Excerpt from article in Zavala County Sentinel – Crystal City, Texas
April 5-6, 2006
… Arturo “Turi†Gonzales was a Constable in the late 70’s when he and others saw a unique unidentified object in the southern sky. According to Turi, the “humongous†circular disc was all lit up and flying vertical resembling a Ferris wheel. He called a fellow officer who also saw the object. Another witness was the radio dispatcher who stepped outside and verified what both were seeing. The Ferris wheel like object stayed in the sky south of the city for some 20 minutes before flying off at a rapid speed.
It the late 80’s Ray Mendoza was doing guard duty at Del Monte about one in the morning when he heard a low humming sound. Looking up, he reportedly saw a large circular flying disc moving slowly and almost silently over Crystal City. He called three other Del Monte employees who joined him and also saw the disc as it hovered over the city. Three of the four witnesses have verified the story and all agree on another point. That is, that after a while, the large disc moved in the direction of FM 1025 (the “Seven Miles†highway intersection) where it was joined by a number of smaller discs. Emitting a bright but not glaring white light with spurts of yellow and orange-red, all ships sped off at high speed toward the east. Ray says he called the Police Department but does not know if a report was filed.
Not long thereafter, Ray and his wife were driving toward Carrizo Springs on Highway 83 when again he saw the large circular flying disc. Both Ray and his wife drew a quick sketch depicting a sombrero-type ship with large vertical windows on the upper deck and non-glaring white lights all around the lower edge.
Unknown to Ray, his wife and friends who reported seeing the flying saucer, another person had already sent me a three page account of his experience. This sighting
occurred just a few years later in August of ‘95. The writer says he was at the phone booth which used to exist at east Uvalde Street by the Housing Project when he heard someone say “what is thatâ€. Looking toward the person, he saw all six basketball players looking at the sky. What all saw were five bright lights hovering “cloud-highâ€. Periodically, one of the lights would blink off only to reappear somewhere else. The lights varied in color from bright white to orange and red. According to my source, some 20 or 30 people saw the lights. The five objects were seen “for about 15 to 20 minutes and then disappeared just before military jets showed up,†he says. The following day he told a number of friends. Some laughed and called him crazy. Others claimed to have also seen them. One friend told him the band members practicing at the high school football field also saw the lights. I had previously been told about the band members but have never spoken with any of them to verify what they reportedly saw in August of ‘95.
As in most all cases of people seeing strangely behaving lights, circular discs or unidentified flying objects, the person or people having such an experience are apt to be ridiculed and called crazy. Hence most chose not to speak until now when this column is recording their individual experiences and sightings. Now if we can only get some photos or video to fully document any present or future sightings.
Richard G. Santos
richardgsantos@yahoo.com
NOTE: all reported sightings were collected in Crystal City, Texas.