This article was published in the daily newspaper Calgary Sun, Alberta, Canada, on Monday, October 20, 2003.
By KRISTEN ENEVOLD, CALGARY SUN
Two glowing clouds that seemed to follow a Bearspaw family around their property Saturday night has the makings of a fictional tale, but Omkar Channan knows what he saw.
"It does sound silly, but it's also something I've never seen before -- and no one I've talked to has an explanation," he said yesterday.
Around 10 p.m. Saturday, Channan's son was walking the family dog on their property northwest of the city.
"All of a sudden, the dog started barking and we saw two small clouds over the house -- they seemed to be chasing each other around and then merging together," said the elder Channan, who is a published author and recently retired from his role as the city's chief controller of prosecutions.
As the family gathered outside, the strangest part of their experience began.
"We were walking around the property, and whatever it was seemed to be following us," said Channan, explaining the objects were about 900 to 1,200 metres above ground.
In an effort to get witnesses to the strange event, the Channans called the RCMP, boththe Calgary International and Springbank airports, and neighbours.
"It was the strangest thing I've ever seen," said Carol Geremia, one of the Channan's neighbours who also called others as she ventured outside.
"The clouds, or whatever they were, were perfectly round and illuminated -- it kind of gave me the creeps," she said.
The Cochrane RCMP member who stopped by attributed the illumination to an event possibly going on at Olympic Plaza, while the airports didn't see anything unusual in the night sky.
But Channan and his neighbours are still intrigued.
"The (possibility) of it being a UFO comes to mind, but I've never experienced anything like that before and it's just really bizarre that it seemed to be following us," Channan said.
Don Hladiuk has been an astronomer for more than 30 years and the Channans' experience is unusual, he said.
"Over the past 20 to 30 years, I've heard a lot of stories and a lot can be explained, but this one comes out of the abnormal," he said.
The only explanation Hladiuk could think of is lightning interacting with clouds, or the Calgary Police Service's helicopter flying overhead.
Meanwhile, the Channans and the Geremias will be looking to the skies again tonight to see if what they spotted will return.
