taking pictures of the moon with the camera because wow the clarity is incredible so on April 4th I was in class and I took a break from class at 8:06 to 8:18 and I took a series of pictures of the moon I went back to class then left class for the evening at 9:17 PM looked at the moon to take some more pictures and I thought wow it got hazy really fast and then I saw what looked like a really cool looking contrail. Took a couple of pictures started thinking that's not a contrail, took a few more pictures and it never changed shape was moving pretty darn fast it's very fascinating to look by 9:19 PM it was gone. So let me know what you guys think, I'll send 4 of the pictures I have a total of 13 pictures and I have quite a few images from an hour earlier. [NUFORC annotation: Contrail - Certain]
December 10, 2020 · 1:00 AM · OTHER
Anaheim, CA
Sitting in front of house in car , with cousin and girlfriend. Me and girlfriend are up front, cousin in back. I’m looking forward and see a 4 light formation of lights in the sky from a distance of 100 meters , 100 feet up in the air. I look closer and I see detail of the shape, a black cube. One yellowish light at each corner, huge as well, 10% size of the craft.
June 24, 2020 · 7:09 PM · SPHERE
Anaheim, CA
Around 7:00pm my husband and I were outside eating dinner on our back patio. I looked up and saw a round shiny bright object in the sky. We’ve been having issues with neighbors setting off illegal fireworks, for a quick moment I thought that’s what I was viewing until I realized it was more of a very bright stationary orb and much higher up than a firework, or even the planes in the area go. I watched it for a couple of minutes and asked my husband to go inside and get his phone for me so that I could try and get video of it. I recorded three small videos, the whole time the orb stayed in the same location until the last video, after recording the last one and then watching it on my husband’s phone I didn’t think I had footage of the object until we watched it on our computer; around the 00:08 second mark you can see the object quickly fly off to the left of the screen, I was still recording afterwards because neither myself or my husband had seen the object fly off. I apologize for the shaky hand, I was having a hard time trying to focus on the object and hold the phone still. If I had to compare the object I’d say it appeared to be as high up as Saturn or Jupiter have been appearing lately when they pass. It was in the East. I’m having a hard time guessing the altitude but it was much higher than any of the planes we have fly over in the area, no sound emitted from the object. There is some background noise in the video from our neighbors as well as some traffic noise, if the object did have any noise it would have been too far up for us to hear it. We did have an airplane flying much lower, we are near flight paths for LAX, Long Beach, and Santa Ana. There was also a police helicopter that flew by, but much lower and towards the West, it didn’t seem to be out to look at the object, we’ve had some crime in the area lately and it’s not uncommon for the helicopter to be out at all hours of the day. I’m curious to know if you think this is a UFO or maybe just something like a drone breaking FAA flight regulations. I know that drones can reach very high altitudes even though they aren't supposed to. However, I’ve never seen a drone that could take off as fast as this object appears to, or emit a light like that during the day.
December 10, 2019 · 6:23 PM · CIRCLE
Anaheim, CA
Red orange ball of light in sky. Didn’t have lights flashing every so often as a plan or helicopter does. No sound. Moved slowly. Dimmed lightly very few times. But no pattern when it would it happen. We saw it for about five minutes until we had to leave. So not sure how long exactly it was visible. Moved very, very slowly throughout the sky. At times, appearing to not move at all.
October 24, 2019 · 6:45 PM · EGG
Anaheim, CA
Good evening around 1845 on Thursday Oct 24 2019 my wife and I were driving Northbound toward Los Angeles on the 405. As we were passing through the town of Anaheim we noticed a unusual egg/oval shaped object that appeared to be floating then suddenly moving downward and upward erratically. I quickly pulled out my phone to try and capture what we were both witnessing. What we were seeing was approximately 100 yards off the highway and seemed to be above a parking garage by the looks of it. The color of the craft was grey in color with some shimmery texture to it. It appeared to be maybe 10-15 feet in height but was hard to tell as we were driving and it was moving frantically. I looked online on multiple sights and asked on multiple social media sites to see if anyone else that was around witnessed the same thing. I was able to get a decent 20-25 second video of the craft which I will attach. The first thing I thought of when I saw this was that it’s a big balloon that usually car dealers put on the cars if they are having a big sale of some sort. But after getting closer and than witnessing the object quickly come down then go back up I realized it couldn’t be a balloon cause they do not move that erratic or suddenly. Also there was no strings or anything attached to this thing. What I could tell this object was approximately 75-100 feet in the air. A little background on myself, I have noticed unusual objects flying since moving out here in California 4 years ago. I’m 28 years old and am a Marine Corps OEF combat veteran. Served just over 5 years before coming out here. After that I worked for the government as a contractor and was around aviation heavily so I have a strong deep understanding and knowledge of aviation and in general flying. This sighting was for sure a bit off and it wasn't anything iv seen nor know of that would be able to maneuver the way this thing did. Hope this was detailed enough and I was able to shed some light on the issue. Stay vigilant.
September 11, 2019 · 3:30 PM · CIRCLE
Anaheim, CA
I was getting out of my car. I was on the phone with my husband, and I looked up to see about six spheres flying in a clump, they were on different levels. Moving swiftly, some would move up and others down. Heading South. Some would go ahead and some would go backward the other direction just as fast as going forward. Some would disappear and reappear. As I tried to get my phone to record it, I lost sight of them. A couple seconds later they reappeared in a line going west and then they disappeared.