Flash over Proctor, VT

The report, as filed

At approximately 0330 in the morning, I saw an orange light through the blinds in the kitchen looking out into the driveway (at the north corner of the house), at first only a single point of focused light resembling a glowing eye. As soon as I focused on it, the lights in the house flickered and it expanded and faded to an orange glow similar to candlelight, remaining steady for the next 30 seconds or so before disappearing all at once. Immediately before it disappeared, I spoke aloud, saying, "Leave us alone, you're not welcome here." This incident occurred while I was attempting to find information relating to several previous unsettling experiences I have had with entities; I will note that I have never seen something I would consider a UFO before this, only entities (which I have not reported because I worried I might be labelled as a schizophrenic), but I have felt as though I was being watched for almost my entire life, often by an invisible observer which I was absolutely certain was above me despite having no evidence. This morning, I found a single footprint on the hill which was indistinct but clearly left by something with claws; I would think it was left by a bear if not for the complete absence of any other tracks and the orange glow I saw in the night. My dog was very interested in the footprint and followed a scent trail up the hill that abruptly ended out in the open. I would not have reported this except for a second sighting of either the same (or a similar) object a few minutes ago, which I saw out of the corner of my eye in the upper left of my peripheral vision, superimposed in the west corner of the living room (which is in the south corner of the first floor of the house). This object appeared to be an orange circle/orb surrounded by a clearly delineated black ring which was itself surrounded by a ring of orange light. When the flash occurred, my computer screen and the television screen both briefly froze. My dog also saw the object and has been staring nervously at the area where it appeared since; she has also cautiously approached that corner, where there is a door to the front porch, looking up at the ceiling, barking and growling. My mother walked into the room a moment after the flash and doesn't believe me despite the dog's behaviour. This coincides with numerous strange occurrences throughout the area, which began about two weeks ago and have been increasing in frequency and strangeness. The incidents started with people feeling watched and seeing large black dogs, then progressed through tapping on windows and scratching at doors, to a lingering smell of sulphur, urine and honey. There have also been several black bear attacks in the area recently, which is highly abnormal, and some people have told me they had seen an abnormally large black bear, about 4 feet tall at the shoulder, who appeared to be stalking them. Most people are acting like nothing is out of the ordinary, but it seems to me that everyone is a little bit more nervous than usual. As an additional detail, I should note than I am colorblind, having blue cone monochromacy, so although I describe the object's colour as "orange," that is merely how it appeared to me (any wavelength greater than about 500 nm looks either orange or grey to me).

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #176638). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.