Light over Camino Capistrano, CA

The report, as filed

Jan 21st, 9:20 pm. Important note: Wind Speed 16-18 mph My Friend and I were leaving a friends house after helping him install a winch on his car. No alcohol or other substances consumed. He and I get in our respective cars and are about to leave when a violet beam shoots across the sky. In the sky I could see a purple light that was completely stationary. I was on Camino Capistrano facing north and slightly east. The craft was almost perfectly north of my position. My friend proceeds to call me and asks if I am seeing what he is seeing. I start to drive and he follows. I take a right onto via catalina and then another right onto what I think was via california. I pull over and my friend pulls over behind me. Via california runs perpendicular to the coast so looking left is due north. We get out of our cars and stand there is awe at what ever the hell this thing is. The object while stationary was white with a blue aura, distinctly different from the bloom seen from the violate beam. It was about 20-30 degrees above the horizon, due perfectly north. The object seemed to be hovering over Dana Point, which was about 3 miles away. Given that and it was 20-30 degrees above the horizon it had to have been about 1.3 miles up. While moving the aircraft would move at a constant speed and get to that speed instantly and then stop on a dime. It did not appear to be moving all that fast while just strafing back and forth. While moving the object's color would also change, it would go between red, blue and green and the blue halo disappeared. When it stopped it would turn to white again the halo would return. The second thing to note about the beam is that it seemed to be making a circle as it passed by my friend and I on more than one occasion and the bloom from the laser would go away meaning that it was moving around independent of the craft. I say this because the craft would be perfectly still and the laser would move at a constant smooth speed. After a 10 or so jaw dropping minutes a helicopter flying north west was making a direct bee-line towards it. The craft started to move to the right, and almost like the game Pong, bounced off of something and flew the other way and didnt lose any speed. It continued to move away from the helicopter at a blistering speed for maybe 15-30 seconds until the helicopter peeled off. After the heli peeled off the object made a large arched turn to the west which brought it about face to the east, an areal u-turn I guess is the best way to describe it. It was moving about the rate same rate when the helicopter started to approach. At this point the object disappeared out of our line of view due to the house infront of us. We ran up the street to see around the house and it was gone. The two images I am providing is a street view of the street we were on and the approx flight path that the craft followed, solid lines were the times it was moving quickly. It made that square pattern a few times. In reality we were up the street a little bit, and back against the curb opposite of the houses in view. The second one was our distance to the navy helicopter field.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #166364). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.