Saucer over Saanich

The Daily Colonist
Sunday, March 13, 1977


The flying saucer was back Saturday night and for some, at least, the impact was dramatic.

Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Murray of 4378 Torrington were so taken with what they saw that they began honking their car horn to attract witnesses.

“We stopped and I ran up and knocked on the door of a house to get the people to come out and see it,” Mrs. Murray said.

“But Just as I got to the door my husband shouted that it had gone.”

The Murrays and others reported seeing what they variously described as a “ball of fire” or bright yellow “tubular-shaped thing” moving at a high rate of speed over the Gordon Head area.

It was the latest in a chain of reported sightings, over the Victoria area and other Vancouver Island locations. Earlier sightings occurred Wednesday and Thursday night.

Saanich police said they had seven phone calls about 7 p.m. Saturday from people saying they saw a UFO in the area of McKenzie Avenue.

Others, like the Murrays, reported seeing the strange object about 9:30 p.m. in an area ranging from Mount Tolmie to a point several blocks north of McKenzie.

One woman, who said she didn’t want to be identified with UFO “believers,” told the Colonist she found herself forced to believe what she had seen.

“It looked like a ball of fire hanging up in the sky over Gordon Head — just moving around,” she said. “I try not to believe in flying saucers. I tried to tell myself this might be a hang glider with a flare. But that didn’t make sense.”

‘Mrs. Murray said she and her husband had been talking about Wednesday night’s sightings when they suddenly made their own.

Told of a report that ‘the mysterious visitor" was seen flying over a Saanich steak-house, a Victoria police officer quipped: “That place advertises. No doubt the crew intercepted the commercial."

HOMEPAGE COLLISON COLLECTION

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