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Sci-Fi United States Technology

The Colorado Mystery Drones Weren't Real (vice.com) 82

Posted by BeauHD from the false-alarm dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: On the night of December 30, Sergeant Vince Iovinella of the Morgan County Sheriff's Department in rural Colorado was on patrol when the calls started coming in about drones. "Residents began calling in reports of drones of unknown origin moving above houses and farms," Iovinella wrote in a statement obtained by Motherboard via a public records request. "The numbers would range from 4 to 10 drones in an area at a time. Some were reported to be low and at least 6 ft. long." Iovinella further reported the drones had white and red flashing lights as he and other deputies made "several attempts" to follow the drones. The drones were moving "very fast at times" but could also "sustain a hover over an area for long periods of time."

"There were many sighting's [sic] coming in and at the same time," Iovinella continued. "It is believed that there could have been up to 30 drones moving around the county if not more and appeared to be working in a search pattern across the county." This was yet another night on eastern Colorado's new drone patrol, following a slate of reports on mysterious fixed-wing drones in the area. They'd come out at night between approximately 7 to 10 p.m. The story, which was first reported by the Denver Post, got international press attention. "In all of these cases," Iovinella wrote in this statement, "it is unknown who owns the drone or what their purpose is." That's because the drones never existed. The Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS) "confirmed no incidents involving criminal activity, nor have investigations substantiated reports of suspicious or illegal drone activity."

"Of the 23 reports between January 6 and January 13 when the investigation was underway, 13 were determined to be 'planets, stars, or small hobbyist drones,'" reports Motherboard. "Six were commercial aircraft, and four remain unconfirmed. None of the 90 reports from November 23 onward were confirmed instances of illegal drone activity."
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The Colorado Mystery Drones Weren't Real More

The Colorado Mystery Drones Weren't Real

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  • I am happy to believe that they couldn't find any evidence of unusual drone activity, but "finding nothing" isn't the same as being able to explain every report.
  • It isn't illegal to fly a drone in Colorado. /. fails again.

  • Common sense (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @06:12PM (#59672680) Journal

    The most common sense explanation is that the drone panic is mass hysteria fuelled over a few kids playing with their christmas presents and idiots overreacting.

    • Re:Common sense (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @07:11PM (#59672840)

      I would think the most common sense explanation is that some media source, likely social media, was fueling mass hysteria without anybody actually seeing anything other than civilian aircraft.

      And most of these people probably do not go outside at night and look up. Their social media freaked them out about the sky, so they went outside looked at the sky. They discovered there are visible objects, airplanes, satellites, etc. None of these are things these people normally see, so to them it seems strange.

      Just like Chemtrails. Each chemhead has a story about the first time they bothered looking up, and how shocked they were to see these strange little lines. For many of them, it was near sunset and they were glowing an odd color.

      • Just like Chemtrails.

        It's easier just to say that you were either too young or too dumb to have familiarized yourself with the distinct look of aircraft contrails in the 70's, 80's and 90's... you know; so you don't sound like a brainwashed zombie or a gov't shill when attempt to claim that commercial aircraft have always zig-zagged unnessarily across the sky on their way to their destinations, all the while leaving [persistent] trails that gradually dissipate into a haze that clearly reveals [what any first-year Physics major]

        • Wow, dude, you sound like somebody who took too much ayahuasca and is permanently stuck half way in the spirit world. (aka "sees shit")

          I'm a prototypical Gen-X slacker, maaaaaan. I've been staring out the window at the contrails my whole life.

          They haven't changed.

          They don't zigzag across the sky. They don't show any dissipation patterns consistent with any part of Faraday's Law, or Ampere's Law. And if they did, I'm fairly good at identifying aircraft models so I'd look up the size and get the elevation fro

      • "The sky used to be more blue. I remember it."
    • There's nothing "common sense" about evidence-free speculation.
  • Yeah...clearly not real. Sure...

  • That's exactly what you'd expect them to say if they were covering up something.

  • The Christmas Story... (Score:3)

    by Arzaboa ( 2804779 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @06:24PM (#59672724)

    This hit the press right after Christmas. The political stories that drive the news cycle were stale as the U.S. Congress was out for break. This seemed to fill the gap perfectly.

