Strange Photo Stirs Up Report Of 1967 UFO Sighting

The e-mail inbox at the Dorchester Times is always full, and sometimes it contains some rather interesting reports. Such was the case last night when we received a photo from a reader calling herself "Cathy." For the purposes of this post, Cathy wishes to remain anonymous.

Cathy, who says she lives "a couple of miles" outside of Dorchester, tells us that last week she took the photo located to the right. In her e-mail to the Times, she wrote that just before capturing the photo with her cell phone, she "saw a very bright reflective object in the afternoon sky" and that the object "was just floating in the same spot for about 60 seconds and then suddenly vanished or faded away. No quick movements or zipping across the sky." We have encouraged Cathy to share her photo with the Federal Aviation Administration. Cathy tells the Times she is "positive" she saw a UFO.

Some will say it is surely proof of an alien encounter. Others will laugh at such speculation. While we are not believers in UFOs, we have discovered that Nebraska has had its share of UFO reports, as documented by a simple Internet search. Perhaps the most interesting story is one that took place up the road on Highway 6 near Ashland. According to a Web site called UFOevidence.com, it is one of the "best-documented close encounters" ever noted.

According to the story, on December 3, 1967, Ashland police officer Herbert Schirmer was on routine late-night patrol. "At about 2:30 a.m., he noticed a group of lights near the ground and thought he could make out a semi-trailer off the road. He approached to investigate, only to see the thing -- whatever it was -- take off and disappear in the night sky. When he returned to the police station at 3 a.m., he wrote in the station log, 'Saw a flying saucer at the junction of Highways 6 and 63. Believe it or not!'"

According to the account, Sgt. Schirmer "went home that morning with a splitting headache and an inexplicable red welt on the side of his neck. Though only 22 years old at the time, Schirmer was so respected in Ashland that he was named chief of police a short time later. Two months later, he resigned from the force. He said he couldn't get the UFO encounter out of his mind. Investigators heard about Schirmer and found that 20 minutes seemed to be unaccounted for in his log of December 3, 1967."

After Schirmer agreed to undergo hypnotic regression to see if he could remember more details of the incident, Schirmer told investigators that several "humanoid beings" got out and approached him and he was taken aboard the craft. "Schirmer described the beings as 4.5' to 5' tall, with heads somewhat narrower and longer than an average human. ... He was told that these beings had been watching the human race for a very long time and were engaged in what he called a 'breeding analysis program.'" Schirmer said he was ridiculed by some of the townspeople, his car was dynamited, and his wife left him. You can hear audio accounts of his so-called "abduction" in Schirmer's own words by going to this YouTube site.

As the old X-Files television program professed, the truth is out there. But we are not so sure what the truth is. At the very least, our reader Cathy can take heart that she is not the only one who believes UFOs have paid a visit to the Cornhusker State. And no one can say nothing ever happens in Nebraska.