Huntington, Indiana, December 26, 2003 — A circular tumbling disc, half black and half bright orange in the sunlight, hovers near a Catholic church steeple at treetop level as three city police officers watch. MUFON investigation by Roger Sugden.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTING REPORT
2003: Three Huntington Police Officers See Circular Flying Object
At 2:30 PM on the day after Christmas 2003, an off-duty Huntington, Indiana police officer was warming up his car across from the police station when he saw something in the sky to the north — something that first looked like a steerable parachute, then like giant bird wings, then like a tumbling tire, then like a massive backyard trampoline — and could not make it fit any category he had ever encountered. He radioed for a second set of eyes. He got two. All three officers watched as the object — circular, the size of a hot air balloon, tumbling and rotating as it moved — came out of the northwest at treetop level toward the steeple of a nearby Catholic church. One officer was certain it was going to snag on the steeple. It stopped, hovered, turned bright orange when it caught the sunlight like a compact mirror being twirled, then shot straight back north and disappeared. The sighting lasted 30 to 45 seconds. No one called 911. No one called dispatch. No one called the state police. For several days, the officers said nothing, because they thought people would think they were crazy. The Huntington Herald-Press eventually ran the story. MUFON investigator Roger Sugden documented the case. Three law enforcement professionals, three slightly different vantage points, one object that none of them could explain.
Date: December 26, 2003
Sighting Time: Shortly after 2:30 PM EST
Day/Night: Day — afternoon, clear enough for sunlight reflection
Location: Huntington, Huntington County, Indiana — observed from just north of the city Police Station, near a Catholic church
Urban or Rural: Urban — small city, population approximately 17,000
No. of Entity(‘s): None observed
Entity Type: N/A
Entity Description: N/A
Hynek Classification: DD (Daylight Disc) — large circular/disc-shaped object observed in daylight at close range, exhibiting tumbling rotation and color change
Duration: 30–45 seconds
No. of Object(s): 1
Description of the Object(s): Large circular/disc-shaped object, completely circular, dome-shaped. Black when first seen, turning bright orange when reflecting sunlight — like a compact mirror being twirled. Tumbling as it moved — rotating the wide way around — changing apparent shape during rotation (parachute → bird wings → tire → disc). No noise. No propulsion visible.
Shape of Object(s): Circular/disc — dome-shaped. Appeared to change shape as it tumbled, presenting different profiles during rotation.
Size of Object(s): Size of a hot air balloon or a backyard trampoline
Color of Object(s): Black (when not reflecting sunlight), turning bright orange when catching the sun
Distance to Object(s): Treetop level — low enough that one officer believed it would catch on the church steeple
Height & Speed: Treetop level, no higher than the church roof. Approached slowly from the northwest, stopped and hovered over the steeple, then shot straight north at high speed.
Number of Witnesses: 3 — all Huntington city police officers. First officer (off duty, warming car), second and third officers (responded to radio call, observed from positions 30–35 feet apart)
Special Features/Characteristics: Tumbling rotation — the object rotated continuously, presenting different profile shapes to the observers as it moved. Stop-and-hover capability — the object stopped, hovered over the church steeple, then departed at high speed. Color change — black to bright orange, apparently caused by catching sunlight during rotation. No sound. Apparent shape-shifting during rotation — different witnesses described different shapes (parachute, tire, bird wings, trampoline, disc) depending on the rotation phase they observed. One officer noted the object would stop, then spin slowly — a maneuver no known aircraft can accomplish.
Case Status: Unexplained
Source: MUFON of Indiana — Roger Sugden, ASD-North/CI investigator. Huntington Herald-Press newspaper coverage. No airports (Huntington Municipal, Fort Wayne Smith Field) reported unusual aircraft.
Summary/Description: Three Huntington, Indiana police officers observed a large circular, dome-shaped, tumbling object at treetop level near a Catholic church on the afternoon of December 26, 2003. The object appeared black, turned bright orange when catching sunlight, hovered over the church steeple, and departed at high speed to the north. Duration was 30–45 seconds. No 911 calls were received. MUFON investigator Roger Sugden documented the case. Both Huntington Municipal Airport and Fort Wayne’s Smith Field confirmed no unusual aircraft.
