By David C.L. Bauer
Jacksonville Journal-Courier, Ill.
CRAWFORD COUNTY, Mo. — They came from a galaxy not so far away.
But their UFO-shaped car was certainly out of this world.
Enough so that a Missouri sheriff’s deputy had to experience a close encounter of his own.
The Crawford County, Missouri, deputy was patrolling Interstate 44 on Friday when he saw the seemingly wheel-less chrome craft tooling along.
After “a brief conversation about his out-of-space, correction, out-of-state registration,” and a quick photo, the car continued on, according to a now-viral post on the sheriff’s office Facebook page.
“He was also warned about our strict enforcement of warp speed on the interstate and to keep his phasers on stun-only while traveling,” the post read.
The street-legal craft was built by Indianapolis -area mechanic Steve Anderson from a Geo Metro. It has been spotted numerous times on the roads of Indiana as well as at car shows. The driver said the vehicle was on its way to the Roswell UFO Festival 2024, which starts Friday. It is billed as a celebration of “our fascination with extraterrestrial phenomena and ... the wonders that await beyond the stars.”
Roswell, New Mexico, is about 975 miles — or 1.6551e-10 light years — from Crawford County. It is where a UFO is reported to have crashed in 1947 and led to the recovery of an extraterrestrial being; the official government report disputes the claims, but they have remained a part of folklore and conspiracy-theory history for decades. Roswell also is home to the International UFO Museum and Research Center.
The sheriff’s office was applauded for its sense of humor in the situation. Its tongue-in-cheek post had drawn almost 1,000 comments by Monday and had been shared almost 7,000 times.
___
(c)2024 the Jacksonville Journal-Courier (Jacksonville, Ill.)
Visit the Jacksonville Journal-Courier (Jacksonville, Ill.) at www.myjournalcourier.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
