A week has passed since three Carbondale teenagers and several anonymous phone callers reported seeing a mysterious glowing object fall from the skies into a small silt pond behind Russell Park, but evan though police have written off the entire episode as a massive hoax.
The problem is that aq good many people refuse to believe that the railroad lantern a scuba diver retrieved from the pond Monday afternoon was all there was to the incident. Despite what appears to be conclusive proof that the whole thing was a hoax and despite reassurances to that effect by Carbondale mayor A.J. Kaufman and acting police chief Francis Dottle, this upper valley community is still buzzing with speculation.
This speculation ranges from outright accusations that what ever fell in the pond was retrieved by authorities in a veil of secrecy, to claims that whatever it was is still in the pond buried under silt.
One reason for the doubts is along line of unanswered questions and quit a few contradictions.
A review of the whole affair might start with the original sightings. Carbondale police received an anonymous phone call shortly after 7p.m., Nov. 9 that a glowing object had approached Carbondale in an easterly flight path over Salem Mnt and had either crashed or landed in a silt pond behind Russell Park. The caller refused to identify himself because, he explained he didn't want anyone to think him a crack pot. Police did not immediately act on the call.
When the 3 teenager s, all of whom live in a housing development in the Russell Park area reports a similar sighting, police responded. Patrolman John Barbaro and special Patrolman Joseph Jacobina went to the scene. They witnessed something glowing in the pond. Despite official claims to the contrary, The Sunday Times confirmed that a police officer did fire 4 times at the object with his .38 caliber revolver. At a press conference Monday the official version was that youngsters had set off firecrackers in the area. However, the police officer who did the shooting admitted to the Sunday Times Sunday afternoon that he had fired at the object which he believed at the time to be the product of a hoax.
As police were witnessing the mysterious glow in the water on the night of Nov. 9 , two other witnesses gave accounts
of the episode. Describing what he saw , a 19 year old Russell Park employee told investigators approximately 15 min
had elapsed between the time of splashdown and the time he arrived at the pond . In his own words, this is what he
told investigators:
"The glow seemed to get dim,then less intense, then brighter. I'd say it took around 5 min to
complete the cycle. You could just about see it at its lowest point.
A volunteer fireman who arrived at the scene later told a similar story. Asked Wednesday if what he saw on Sunday might have been a railroad lantern, he replied, "NO". He added that he could not believe what he saw last Sunday was the same thing a scuba diver pulled out of the pond Monday.
Police on Sunday attempted to retrieve the object with a net attached to a long wooden pole but were not successful in that effort.
This is the one of the points that has caused some doubt. Considering that police officers were in a boat immediately above the glowing object and considering the fact that the lantern retrieved Monday afternoon was in about six or seven feet of water, the question being asked is why they were unable to retrieve it at the outset.
On version is that when they attempted to retrieve it, the light went out . This version was carried a step farther with the explanation that silt on the bottom of the pond had been disturbed and covered the object.
Another version, however is that it was too heavy for authorities to retrieve with the net. Robert Barry A UFO investigator from Collinswood N.J. told The Times Monday morning they felt there was a larger object beneath or attached to the object they attempted to net. He also said they had been unable to move the object.
But perhaps the most authoritative account yet given anyone was a statement given The Times by a police officer who was in the boat early last Sunday morning when the first attempt was made to retrieve the object.
The officer whose identity is being withheld because he was giving his account"off the record"was asked if he was
convinced the lantern retrieved Monday was the same thing he had seen glowing in the water in the early hours of
Sunday morning was the something taken from the water in the early hours of Sunday morning . His answer:"Off the
record no."
He said what he saw did not move, but it did" pulsate". He also said he felt a lantern would have given off a
straighter
beam and in a smaller diameter than he witnessed.
The police officer said the only way he would believe that what he saw Sunday morning was the same thing taken from the water Monday was if a similar light were placed in the water and gave him the same impression.
So, there are several eyewitnesses accounts, including that of a police officer, which openly dispute the theory that a lantern , such as taken from the water , could be what they saw in the early hours of last Sunday.
