Cylinder over Bolingbrook, IL

The report, as filed

On Tuesday October 19, 2021, at approximately 1:30 pm I went upstairs to my motel room to grab my phone charger. While in my room I decided to raise the blinds and see what type of view I had. After only a minute I noticed a shiny object moving in the sky off in the distance. For a second, I thought “is it a balloon”? But then I saw it moving quickly across the sky and glimmering in and out of view. It was very bright at times, then at other times it appeared to be reflecting the sunlight off a translucent or silver body. It appeared to move in and out of the clouds starting at the skyline the moving upwards and away over and over. I thought I had better grab my phone thinking this could be the real thing. I did not do a great job recording as I am unskilled and was very distracted by the object. It appeared for about ten of the thirteen minutes that I filmed. As I reviewed the video, I discovered that I could zoom in and at one point noticed it looked cylindrical, but at other times it appeared to be growing and shrinking without form like a mass of energy. It moved great distances in a way that our aircraft cannot move. I was incredibly nervous, scared, and excited all at the same time. This was something like I have never seen before. Having been in the USMC I can honestly say I have never seen anything fly the way this thing flew around today, except in the movies. I loaded it onto YouTube, it is titled “UFO IN BOLINGBROOK IL. I do not know what else to say except that there were multiple planes in the sky and one helicopter which all appeared black or as silhouettes, but this object was super bright.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #165001). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.