Number of UFO sightings in UK plummets as cops reveal dwindling figures of reports – Daily Star
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The number of possible alien and UFO sightings in the UK have plummeted.
The new stats come after it was revealed that Manchester United is the most supernatural Premier League club, after 26 UFO encounters.
And Brits hoping to get a closer look may soon get their wish, as Richard Branson has shared plans to blast off his Virgin Galactic flights from Cornwall.
Only five reports were made to the 43 police forces in England and Wales last year, latest figures show. This is compared to over 400 in previous years.
Humberside Police received two calls. A caller reported an orange light zig zagging over Grimsby last September and another sighting over Hull was explained away as a drone in December.
Derbyshire Constabulary got two reports as well. Cops raced to help a man outside a Poundland store in Derby who was threatening to harm himself unless he could speak to “aliens".
A couple saw lights in the sky over Somercotes last May. Blue lights were spotted over Dorchester last July, according to Dorset Police.
The Ministry of Defence shut down its "UFO desk" in 2009 meaning the public turned to police to report any sightings.
Some forces – like North Yorkshire Police – said it had zero reports after carrying out a search. It comes after Yorkshire was dubbed the UFO capital of the UK in 2021.
Others said they had no info like the Met Police, Thames Valley Police and Wiltshire Police. Some forces said it was too expensive to carry out FOI requests to properly look into any UFO sighting claims.
Ex-cop Gary Heseltine, 64, who now edits UFO Truth Magazine, said: “Since late 2009 and the closure of the MoD UFO reporting facility the collation of UFO/UAP reports have not been routinely recorded.
“But nevertheless each force generally would have five to 10 reports made to them per year.”
He claimed: “If all the forces in the UK are now saying that they refuse to give the information or have no data that suggests to me that at the highest level a decision has been taken to downplay such reports even more than in the past.
“It begs the question, why?”
In 2002 Gary set up the Police Reporting UFO Sightings database to log reports from serving and retired officers.
He started with just a handful but it has grown to 550 cases involving over 1,100 officers dating back to 1901.
In one sighting, a traffic cop filmed a strange cluster of lights floating above the moors between Skipton and Bolton Abbey in West Yorkshire.
He captured the lights on his on-board forward-facing dash cam while driving on the A59 in May 2003.
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