UFOs in the daily Press:

Two spot what they claim is UFO near Kincaid Lake

Andrew Griffin / Staff Reporter

Something unusual was hovering in the skies over western Rapides Parish several weeks ago and it continues to baffle two witnesses.

Darkness had fallen over central Louisiana on the night of Tuesday Jan. 20 as 8-year old Michael Robichaux looked out of his window in hopes of catching a glimpse of the Little Dipper.

Michael, who lives with his mother Karen Riddle in a house off of Horseshoe Drive, said he saw something that "looked like a planet with all these little lights all around it." He said that it was just like a scene in the Jim Carrey comedy "Bruce Almighty," where "Bruce pulls the moon in really close" to the Earth.

Michael then said the object shot off at incredible speed.

Michael said his halfbrother also saw it, as did his aunt. He didn't tell his mother, Riddle, about the sighting until the following day. That's because he found out another family member had seen the same object at approximately the same time.

Michael's grandmother, Geri Gauthier, was returning home from work and driving west on La. Highway 28 West toward Walker Creek Road where she lives. Right before making the left hand turn onto Walker Creek Road, she was shocked to see a large, brightly-lit craft hovering just above the treeline close to the intersection. She said it was unlike anything she had ever seen.

"I saw it hovering over the trees," Gauthier said as she stood in the same spot where she pulled off. "It had a silverish color to it and was an oblong shape. There were also all of these lights all around it. It was just hovering there. I sat there in the car and was just so shocked. It then just shot off into the sky."

She said that the object took off so fast that it appeared as a small light in the sky before disappearing.

Shaken by the experience, Gauthier said she got home and told her husband about what she had just witnessed.

"I got home and told him I just saw a spaceship," Gauthier said.

Her husband, she said, believed her since she isn't the sort to make up stories or seek publicity. In fact, she was reluctant to share her story until she was urged to do so by Riddle.

Riddle said when she told her son about what Gauthier had seen, he told her about his experience.

"It was kind of like I was the factor in-between," Riddle said.

Riddle filed an online UFO sighting report at the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, Wash. What's interesting is that this particular area of Rapides Parish has had an unusual number of UFO sightings.

Two years ago, Sharp community resident and justice-of-the-peace Raymond Cupples told The Town Talk about the unusual objects he witnessed near his home. The same year a Gardner woman told The Town Talk about an object she saw hovering outside her home. Some have said it is a secret military operation, possibly connected to Fort Polk.