For years I have been fascinated by the events of 2006 / 2007 when more than a dozen different witnesses in different parts of the United States and further afield reported seeing weird dragonfly drone-like aerial objects in broad daylight.
The first of a series of special reports by Craig Brown – The Chad Photos
Described as having a “ring body” with a tail and “appendages”, the craft were slow moving, usually silent, or if anything they emitted a static, crackling, or sound of high voltage usually accompanied by the feeling of a static charge in the air. Popular investigative news site Earthfiles.com, written by Linda Moulton-Howe covered the ever evolving story as one after one, new witnesses, testimony and photos emerged throughout 2006 and 2007. Linda had taken to calling them drones since the bodies of the craft were only described as a maximum of two feet thick and therefore not capable of being piloted by humans, but rather they appeared to be being remotely piloted or controlled by some other means.
The first photo taken of the craft with a cellphone camera (2007 standard).
Debunkers
Perhaps due to the impressive full colour daylight photographs of these craft, elements of the UFO community debunked the story, contrary to the massive breadth and depth of evidence. A series of badly thrown together CGI movies then followed – produced by fame-seekers, copycats and those seeking viral video status – none of which came close to resembling the original images. It is my view that most people dismissed the phenomena without looking at the weight of evidence and testimony in it’s entirety.
There is much to this story and it cannot be easily explained in one single article – so I will be presenting the subject over a series of articles looking at each sighting and the supporting information again.
I have waited for several years now for new information and reports to emerge, but the subject has turned into a bit of a UFO cold case. Therefore, I am writing this series of articles with several objectives in mind.
New Effort
In an effort to hopefully reinvigorate and re-awaken the investigation, to focus attention back on this real phenomena, to bring forward possible new witnesses, to make contact with old witnesses and perhaps even encourage Isaac to release more of his cache of C.A.R.E.T. (Commercial Applications Research for Extraterrestrial Technology) documents into the public domain.
Chad
On May 11th 2007, a series of 6 photos were sent to webmaster Lex at popular radio program “Coast To Coast AM“. The photos dated May 6th 2007, were taken by a Central California resident calling himself “Chad” and were accompanied by a brief explanation as to how he had came about these images. Although this was technically not the first sighting, (as we will discover in a later article), the “Chad photos” are generally accepted to be the most prolific sighting and catalyst for bringing this bizarre phenomena to the public gaze.
Below (in his own words) is the exact email that Chad sent to Coast To Coast AM back in April/May 2007 and the same 6 photographs he sent to them.
“Last month (April 2007), my wife and I were on a walk when we noticed a very large, very strange “craft” in the sky. My wife took a picture with her cell phone camera (second photo). A few days later a friend (and neighbor) lent me his camera and came with me to take photos of this “craft”. We found it and took a number of very clear photos. Picture #1 is taken from right below this thing and I must give my friend credit as I was not brave enough to get close enough to take this picture myself!”
“The craft is almost completely silent and moves very smoothly. It usually moves slowly until it decides to take off. Then it moves VERY quickly and is out of sight in the blink of an eye. MORE THAN ANYTHING I simply want to understand what this is and why it is here?”
“We found your show with Google and I have listened for a few nights now. I have decided that if anyone can help me understand what this thing is, it is you and your audience. I must admit I am deeply unsettled by this thing. I have never seen anything like this in my life… Location: I would prefer not to say for now. “
–Chad
Chad then wrote back to Coast To Coast with additional info:
“Thank you so much for posting my photos! I hope someone can help identify this… First of all, I see this thing VERY often. Since it first appeared, I have probably seen this thing maybe 8 different times since the first appearance. My friend and I went out the next day after I first saw it to get the photos, but it was not there. Then we tried again the next day, and we found it within like 30 minutes and followed it for a while. Most of the time I see it out of windows in my house, in the distance. but I would say almost half of the hikes I have gone on in my area, I have seen it very close. It is very easy to photograph and…many neighbors aside from my friend have also seen it. “
Underneath the craft strange hieroglyphics are evident – they do not match any known language.
“It is almost totally silent but not quite. It makes kind of “crackling” noises. It’s hard to describe them but they are only intermittent and not very loud, but you can notice them. Sometimes there is a very slight hum that sounds kind of mechanical, almost like when you are near very large power lines. But it is nothing loud like a jet engine, it is very quiet for the most part.”
