Tampa, Florida UFO sighting, reports?

I figured this would be a good way to introduce myself properly on this forum board, as for Tampa, Florida, I want to make clear its not Tampa Bay, it is about nine miles out in the Brandon region, I'll go as far as to say it was around an area called Valrico. Around 2004-2005-ish, a freind and I were spending the last of our summer break around town, which really isn't much. So we stopped at Burger King. It was one of those blue sky days where only a few clouds dotted the skyline. As me and my friend were discussing something pointless at our usual window seat, my friend was absent mindedly looking out the window up and as I'm telling a joke he nods up and goes. "Hey man, what the f**k is that." and I didn't even bother looking as of then. Then he persists on bringing it up. "Dude, is that a UFO?" Well, he caught my attention, I look up and see....nothing. Then I see something to the left of a rather large cloud, it looked as if it was a balloon in the horizon, was it? I highly doubt it, I wouldn't waste your time for a balloon. What I saw was pretty high up, so high up that the object, which was to my best guess a small black sphere, went behind a cloud. "Whelp, there goes that balloon." and my friend shrugged and I kept looking, then, it comes back out from the middle of the cloud, not from the sides as you'd see your regular aircraft doing. This really got me interested. I decided to check it out from outside, which wasn't a bad idea, when I went outside I could make the object out much better then through the streak stained window, my friend followed, and we watched it, doing your typical 'zig zag' UFO pattern, but rather slowly, then my friend spots another, I catch glimpse of it, and then another, bringing the total to three.

So as we watch these three black spheres, we get a few peoples heads turning, pointing at the sky and scratching your head usually does that to people, and others see it as well.

What brings me to the understanding this was not a balloon, or anything we currently have to classify as aircraft. Was these three spheres created another classic, a' triangle shape'. Through the course or perhaps another ten minutes we see a few more of these spheres come and go through and out of the clouds as they please, circling each other and awing us.

If any of you have see something similar, I'd love to hear your posts. and even more so if you were around the area and seen what you might think was the same event, this isn't a isolated case I'm sure, as it isn't for me. Besides, I know I'll be hearing some debunking, and I want to. Lets here it folks.

Yeah, I lived on Siesta Key (outside Sarasota) for a couple of years in the early 90s. I wasn't working, and I spent every single day on the beach, and about 6 hours of each day in the water. Seriously, I just hung out on the beach every single day, and you get to see some pretty strange things when you're out there every day for two years.

Anyway, one day in the middle of the week in July, not too many tourists, and I was hanging out at a place just a little south of Siesta Beach — a place called the Point of Rocks, an ancient petrified beach. Maybe you know it. I guess it was around noon, and I was just staring out to the horizon, and I realized that I was looking at a solid object, maybe a mile out, that was just hovering above the water.

It looked like it wasn't very big, maybe the size of an office copy machine, kind of blocky, white, with some metal highlights, like metal trim. And it's hovering.

I just sat there and kept staring, and it stayed out there, unmoving, about 10 feet above the surface, I'm guessing. So, after about 15 or 20 minutes of watching this thing just sit there a mile offshore (which is not as far as you think), I got up and started walking back toward Siesta Beach, and I'd glance back out every once in a while to keep my bearings in relation to the hovering thing.

So, I made it back to Siesta, which is about a half mile from Point of Rocks, and I could see very plainly that this thing was still sitting there, same position, totally motionless, hovering over the water. So I walked over to a guy with a JetSki and I asked him if he could see what I was seeing. His mouth just hung open when he saw it, but you better believe he kicked that JetSki in the ass and was going out to "investigate" it.

I figure he was about half-way to the thing when it simply disappeared. Like, I'm looking at it really intently one second, and the next second I'm going WTF? Where'd it go?? It was just gone, which is kind of a sickening sensation, seeing something vanish right in front of your eyes. The guy on the JetSki suddenly just looped around and came back to shore, and he said he lost it, he lost sight of it because the surf was too rough.

And I said, "No, you lost it because it disappeared."

So, I guess that maybe ten or fifteen people on the beach saw the thing that day, everybody sort of murmured when it vanished, then went about their business. I'm telling you, Siesta Beach is a really tough crowd. It has to be something like an MTV film shoot or a Coors Women's Volleyball Championship to impress the folks at Siesta.

— Doc Velocity

Florida is notorious for its strange beach and gulf sightings.

I personally have never seen a UFO at the beach, I've seen my fair share of water spouts, odd boats and surreal horizons. Though a blocky fax machine would catch the eye quickly. The objects I recall did not appear to be metallic in any way. Though these objects resembled black balls.

