Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 12:01:50 -0600
From: slk 
Subject: portage
To: CURRENT-ENCOUNTERS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Here is the Portage County, Ohio (Spauer/Neff Case), CE-1, located at:
http://www.evansville.net/~slk/portage.htm
on InterLink:UFO at "Casebook" at "1966".
PORTAGE  COUNTY  POLICE  CHASE
Date: April 17, 1966
Portage County, Ohio
(If this incident seems to be familiar to you, just maybe you saw
the motion picture, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". This
report, also known as the Spauer/Neff Case, was the basis for the
UFO "chase" in this film.  F.R.)
One of the most dramatic encounters by police officers with an
apparently structured, low-level UFO occurred in the early
morning of April 17, 1966. Officers of the Portage County, Ohio,
Sheriff's Department first saw the object rise up from near
ground level, bathing them in light, near Ravenna, Ohio, about
5:00 A.M.  Ordered by the sergeant to pursue the object, they
chased it for eighty-five miles across the border into
Pennsylvania, as it seemed to play a cat-and-mouse game with
them. Along the route, police officers from other jurisdictions
saw the object and joined in the chase.
Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur and Mounted Deputy Wilbur 'Barney’ Neff
had left their scout car to investigate an apparently abandoned
automobile on Route 224. Spaur described the sighting in these
words:
"I always look behind me so no one can come up behind me.  And
when I looked in this wooded area behind us, I saw this thing.
At this time it was coming up... to about tree top level.  I'd
say about one hundred feet. it started moving toward us.... As it
came over the trees, I looked at Barney and he was still watching
the car... and he didn't say nothing and the thing kept getting
brighter and the area started to get light. ... I told him to
look over his shoulder, and he did.
"He just stood there with his mouth open for a minute, as bright
as it was, and he looked down. And started looking down and I
looked at my hands and my clothes weren't burning or anything,
when it stopped right over on top of us.  The only thing, the
only sound in the whole area was a hum... like a transformer
being loaded or an overloaded transformer when it changes....
"I was petrified, and, uh, so I moved my right foot, and
everything seemed to work all right.  And evidently he made the
same decision I did, to get something between me and it, or us
and it, or whatever you would say.  So we both went for the car,
we got in the car and we sat there...."
As they watched, the UFO moved toward the east, and then stopped
again. Spaur picked up the microphone and reported to the
dispatcher. At this time, the object was about 250 feet away,
brilliantly lighting up the area ("It was very bright; it'd make
your eyes water," Spaur said.)  Sergeant Schoenfelt, off duty at
the station, told them to follow it and keep it under observation
while they tried to get a photo unit to the scene.
Spear and Neff turned south on Route 183, then back east on Route
224, which placed the object to their right, and out the left
window.  “At this time,” said Spaur. "it came straight south,
just one motion, buddy, just a smooth glide... "and began moving
east with them pacing it, just to their right at an estimated
altitude of 300-500 feet, illuminating the ground beneath it.
Once more the UFO darted to the north, now left of the car, and
they sped up to over 100 mph to keep pace with it.
As the sky became brighter with predawn light, Spaur and Neff saw
the UFO in silhouette, with a vertical projection at its rear.
The object began to take on a metallic appearance as the chase
continued.  Spaur kept up a running conversation with other
police cars that were trying to catch up with them.  Once when
they made a wrong turn at an intersection, the object stopped,
then turned and came back to their position.
Police Officer Wayne Huston of East Palestine, Ohio, situated
near the Pennsylvania border, had been monitoring the radio
broadcasts and was parked at an intersection he knew the Portage
County officers would he passing soon.  Shortly afterward he saw
the UFO pass by with the sheriff's cruiser in hot pursuit.  He
swung out and joined the chase.  At Conway, Pennsylvania, Spaur
spotted another parked police car and stopped to enlist his aid,
since their Cruiser was almost out of gas. The Pennsylvania
officer called his dispatcher.
According to Spaur, as the four officers stood and watched the
UFO, which had stopped and was hovering, there was traffic on the
radio about jets being scrambled to chase the UFO, and ". . . we
could see these planes coming in....  When they started talking
about fighter planes, it was just as if that thing head every
word that was said; it went PSSSSSHHEW, straight up; and I mean
when it went up, friend, it didn't play no games; it went
straight up”  (Transcript of taped interview with Dale Spaur).
The Air Force "identified" the UFO as a satellite, seen part of
the time, and confused with the planet Venus.  Under pressure
from Ohio officials, Major Hector Quintanilla, chief of PROJECT
BLUE BOOK, had an acrimonious confrontation with witnesses and
refused to change the identification, although it was pointed out
to him that they had seen the UFO in addition to Venus and the
moon at the conclusion of the observation. Major Quintanilla also
denied that any jets had been scrambled.
William B. Weitzel conducted an exhaustive investigation on
behalf of the NATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE ON AERIAL
PHENOMENA (NICAP), obtaining taped interviews, signed statements,
sketches, and all pertinent data which was assembled into a
massive report that was made available to congressional
investigators.  When the UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO UFO PROJECT was
initiated in 1966, a copy of Weitzel’s report was hand-delivered
to the director, Dr. Edward U. CONDON, for his consideration. The
CONDON REPORT, published two years later, does not mention the
case.
Richard Hall
--- FMail 1.22
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