“It moves almost like an insect. If you have ever seen a bug on a pond, it is kind of like that. It is VERY smooth and slow most of the time, but then every now and then it will rotate very quickly and go VERY fast into another direction, then stop, and repeat the process all over again. There is just something very unnatural about the way it moves. “
“Also, I have had maybe 4 headaches in the last week, and I am normally not the kind of person who really ever gets them. Also my wife has been tired and fatigued lately. She is about a month pregnant, and the doctor said fatigue is normal around this time, but I worry that it is a lot. Basically what I’m worried is that this “craft” has got some kind of radiation or something. Like I said, it sounds like power lines if you get close enough to it. Obviously I am worried for our health, especially with a baby on the way. I dont know if they are related, but again, this is why I really hope someone can answer these questions!”
Location Identified
The Chad drone photos were originally stated to have been taken in Bakersfield, but keen-eyed members of the public later identified the actual site as just off Highway 17, near the restaurant known as the “Summit Snack Shack” or “Summit Roadhouse” as it was later renamed, which at this point runs parallel to the old Santa Cruz Highway approx 4-7 miles south of Los Gatos, Santa Clara County, California.
Los Gatos is the nearest town approx 4-7 miles North.
At the time (in 2007) part of the land from which at least two of the photographs appear to have been taken reside on private property. One or more of the photos appear to have been taken from the dirt track / road at the rear of the restaurant deck area.
Private Property
Despite bordering on what some have said is “private land”, it is easy to see how someone could easily access these areas and not even realise they were on private property. It was perhaps always assumed that Chad and his girlfriend had been “hikers”. However, in the original email Chad simply says he and his girlfriend were out on a “walk” and he said that he had seen it maybe eight times before from his house. So perhaps then, Chad and his girlfriend did not walk here and enter through the front of the property as initially assumed – perhaps they actually reside in one of the private houses down the hill and that they WALKED UP the hill towards the back of the restaurant.
Local Knowledge
Chad admits he is a local who has seen this craft on many occasion from his house along with several of his neighbours. So since he is a local, he would have had a reasonable knowledge of the area, the roads, the houses and there would be a good chance that he knows the owner of the property, so there would be no cause for concern by the owner of anyone trespassing. It is entirely possible that the reason Chad was so spooked by these things is that he actually LIVES closer to the location of the photos than we think – perhaps the drone has even flown directly over his house.
Santa Cruz Highway – Aerial view of the site of the Chad photos
Google Streetview and aerial shot of location as it looked circa 2012 – the craft would potentially have been visible to cars driving along the Highway.
Aerial image of the CHAD location.
Droneteam.com
There seem to be many people out there still fascinated by these strange events back in 2007/2008, especially as they relate to something so bizarre and (if proven true), certainly some of the clearest daytime photographs of unusual aerial phenomena ever recorded. Some individuals who were equally keen to get to the bottom of the mystery setup a website a few years ago to research all aspects of the phenomena. Droneteam.com, which is still active today (albeit very quiet), was setup by a group of like-minded individuals to get to the bottom of the drone sightings. Their efforts paid off as they made some reasonable progress in uncovering locations from photographs and gathering the facts of many of these sightings.
Anyone interested in this subject is encouraged to go there and research further as it is a great information resource on this subject.
Private Eyes
The people behind droneteam.com ended up hiring local private investigators Tom Davis and Frank Dixon of TK Davis Investigations to investigate the drone sightings. The pair (both in their 60′s at the time) were tasked with finding new leads, identifying locations and pursuing avenues of enquiry in an effort to uncover the truth.
An article in the LA Times and an interview for Fox News featuring the PIs helped publicize the story to a wider audience, but as would be expected, the mainstream media was more interested in presenting the story in a less than serious manor despite the serious implications of covert monitoring by unknown drone craft.
Today, the original TK Davis website is no longer active, so I am guessing they have probably retired from the PI business. You can still checkout the website as it was back then in 2007 if you use the internet archive Wayback Machine.
Today
After Chad’s initial contact with Coast to Coast AM, Linda Moulton-Howe of Earthfiles.com corresponded with Chad over a series of several emails. In a podcast she admitted to having Chad’s real name, address and details – so this lends more credibilty to his testimony. After the exchanging of some emails for a while Chad then stopped responding and ultimately the trail of this particular sighting has gone cold.
To my knowledge Chad has never been identified and nor has his house in the valley near Highway 17 from which he saw these objects on eight separate occasions.
Still to Come
In the next article in this series examining the strange drone craft I will be reviewing the Lake Tahoe sighting which occurred on the 5th May 2007.
Plea for new information and witnesses
What information do YOU have about these things?
I am very interested to hear from you if you have you have had your own personal sighting of one of these drones. If you know someone who has had an experience with them. Did you work at the Palo Alto CARET Laboratory? Do you have photos of unexplained objects similar to this? Have you been keeping information on this subject to yourself for a time and now want to share? I would encourage you to contact me with your information.
You can reach me at contact@overunity.co – or private message me through our special Drone Facebook Page All requests for confidentiality will be respected and treated in the strictest confidence.