The object you saw could have very well been related to the objects that I saw.

]To be frank, I actually haven't heard of Point of Rocks Beach. However, I have heard of Sarasota County.

From where you are, head straight south down the Tamiami Trail, you'll pass through old downtown Sarasota, and just about two miles south of downtown you'll take a right — hell, just follow the signs to Siesta Beach. It's, like, the most beautiful white sand beach you've ever seen. It's a big 12-mile crescent, with Sunset Beach, Siesta Beach, Point of Rocks, and Turtle Beach waaay on down on the southern end.

Sheesh, I've seen so many weird things out there. Glowing tides at night, red tides, dead bodies floating up, shipwrecks, all-nude Tai Chi classes, UFOs, you name it.

But it was a beautiful place, no doubt.

— Doc Velocity

Well, the glowing tides could be phosphorous in the water and in the sand.

There is a beach in Trinidad And Tobago where the sand contains high phosphorous levels and, when the soil is disturbed by the waves, causes a beatuiful green glow in the oceanic tide.

Ranchy

Oh, yeah, I know the effect was phosphorescence, but when the tide was a little rough on a moonless night, you could see the surf glowing green for miles. Beautiful. Perfect setting for a little Malibu Rum and a new girlfriend.

— Doc Velocity

[edit on 2/17/2007 by Doc Velocity]

You must be quite fond with the lady folk. Though I could see a multi-colored horizon as being romantic. But a green glowing ocean...I couldn't see myself doing more than drinking the rum and having a rather interesting bar story afterwards...Indeed.

Anyone heard of anything cool happening near St. Pete?

I should go skywatching some night.

Originally posted by MiahX
Anyone heard of anything cool happening near St. Pete?

I should go skywatching some night.

Since you within earshot of MacDill Air Force Base, I wouldn't be surprised! I have only had the pleasure of going to St. Petersburg once or twice. I wouldn't bother to Google it either, all I got was the Russian counterpart.

Originally posted by Doc Velocity
Yeah, I lived on Siesta Key (outside Sarasota) for a couple of years in the early 90s. I wasn't working, and I spent every single day on the beach, and about 6 hours of each day in the water.

— Doc Velocity

Doc I love Siesta Key, is it still the same today? or is it crowded like the rest of Florida?

I used to go there almost every year on vaca, the beaches are the best.

P.S. I saw something in the night over the ocean one year, but just tried to put it out of my mind after I saw it.

[edit on 17-2-2007 by Realtruth]

Hi,
I live in Tampa and I wonder if you have heard of Malcom Haththorn.

He used to have a UFO show on Public Access.

His show is located in Tampa and he used to have a website.

He told of a UFO that passed over the intersection of Fowler and 30th street and it was huge and very low.

I don't remember when this happened but I sure would like more information about it.

Have you heard anything about this UFO?

It supposedly happened during the night and many people saw it.

I have lived in central Florida my whole life and I know the exact Burger King you speak of, I have ate there before. I didnt see what you are talking about but I have a story of a sighting in Florida thats pretty awesome.
My mom and my sister were coming home from church one night about 6 years or so ago and were within a couple miles from home. They stoped at a light on the intersection of County Line road and Coronet road when suddenly a huge UFO in the shape of a Devil-Ray was hovering over the car very low.
My mom says it was illuminated very brightly on the bottom and made no noise at all. It stayed above them for a minute or so then suddenly took off with amazing speed. She said that when they saw it fly away they were on the other side of the intersection and she does not remember ever driving through the intersection.
This one event made in concrete in my mind that UFO's are 100% real because my mom is a minister and would never make up something like that. It was amazing.

No, I don't live that close to the city itself, and I myself rarely watch more then the History Channel when I actually watch T.V. Though Fowler rings a bell and I have seen a few low flying UFOs myself, one being a rather interesting case in which on a very dark night we were watching the T.V in the living room when what we at first though was someones bass, it got quite loud, and we almost though it was a tornado. (Yes, it was that loud.) we walk outside to see something fly no lower then 60 feet parallel to my street, again, it was very loud, very low, it proceeded to pull up and enter normal flight height off in the cloudless distance. My best guess was a pilot of some sort of jet, though I couldn't make it the actual shape of the aircraft, rather I remember a distinct orange orb shape. (Perhaps the engine?) I don't know how lucky you'd have to be to pull up that close to the ground, you'd have to be an ace. For the record, living relatively close to MacDill. I've heard my fair share and varaity of jets, this one was rather 'bassy'.

