David C. De la Garza, El Centro, California This happened in mid-November 1987. I was working as police officer for the city of Calexico, California, a small desert town that borders Mexicali, Baja California Mexico.
On my night off, I was visiting 2 friends who lived in the city of El Centro -12 miles north of Calexico. Both these persons were also employed for the Police Dept. at the time. As I was ending my visit, they both walked me to my car to say goodnight. Nobody had been drinking or doing anything stupid - we were just chatting under the cold, clear night air when I noticed a strange light in the southern sky.
I am a fan of aviation I can tell you this was no military or civilian aircraft. This object was ball-shaped, or round. I remember seeing a red or reddish-white circular light going around the object. I was amazed and pointed it out to my colleagues. I had a pair of binoculars in the trunk of my car and took them out, looked through them and saw the object more clearly. I handed them over to my friends and they both took turns watching.
There was no sound coming from this object. One of my friends' said, "Hell, I don't know what this is," and promptly went back inside the house. My other friend stayed with me and was truly amazed that she had seen a UFO. As I took my eyes off the object for a few moments, I looked up again and it was gone.
The next evening I went to work (I was working the 12AM-8AM shift). I remember it being an eventful night because we had an old man who was killed by a hit-and-run driver near the US/Mex border. This was an unusual event and the Chief of Police at that time was called out to assist the investigation (L.Ginn). He gave me a set of instructions that I thought were unusual but exciting to carry out - he asked me to cross the border and drive into Mexico and make contact with the Mexican Federal Customs officials and request that they detain any vehicles coming into Mexico with bloodstains or fresh dents to their front ends. The Mexican officials were very cooperative, and actually seemed surprised that an American Police car had driven straight into Mexico. We chatted for a few minutes before I said my good-byes. At that time one of the officials said "Cuidado con los OVNIS!" Which translates as "Watch out for the UFO's?" I stopped the patrol car and told the official "funny you say that" and proceeded to tell him what I say the previous night.
You should have seen his eyes - they widened like saucers (no pun intended), and he grabbed his compatriot next to him and told him, "You see, you see, I'm NOT crazy, he saw it too!".
I asked him what the commotion was all about, and he told me this: He and his family had been camping near the "Valle de la Trinidad" mountains in Baja California (about 110 miles from El Centro, more or less). Late at night they saw a HUGE round object in the sky directly above them with a red circular light making circles around it. It scared the hell out of him and his family when it went directly over him. It made no sound at all. He had been telling his friends and co-workers about this but they did not believe him - until now, when a California Police Officer confirmed the sighting.
It has been sixteen years later. I am sorry I never did get the name of the Mexican Customs official...it would've been neat to talk to him further about the incident. At the time, I had other things on my mind - like my upcoming wedding to my fiancee (we are still married and have 2 kids today). I left the Police Dept. a year later and now work in the private industry. My son is always fascinated by this story. I hope you are too because it did happen to me.
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