    On the other hand, every single drone sighting was recorded to nextdoor and facebook like a live feed during this time. Colorado's government setup a task force to deal with this. You had various 3 letter agencies patrolling this entire area. For such a non story why so much traction?

    Is the entire population this paranoid or was it the news cycles that needed filling?

    --
    If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers. - Thomas Pynchon

  • Amazing logic there! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @06:32PM (#59672742)

    So tigers aren't real. Because in my life I had "no incidents involving tigers, nor have my investigations substantiated reports of tiger existence."
    In shorter words: I've never seen a tiger personally.

    Why are dumb people to reluctant to just say "Look, we don't know!"??
    Reality is no "exists" and "doesn't exist"! Most of the time it is simply a "dunno"!
    So no info of something's existence does NOT mean it does not exist! It merely means you don't know and it could be either!

    Can we please have some basic logic and scientific method education in schools??

    Oh, and by saying you don't know, you are not confirming anything! All you are saying is: This is useless, until we have more information. Which you should be saying, because such UFO reports ARE usless without testable predictions that then come true.

    But hey, that wouldn't be a clickbait, headline to appeal to the blackeyers who *need* to see conspiracy theorists everywhere, to comfort themselves in the delusion that nobody in the history of the universe ever did anything nefarious. Ever. Not the Russians, China, USA, Israel, Nazis, nor anybody else. ... /s

    • I don't believe in France for the same reasons.

    • Can we please have some basic logic and scientific method education in schools??

      If the majority learned and adhered to such principals, the corporate sector and the governments would be very different from what we have now.

      Corporations and governments don't want to be different from what they are, with the exception that they want more control for themselves and more servitude from the average citizen.

  • The drons weren't real (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fredrated ( 639554 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @06:41PM (#59672768) Journal

    but the conspiracy theories will live for a very long time. Something out of nothing?

  • Gonna fix it (Score:3)

    by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @06:43PM (#59672776)
    The Space force will be heading out posthaste to arrest the planets harassing innocent Colorado citizens. I think the xix is either more weed, or less weed.

    • I think the [fix] is either more weed, or less weed.

      Try alternating the two rapidly for a few hours, and see if it helps.

      • I think the [fix] is either more weed, or less weed.

        Try alternating the two rapidly for a few hours, and see if it helps.

        I'm doing my part!

  • This year's version of the "Evil Clowns" scare (Score:5, Insightful)

    by timholman ( 71886 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @06:50PM (#59672800)

    So basically another case of public hysteria fueled by the Internet; I can't say I'm surprised.

    Remember the "Evil Clown" panic when Part 1 of "It" was hitting the theaters? People dressed as clowns were stalking children all over the country. A university near my house even had a lockdown when a hoax caller claimed to have spotted a clown in the university parking garage. The evil clowns were everywhere, ready to snatch our children - until the bubble burst and everyone realized it was all a delusion.

    Further back than that, there was the hysteria about Satanists infiltrating daycare centers, sacrificing children and animals. A few people even went to jail before sanity prevailed. Before the Internet, it seemed these hoaxes only appeared every ten or twenty years, but now it seems an almost annual occurrence.

    • Re:This year's version of the "Evil Clowns" scare (Score:4, Funny)

      by paralumina01 ( 6276944 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @07:41PM (#59672940)
      Remember the panic about razor blades in apples on Halloween? Oh wait, that was before the Internet.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      There WERE some clowns out there, it's just that they were not evil child stalkers, they were idiot hoaxers throwing fuel on the fire.

      There were probably a few clowns who were hired for birthday parties as well.

      The satanic panic was quite extreme. They didn't just put a few people in jail, they tore down the building and dug the entire lot up to a depth of 3 feet looking for the 'tunnels'. The only witness accounts were from small children at an age where fantasy and reality are indistinct and only after th

    • Remember the "Evil Clown" panic when Part 1 of "It" was hitting the theaters? People dressed as clowns were stalking children all over the country.

      That wasn't hysteria, it was viral marketing. The people dressed as clowns? Typical members of Hollywood.

    • Remember that ring doorbell cam video of an Evil Clown? I didn't know mass hysteria was h.264 compressible.