Wow, I did not realize there were so many members here in the Tampa area…
Anyway, you have to remember that not only do we have McDill right in the area; there are a ton of other military facilities and contractors. Orlando heading toward the space coast you have a lot of military contract companies plus Nasa, Then north of Tampa there is a bombing range, and straight across the state a little more north is a missile firing range. Therefore, we have a lot of strange aerial stuff going on down here all the time. I don’t know what the OP’s sighting sounds like, was this three lights or just dark orbs? Could it have been three fighters flying in a delta formation?

The Laundry machine sounds a bit like a ship going over the horizon that was reflecting a mirage over the arch of the earth. Something like this:
Ship Mirage
Superior Mirage

I have been inside of MacDill central command several times doing fire protection work and I was not to impressed at all. Thats not to say that something isnt there, but it was not to modern and rather bland. I guess I was expecting a fancy elaborate place, lol.

Yeah its sure not much to look at it, is it?
Point being though, they do get a lot of different aircraft that move through there. I work down in Brandon, and I see all kinds of aircraft heading over here into McD. A lot of those fly much higher then the commercial aircraft that most folks are used to seeing on a daily basis.

Heck one night, years ago, I was driving back to Tampa from Orlando and a whole flight of apache’s or cobras flew right over the road skimming the treetops, heading to the bombing range, it was quite impressive. Years back the SR-71 had to make an emergency landing at Mcdill and flew right over all the beaches. When they did the fly-by at the Superbowl with the Raptors, I saw them flying over Lutz on the way to or from the game. MetLife used to keep their blimp berthed at Pete’O’Knight airport in south Tampa. So my point was there is all kinds of unconventional aircraft flying around down here, especially south, east, and west of McDill.


[edit on 2/17/2007 by defcon5]

There has been a rumor that there's a ufo underground at Macdill for many years but its probably just a rumor.

So, speaking of strange things from Macdill, I've seen alot of jets going over my house and black helicopters lately.

It seems their flight path has been changed because I live in Temple Terrace and have never had planes and helicopters go over this much.

Hm, I can't even say I've seen MacDill personally. But that's a pretty rumor you have there, strange about those black helicopters, only thing I've noticed is the jets, but again, it's a military base.

Originally posted by MagicaRose
I've seen alot of jets going over my house and black helicopters lately.

It seems their flight path has been changed because I live in Temple Terrace and have never had planes and helicopters go over this much.

Wow, I just moved to that side of town myself in the last year, and I was pretty surprised at how much traffic there is out here. Most of it seems to be small aircraft flying into Vanderburg Airport, but also TIA was doing some construction and was routing traffic to a southern approach. I am not sure if that construction is still going on or not, but there was another thread by someone out in Tarpon Springs complaining of increased traffic and I found the HCAA air traffic map showing how they were re-routing for southern approaches and it brought a lot of the traffic in down both the east and west sides of the airport to turn and approach the southern end of the airport. TIA normally brings flights in from the north rather then the south, which put most of the traffic up in Lutz, Carolwood, and Town and Country.

Ps: Most military helicopters are either painted black or olive drab, which looks black at a distance, TPD also had a couple black helicopters last time I checked.

Originally posted by defcon5
Wow, I did not realize there were so many members here in the Tampa area…
Anyway, you have to remember that not only do we have McDill right in the area; there are a ton of other military facilities and contractors. Orlando heading toward the space coast you have a lot of military contract companies plus Nasa, Then north of Tampa there is a bombing range, and straight across the state a little more north is a missile firing range. Therefore, we have a lot of strange aerial stuff going on down here all the time. I don’t know what the OP’s sighting sounds like, was this three lights or just dark orbs? Could it have been three fighters flying in a delta formation?

The Laundry machine sounds a bit like a ship going over the horizon that was reflecting a mirage over the arch of the earth. Something like this:
Ship Mirage
Superior Mirage

I took quite a good look at the Delta formation and I can almost guarantee those are not what I saw, aside from the fact that those are rather close up, these were entirely black showing no glints or hints at a metallic gleam, I should also point out that these objects decided not to move for minutes on end without either moving towards me or away from its position, they stayed in one visual point in the sky rather then when you see a airplane coming towards you, it becomes closer, or if it's heading away, its smaller, these were to the best I know, hovering, Helicopters? Well at one point five. (Rough guess, it was a while back.) Made random shapes and patterns.

[edit on 17-2-2007 by Shadowyfoe]