Reported: 1/22/2023 12:00:20 AM 00:00
Posted: 3/6/2023
Location: Liberty Hill, TX
Shape: Circle
Duration: Approximately two seconds
On December 31st, 2022, between 10:54pm and 10:57pm, I observed a small round object fly almost directly over me. That evening my wife and I stayed home and were watching the New Year celebrations on television. We were not drinking alcohol or anything else. My normal routine in the evening, is to walked my dogs several times outside in the front yard, before going to bed. Each time someone or something exits or enters my home, my security cameras record those events. That night when I left the house with the dogs, the garage camera recorded time was 10:54pm and showed I returned back to the garage at 10:57pm.
The dogs were not sensitive to the fireworks going off in the neighborhood that evening, and the four were just running around close to me, doing their business. I stood in the middle of my street looking into the sky. The weather was very nice, the sky was very clear and I was surprised to see a lot of air traffic. The flight path to Austin's airport is due west from my house and in the evenings it's common to see air traffic coming and going from all directions. I was standing near the end of my driveway, in the middle of the street facing south, when I saw a very distinct red, star shaped light. It appeared to be traveling north in my direction, still miles away and was at about a 45 degree angle from my perspective. I thought the light was odd for aircraft lights but dismissed it and began walking north, approximately one hundred feet on Speed Horse. I was almost to the T intersection of Speed Horse and Secretariat when I turned and looked back south. I did not see the red light and it just seemed to have disappeared. Still standing in the road, I turned due west and saw, what appeared to an aircraft, a mile or so away. Its was at around a 45 plus degree angle from my perspective and appeared to be flying north.
It was at this moment while looking up at the plane, that I caught movement to my right, almost directly above me. I immediately turning to my right and began tracking a small dark orange colored object as it flew past and above me. It continued in a northeast direction not more than fifty feet above the ground. Within a few seconds, it disappeared directly over my neighbors home and into the night sky. Although the sky was clear, there are no street lights in my neighborhood, and my clearest view of its shape and size happened in that first second as it flew over. It appeared to be moving very fast but not so fast that I couldn't track it. My first thought when I saw it, was that it looked like a flying basket ball. It's flight path was very straight, it did not deviate, slow down, change course, hover or make any noise. It did not have any lights on it at all. Using Google earth I was able to measure the approximate distance, from my point of perception to where it disappeared over my neighbors home, at around two hundred feet. I estimated I tracked it for approximately 2 to 2.5 seconds and calculated its speed between 60 and 70 mph. Right after it disappeared I immediately tried to rationalize what I had seen. Was it a bird or a drone? It didn't look like or move like a bird, nor did I see wings and it was too big. I have seen many drones and most were moving very slowly, not in a straight line, or they were hovering, made noise and they made obvious changes in direction.
Immediately after seeing the object I went inside and told my wife. She was skeptical and laughed but then realized I was serious. Within days I told other family members about what I seen, they just laughed and asked If I took a picture. This incident has really bothered me and I've been debating with myself to report it. I had heard about your site and I'm was just hoping someone else might have seen something similar. I am a retired Police officer with over 25 years with the city of Austin Texas and consider myself of sound mind and body. Thanks for your time.
