Last month, we took a deep dive into the Lubbock Lights sightings, which were strange sets of lights spotted on multiple August nights in Lubbock, Texas. This month our investigation is taking a quick trip 30 miles west to Levelland, Texas and fast-forwarding six years.
Above photo courtesy of Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
November 2, 1957
Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz
In the evening, two farm workers call the Levelland police department to report a UFO they had seen. Saucedo told the night desk officer, A.J. Fowler, that they had been driving about four miles west of Levelland when they saw a blue flash of light near the road.
Saucedo said their truck's engine died, and a rocket-shaped object rose up and approached the truck. He said, "I jumped out of the truck and hit the dirt because I was afraid. I called to Joe but he didn't get out. The thing passed over my truck with a great sound and rush of wind. It sounded like thunder and my truck rocked from the flash... I felt a lot of heat."
He said as the object moved away his truck's engine restarted, and resumed working normally. Fowler believed the story to be a joke, and thus ignored it.
Jim Wheeler
An hour after Saucedo and Salaz called, Wheeler reported a "brilliantly lit, egg-shaped object [that was] about 200 feet long" and sitting in the road about four miles east of Levelland. It was blocking his path, and as he drove up to it his vehicle died. He got out of the car; the object took off and its lights disappeared. As it moved away, his car restarted and worked normally.
Unnamed Married Couple
Driving northeast of Levelland, they reported a bright flash of light moving across the sky and then their headlights and radio dying for three seconds at 10:55 pm.
Jose Alvarez
He called Fowler five minutes after the married couple to report a strange object sitting in the road 11 miles north of Levelland, and his car's engine also died until the object left.
November 3, 1957
Newell Wright
At 12:05 am, an hour and five minutes after Jose Alvarez, the Texas Tech University student was driving 10 miles east of Levelland when his "car engine began to sputter, the ammeter on the dash jumped to discharge and then back to normal, and the motor started cutting out like it was out of gas... the car rolled to a stop; then the headlights dimmed and several seconds later went out."
Wright exited his vehicle to look at the problem, and saw a "100-foot-long" egg-shaped object sitting in the road. It took off, and his engine resumed running.
Frank Williams
Ten minutes later at 12:15 am, Williams called Fowler to report a brightly-glowing object in the road and said "as [his] car approached it, its lights went out and its motor stopped."
The object flew away, and his car's lights and motor started working again.
Other Reports
Ronald Martin called Fowler at 12:45 am, and James Long at 1:15 am. Both reported a brightly lit object sitting in the road, and that their engines and headlights died until the object flew away.
Levelland Police Officers
By the time Martin and Long reported seeing the bright objects, there were several Levelland police officers investigating the reports. Sheriff Weir Clem saw a brilliant red object move across the sky at 1:30 am.
Levelland's Fire Chief Ray Jones saw an object, and his vehicle's lights and engine sputtered at 1:45 am. Soon after, the reports ended.
Summary
Over the course of the night, the Levelland police department received 15 UFO-related reports. Officer Fowler noted that "everybody who called was very excited."