    • Further back than that, there was the hysteria about Satanists infiltrating daycare centers, sacrificing children and animals.

      And then they converted into democrats and opened a pizza shop!

  • All right, Beatrice, there was no alien. The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a Drone. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

  • Its quite a large jump from "confirmed no incidents involving criminal activity, nor have investigations substantiated reports of suspicious or illegal drone activity.", to never existed, was this hyperbable copied from CNN?

    • Re:Its quite a large jump from (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @07:19PM (#59672864)

      For decades in Yakima, Washington, there was a much higher rate of UFO reports than in most other places in the region. It remained a mystery for a long time, until some fancy investigative journalists came to town and tracked down the source. A lot of people expected it to be related to military activity at the nearby Yakima Firing Range, but no. It turned out that the teenagers who park their cars on the hills on the south side of town to party are typically parked in a place such that their headlights are not visible from the city, but they shine our across the sky. You don't see the beams, the air is too dry. But when a little puff of cloud blows over the city, it would sometimes become illuminated by the lights, and result in numerous UFO reports. The sheriff was all like, "Golly, that's where those troublemakers are going!?" and started patrolling the road at night. No more UFOs.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • You've obviously never been to Yakima if you think that is a problem.

          They still had "redline" neighborhoods in the 1970s.

          You've also probably never been to that whole region if you think those youths were not out causing trouble and engaging in acts of violence all night. Having a safe space to get drunk in a big group is a major factor in radicalizing their drunken behavior afterwards as they try to prove who the biggest macho idiot is.

          I feel safer walking through gangland in the city at night than walking

      • Yeah, I'm wondering if there was some sort of atmospheric condition on that day that created some sort of mirage, [wikipedia.org] making stars, planets, and aircraft appear to be much closer than they were.

  • The report said there was no evidence of suspicious or illegal drone activity. They very carefully avoided excluding legally sanctioned drone activity from possibility. And, of course, "suspicious" is somewhat subjective.

  • There was likely a sudden spike in sales for oreo cookies and chocolate covered donuts.

  • From TFA:

    Of the 23 reports between January 6 and January 13 when the investigation was underway, 13 were determined to be “planets, stars, or small hobbyist drones.” Six were commercial aircraft, and four remain unconfirmed.

    But the original Denver Post article was dated Dec 23rd. I can see how the sightings *after* the article are mass hysteria, but what about the sightings that prompted the article in the first place? Were people just randomly calling the Sheriff because they saw Mars in the sky for the first time?

  • Indeed... (Score:3)

    by bayankaran ( 446245 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @08:03PM (#59673030)
    This is what happens when you legalize stuff :-)
  • ".... nor have investigations substantiated reports of suspicious or illegal drone activity.”

    "Illegal" is the operative word, here. What about the missing cows and the crop circles?

  • "Relax folks, they are merely flying saucers."

  • Jay: Did you ever flashy-thing me?
    Kay: No.
    Jay: I ain't playing, K. Did you ever flashy-thing me?
    Kay: No.

  • Move along.

    I'm glad that the mysterious flying objects reported by lots of people were not real. That makes me feel much better...

  • It's just a pre-emptive force from Rigel 7, they're here to scan for our weaknesses.

    Face it they've reached the limits of what anal probing and cattle mutilations can teach them, so they've started flying sorties over residential housing estates to learn what they can about surburban living. They need to know why old people are obsessed with kids on their lawns. Why young people have to have intercourse in a small 6'x6' metal and glass box on wheels. Why property values are the be-all and end-all for anyone

  • Just yesterday, âoeitâ(TM)s a large boulder the size of a small boulderâ?

    I can see how someone might think Venus and, maybe Jupiter, might be very slow moving or stationary drones. But, these people reported them moving and with sound. Last I checked, planets donâ(TM)t make sound unless you blast it with the Death Star.

    And, Venus remains prominent in the sky now. Have the reports stopped?

  • ...what we'd expect a witchalock to say?

  • A long time ago, when people saw things in the sky that they did not recognize or understand, they attributed them to supernatural beings. Angels, ghosts, fairies, gods and so forth. In the 20th century, people attributed them to aliens. Are we going to be assuming they are drones in the 21st century?

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