NJ Lights..still a story?

By SS Collins

After a small article came forward from a Ganette source, claiming that a Tow Truck driver in Carteret who saw the lights "go up" from a back yard, I decided to do a follow up interview with the man.

Now, it is strange that only a couple of witnesses have claimed to detect details that support a prosaic explanation, while nearly a hundred claim the opposite. Why is that strange? Well in the world of UFO debunking, it is generally accepted as a closed case when even one witness supports a prosaic explanation. In this case, an ex-military man, who happened to have his night vision goggles handy, claims to have seen smoke, and possibly something dripping off the lights.

While no one really supported his claim, the case was closed to some people. Add to that the tow truck driver who claimed to see the lights "going up" from a neighborhood yard, and the nails were in the coffin.

However, one must look at the evidence. These two key witnesses, who together make a good case for the debunkers, could not be farther apart in their description of these lights. The tow truck driver, Mr. J.C. Guskind, claims the lights were of the glow stick variety. He said they were not burning, but glowing. Consider his claim that he saw the lights "go up" as he drove by, one must assume he was much closer to them than anyone.

I don't have to explain the difference between a burning light with smoke and possibly dripping material, and a chemical glow stick.

After calling the towing company and speaking with the man via telephone, very shortly, there is reason to believe he either lied, was misquoted, or there is more to the story.

First off, he is the only witness to claim seeing anything of that nature. I have come across more witnesses who claim to have seen the lights blinking in unison, and even another video tape of the event from another angle.

The witness himself stammered when I asked him to tell me what he saw, mumbled something about his truck, and said he couldn't talk at the moment.

I asked "Did you see the lights rising from below the tree-line?"

He said, "Um, well not really like that, well yes I guess. I don't know I can't talk, I have to go now!" And hung up the phone. Now granted he was working, and I don't know what circumstances might have been taking place there, and number of things could have influenced that conversation.

There has also been an exhaustive search done for debris. Anything that didn't finish burning must have fallen to the ground. So far nothing has been found.

It is also very interesting to note that the wind direction is not responsible for the final turn of the lights. The wind data clearly shows that the wind was very light, and blowing in an ENE direction. The lights did not drift out to sea as should have happened, they turned west by all accounts and headed NNW, never going over New York City. Two witnesses in Fort Lee claim to have seen the lights blink out in the southern sky, indicating that the lights did not totally follow the wind, but rather turned west.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of all this, are the number of witnesses who claim several of the lights were blinking or pulsating in unison. More than one witness has said this, and from different locations.

It's obvious that this one can't be swept under the rug so quickly. If so many people saw them, why did not more than one person see them going up? And why did only one person claim to see fire? Even the night vision scope did not reveal any structure such as balloon or a craft.

Maybe the supposed hoaxers will come forward to claim the reward. That's right, a collection is being taken up to get the hoaxers to come forward and admit this was a hoax. If prankster teenagers are responsible, something tells me that we will know soon enough.