CINCINNATI — Since 1969, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) has investigated more than 400,000 reported UFO sightings across the country. But now they’ve decided to make their way back to southwest Ohio.
"We’ve gotten so big, so extensive, that it’s just not practical anymore,” said David MacDonald, MUFON executive director. “So the board decided that we would move it back to Cincinnati and keep it there.
MacDonald said when it comes to investigating aliens, Ohio actually has a lot to offer.
“We’ve got easy access to transportation, you have an excellent pool of employees, you have favorable taxes, and it’s just generally a good place to do business,” he said.
Over the past 13-plus years as executive director, MacDonald has investigated thousands of UFO sightings. One of his favorites was in Oklahoma.
“This lady was feeding her horses at midnight out in the field,” he said. “I guess that’s what you do in Buffalo, Oklahoma, and she saw this light coming across the way and it stopped, turned and started coming right toward her.”
MacDonald said the woman was absolutely frantic when she saw it.
“She was relating to me how she grabbed her dog and was trying to run across the gravel drive way in flip flops and the woman was absolutely solid,” he said.
When MacDonald arrived on the scene, he too was surprised to see the aftermath.
“There were three enormous patches where you can see this thing set down and then slid forward,” she said. “It was triangular shaped — she described it. And we took samples and it was fascinating.”
This sighting was just one of 8,000 sightings submitted every year. Reports of UFO sightings are submitted on the MUFON website.
“It comes in, we’ll have a report, and we’ll eliminate everything that it could be,” he said. “And if we don’t identify it that way we will list it as unknown.”
In June, MUFON is expected to move into their new space in Cincinnati. It’s in a warehouse right across from the Lunken Airport.
“We have office space,” he said. “We have warehouse space. We have a loft area for a board room (and) a meeting room — things like that. It’ll be very nice.”