Related Cases: 1977 Anderson Indiana Gold-Ball Disc (rotating disc, same state) | 1958 Monon Railroad NL (color changes correlated with movement)
Detailed Report
The Huntington sighting of December 26, 2003 is a textbook example of a high-credibility daylight observation by trained observers. Three city police officers — men whose professional lives depend on accurate observation, clear reporting, and credibility — independently confirmed an object that none of them could identify, and then spent several days not talking about it because they feared ridicule.
The first officer had finished his shift at 2:30 PM and was warming up his car across from the police station, facing north. He noticed the object at a considerable distance, initially describing it as resembling a steerable parachute — black, curved, with no one underneath. It began rolling slowly, changed apparent shape to what looked like giant bird wings, then resolved into an oblong circle that turned orange. He radioed for additional observers.
The second officer’s first impression was “a tire” in the sky. The third officer walked out the station’s back door, heard the radio traffic, looked up, and spotted it immediately due to its size. His observations were the most detailed: the object moved in a flat plane, hovered, moved slowly toward the church, then stopped, began a circular rotation, turned bright orange, went flat again, and hovered over the steeple.
The officers agreed the object turned orange when it caught sunlight, like a compact mirror being twirled. It was completely circular and dome-shaped when viewed flat-on. One officer stated that the object would stop and then spin slowly — a maneuver he could not reconcile with any known aircraft. The two officers closest to each other (30–35 feet apart) confirmed it went behind the church steeple and departed directly north. Total duration: 30–45 seconds.
No emergency lines were activated. No one in the public called 911, dispatch, or state police. The pastor of the Catholic church did not see anything. Managers at Huntington Municipal Airport and Fort Wayne’s Smith Field confirmed no out-of-the-ordinary aircraft. Roger Sugden, MUFON Indiana’s ASD-North investigator, documented the case and noted that the tumbling motion and stop-hover-depart behavior were consistent with patterns in the broader UFO literature.
Researcher’s Notes
The Huntington Church-Steeple Disc — Huntington County 2003 and the Tumbling-Disc Pattern
- Witness Credibility Assessment: Three on-duty or just-off-duty city police officers constitute one of the strongest witness categories in the UFO literature. Law enforcement officers are trained observers, accustomed to providing detailed descriptions under stress, and professionally incentivized to maintain credibility. That all three independently confirmed the sighting — and then collectively chose not to report it for several days out of fear of ridicule — is itself a data point about the social cost of UFO reporting. Their eventual willingness to go on record through the Huntington Herald-Press and MUFON reflects confidence in what they saw.
- Classification Rationale: DD (Daylight Disc) is correct. The sighting occurred at 2:30 PM on a clear enough day for sunlight reflection. The object was observed at treetop level — close enough that one officer believed it would catch on a church steeple. Its circular, dome-shaped form was clearly resolved. The tumbling rotation and apparent shape-changing during rotation explain the diverse initial descriptions (parachute, bird wings, tire) — different rotation phases presented different profile shapes.
- Tumbling-Disc Behavioral Pattern: The tumbling rotation is the most analytically significant behavioral feature. Conventional aircraft do not tumble while maintaining controlled flight. The object’s ability to tumble continuously, stop, hover, and then depart at high speed constitutes a flight profile that eliminates all conventional aircraft categories. The stop-and-spin maneuver — explicitly flagged by the third officer as something no known aircraft can accomplish — is the strongest single datum in the case. Weather balloons tumble but cannot stop, hover, or depart at speed. Drones of that era could not achieve the reported size or the stop-hover-depart sequence at the reported speed.
- Negative Evidence Significance: The complete absence of public calls — no 911, no dispatch, no state police — despite the object’s reported size (comparable to a hot air balloon) and low altitude (treetop level over an urban area on a holiday afternoon) suggests either that the officers were the only people outdoors looking skyward, or that the 30–45-second duration was too brief to generate public response. Roger Sugden’s investigation confirmed no unusual aircraft at either local airport.
Three cops, one church steeple, and an object that tumbled like a coin flip and then shot north. They waited days to say anything because they knew how it would sound. The archive notes their hesitation and their eventual decision to report anyway.
