Stranger than fiction?

By SS Collins

Imagine for a moment if you will, a nightmare unlike any you have ever fathomed. One in which your familiar reality has somehow become backwards. Where those who are sworn to protect and serve, have turned against you in a violent, unimaginable manner. It is a blinding conspiracy against you and your family, all because of something that is far beyond your control or even understanding. It is so far-fetched, that it reads like a bad X-Files episode, and no one will believe a word you say.

That is exactly what has happened according to Ronald Thorne, his wife Sandy, and their two children Dillon 15, and Rylee 11. The family claims it all started in 1997, when they video taped a strange craft hovering close to the former K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base (officially closed in 1995, and now serves as an international airport) near their home in Nagaunee, Michigan. Nagaunee is a small, old, mining town, located on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, near the southern shore of Lake Superior.

Mr. Thorne and his family claim that after their first UFO encounter in November 1997, strange things began to happen. Not only did they capture the revisiting UFO the very next week, they claim to have captured several more in the two years that followed.

With video camera in hand, Ron Thorne, his wife, and their two boys, claim to have taped a spectacular event on that fateful November evening in 1997. They claim to have footage of a military aircraft intercepting and firing a missile at a slow moving circular craft. The UFO is alleged to have made "radical evasive maneuvers" to avoid the oncoming missile. The unidentified craft then shot off into the sky at an alarming rate of speed.

As bizarre as this sounds so far, the story is just beginning. In an exclusive phone-interview with me, Ron Thorne added details to a story that has stretched his credibility beyond its breaking point. They claim that the FBI, in cooperation with the Michigan State Police, began illegal surveillance on the family shortly after the first sighting. This rational is backed by what Mr. Thorne claims to be "UFO footage so incredible, that it will ultimately change the world."

Mr. Thorne conveyed to me that the FBI had set up a sting in the house across the street to entrap him. He told me they had illegal wiretaps, and that the surveillance was so absurd that they follwed his children to school.

Claiming he could "take no more" he started his own survailence. He set up his cameras on the FBI, watching their every move. Then on trumped-up staking charges, the FBI raided his house on May 23 1999. He and his family allege the FBI took over 700 videotapes, and two cameras. In that pile of tapes that the family says the FBI took, was video of the FBI surveillance on the family, and even one of an unmarked vehicle attempting to run their vehicle off the road. According to the family however, the FBI missed the most important tape. The tape from that clear November evening. The alleged irrefutable event that is what he called in "perfect clarity, and undeniable".

This story was brought to my attention, when Mr. Thorne's ad on E-bay was discovered. The UFO footage, and exclusive rights to his family's story are for sale to the highest bidder on the popular auction site, bids starting at a whopping $1,000,000.

I asked Mr. Thorne, if this is so significant to humankind that it will change the world, why not just give it away? Why not do his duty and give this gift to all humanity? I ultimately dared him to change the world if he so could. He told me that he and his wife are both sick and dying, and do not want to leave their children with all their debt.

He states both he and his wife have significant medical problems, he with cancer, and a severally broken back, she with Multiple Sclerosis. When I explained to him that his outrageous asking price would have everyone yelling fraud regardless of validity, he said "Tell them to come see the video." I asked him if he tried other channels to get help. He went on to tell me he tried everything, and that no one will believe his story. He said, "This thing is quite a bit more serious than anyone in a position of power is willing to believe. It sounds too crazy for most people to even understand, or take seriously."

He contends to have written letters to The White House, to Attorney General Janet Reno, to his Congressmen, and no one has responded. Mr. Thorne told me he contacted Nuclear Physicist, and noted Ufologists, Stanton Friedman, two years ago. Mr. Friedman asked him for an original copy of the video for analysis, he refused and that contact ended. I contacted Stanton Friedman myself, and was told that this is not true. Friedman claims to have just learned about Mr. Thorne a few weeks ago.

This is indicative of the problem with the entire UFO phenomena, and the so-called burden of proof. This is why it is so hard to take any evidence seriously. Where does the line between fiction, and stranger than fiction balance? Why does a seemingly normal family on the outside, corroborate to pull off something like this? In this case, it appears to be money, good old-fashioned greed for green.

Do Ron Thorne and his family really see the big picture? Do they see how fraudulent their claims appear to be because they are asking for so much money? Do they not realize that if they do have this tape, and it is actually an intelligently controlled craft of extraterrestrial origin, that the long-term payoff would far outweigh the $1,000,000 asking price they are seeking?

It is a sad state of affairs when in the quest to find truth; you can only find lies. Ufology is a subject growing in complacency. A subject with few credible sources actually investigating these aerial phenomena. There are thousands and thousands of videos and pictures out there, which are not explainable by traditional means. Videos that are staggering in content, but free for all to see, seem to gain little attention. Yet it is stories like these that seem to capture the public's eye, falsely suggesting a true reflection of the state of the evidence available to the public.

The question, 'Are UFO's real?' has been one that the human race has been asking itself for many, many years. While the world may be torn down the middle on that answer, people like Ron Thorne and his family only sap what little credibility and momentum the movement has gotten. There are those who earn a fair living fighting for this truth, attacking the mountain of evidence in Ufology, asking the proper questions to the proper people, working very hard to give you and I access to the evidence. They are getting legitimate pay for their work through reasonably priced books and videos. Mr. Thorne and the Art Bells of the world alike, see only dollar signs on the faces of those who actually feel compelled to find the truth. Some claiming that anything and everything is a reality, those who are in fact the enemy to the cause.

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