There are a few other points which have yet to be explained. On Tuesday The Times was told by a security guard who works for a detective agency that he also had doubts. He said he first went to the scene Sunday and was still wearing his uniform which resembles a police uniform.
He said that after he parked his car he was walking through the traffic jam on his way to the pond when a woman in a car asked him what was going on. He said she mistook him for a police officer and that the only thing he was able to tell her were a few sketchy facts he had gotten from a relative.
The woman at this point told him she and her daughter-in-law had been driving along the Sranton-Carbondale Highway en route to Carbondale Sat night between 7-7:30 p.m. and that they had both witnessed something in the sky in the direction of the WCDL Radio tower. The tower is located on Salem Mnt. The woman said the object was"cone shaped" and "glowing" and was moving in the direction of Carbondale. She said it was visible for only a few moments.
Another point: There was along this line is that there were alleged sightings Sat evening in Wayne County of a glowing object moving in a easterly direction...... toward Carbondale.
Another point: There was a very slight radiation reading taken on a geiger counter by those in the boat early sun
morning . Monday afternoon the same individuals in the boat Sunday morning put out to assist the scuba diver . Over
one point another geiger counter reading was taken. Shortly there after , the scuba diver retrieved the lantern. The
geiger counter was placed near. There was no reading. It might be interesting to note that the spot where the scuba
diver retrieved the lantern was at least five feet away from were the geiger counter registered a slight radiation
reading. Along
this same line of thought, The Sunday Times learned during the past week that a request was made
either late Sat or early Sun morning to a city for a radiation container.
Much of the speculation centers around whether a lantern such as the one found in the pond Monday could have stayed
lighted for as much as 9 hours. A Carbondale merchant who sells such lights says no. He said there is no way such a
lantern could stay lighted that long underwater without some type of protective enclosure.
Another point concerns
other sightings in the area. Two workers at the Dundaff Mnt strip mine operation observered a white light in the sky
Thursday night. It was southeast of Dundaff Mnt and the other side of Carbondale. This would put the light in an area
between Salem Mnt and the mountain east of Archibald. One of the workers, a 56 year-old Carbondale resident, he and
his companion saw the light moving, stop, and then disappear.
To top thing off, city police received calls Tuesday night that another object had been seen in the Salem Mnt area.
An eyewitness to this sighting told The Sunday Times that he first thought the object was a flare fired by a plane
gun. A check with the Carbondale National Guard armory revealed that no such guns have been missing from area armories
and that such guns are nearly impossible to obtain. Also on the flare theory, if such a flare was fired from a flare
gun, it would take an expert to remove the parachute centered in the flare between the two explosive charges.
Still another point adding to the confusion is the scuba diver who pulled the lantern from the pond Monday afternoon.
His name is Mark Stamey and he resides in Skaneateles, near Syracuse N.Y. On Wednesday The Sunday Times spoke to his
wife. She said husband was a member of the New York State Divers Association, but when asked why her husband was in
Carbondale or who called him if anyone, she declined comment. Douglas Dains , the UFO researcher
from
Binghamton,N.Y. who is associated with Dr. Allen Hynek of Northwestern University told The Sunday Times he had not
contacted the diver. Acting Police Chief Dottle said he didn't call the diver either. He said Mr. Stamey"just
happened" to be there.
The fact that the diver from Syracuse just happened to be here in Carbondale with his equipment and the fact that scuba divers who were in town from the Wallenpaup Scuba Club were refused permission to enter the pond and the fact that Scranton has police dive team which wasn't used just tends to produce more doubts.
Probably the one thing that could clear up the mystery would be a complete draining of the pond. But John Baumann owner of the property where the pond is located, told The Sunday Times there is no plans to do so at this time
On a final it was learned that at least one of the witnesses who saw the object Saturday night refuses to accept the theory.
Perhaps the best summation is from Mr. Dains the UFO expert who said he is not quite ready to write off the matter on the lantern theory. He said two possibilities exist: Either it was an elaborately planned hoax or it was some type of meteorite or satellite.
What's the answer? You be the judge.