Alternate Perceptions Magazine, December 2025
A Northern Ohio UFO Casebook III
By Rick Hilberg
Map showing the route of the April 17, 1966 police chase
1966
Shortly after 5:00 a.m. on April 17, Deputies Dale F. Spaur and W. L. ("Barney”) Neff of the Portage County Sheriff's Department were on a routine patrol near the village of Atwater, just south of Ravenna. They noticed an abandoned car parked around the south side of the road (a somewhat road weary 1956 Chevrolet sedan) and pulled over to investigate.
Deputy Spaur got out of the patrol vehicle and was proceeding to check out the abandoned Chevy. Suddenly, he observed a blinding light source coming over the highway from the embankment from the south over a stand of tall trees. Spaur was momentarily blinded by the saucer-like object which had now come into view. It flooded the immediate area with a bright white light.
After questioning Deputy Spaur just sixteen hours after the encounter, he told me that the saucer-like object that he and Neff observed must have been from 50 to 60 feet in diameter as it hovered over the highway. Both he and Neff told me that the thing made a pronounced humming noise.
Illustration of the "saucer"
After running back to the patrol vehicle, he reported in by radio about what they were seeing and asked what they should do. He was advised to observe and follow the strange machine. When the object once again began to move, Spaur and Neff followed the object from approximately 5:07 a.m. over several routes to close to 7:00 a.m. to a point near Freedom, Pennsylvania. In fact, a Deputy from another Sheriff's Department heard the radio chatter about the disk and joined in the chase as it proceeded eastward on Route 14. All three lawmen involved agreed that the object was disk-like and had some sort of dome on its top. It also had two "spotlights" that faced downward. Early in the chase Spaur and Neff saw the spotlights focused on some heavy construction equipment stored in a field alongside the chase route. It was also reported that a third officer spotted the thing once it crossed the border into Pennsylvania. Police Chief Gerald Buchert of Mantua, Ohio heard the radio traffic regarding the object being chased and supposedly took a photograph of it. However, Buchert took his photo of a blurry crescent moonlike shape in the opposite direction of the chase, so it must be discounted. The Air Force later said that the object the deputies were observing and chasing was the planet Venus. A neat trick, as Venus was not visible where the domed disk was during the chase into Pennsylvania. 1967 The following report was made by a female resident of North Royalton to an investigator named Carl G. whom I worked with on many UFO cases over the years: "On January 29 at 5:50 p.m., I was driving east on Route 82 heading for the North Royalton Christian Church when I spotted a disk in the cloudless eastern sky. "I observed the object for a good 18 minutes, but then I was forced to park my car because people were waiting to get into the drive [the church entrance driveway]. When I stepped out, I walked back to the street. "By this time it was dark; the object was gone, at least to my sight. "But there in its place was a blinking object with red and green lights. A much smaller shiny object, silver in color, dropped from the lights for what seemed to be two feet and then disappeared. "The lights ascended in a southerly direction. I watched it for another ten minutes but had to leave to go home." 1969 A Michigan truck driver said that he saw a UFO on I-75 south of Bowling Green on January 9. Harold Lamb, a trucker and part-time deputy Sheriff in Tipton, Michigan, reported sighting the thing between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. as he drove his truck on the Interstate between Carey and Bowling Green. Lamb reported that he was headed toward Findlay on Ohio 15 near the Carey interchange when he spotted the object out of his left side cab window, and that it glowed white like a light bulb. He related that he continued to observe the object and that he switched on the truck's spotlight, placing the beam squarely on the UFO. Lamb said that the strange thing stayed in the light's beam until he reached Findlay, at which time he stopped to see what the UFO in the spotlight would do. He stated that it also stopped and stayed in the beam's light with the only movement apparently being a slight up and down motion. He then proceeded on I-75 with the UFO staying in the spotlight's beam. As he neared the city of Bowling Green the object appeared to be moving away from him and began to take on a reddish-orange appearance. Then he said the object became dimmer until he lost sight of it at Bowling Green. Lamb said the UFO appeared to stay about 1000 feet off the ground, but he could not report any other structural details. 1970 The late Gray Barker related the following account to me at the National UFO Conference in 1971 and used it in one of his many books about the UFO enigma. It was from a local resident that was identified as Raymond Latko: "It was 6:35 a.m., Monday, August 24, 1970. Location: Lindbergh and West Roads, Olmsted Falls. (Just three long suburban blocks from where I have lived since 1978 - R. H.) "Three of us had just arrived at the bus stop when we saw two strange figures approaching the road (West Road) which crossed our bus route. "The two figures were dressed in glowing orange suits from head to foot; only their faces were uncovered. Their skin was yellowish. The headdresses were conical and they were carrying a disk- like object above their heads. They were about five feet tall.
Hal Crawford illustration of the beings
"They approached within about fifty feet of a small house, then walked side by side away from us to a railroad (crossing) about 600 feet from our corner. As they stood at the railroad, a car stopped in front of them for about ten seconds, then sped away. The figures then walked a short distance toward us as we were boarding the bus. One of them extended his arm upward. We could see that it was wearing a cape. I would have approached them but was unsure of the consequences. "Later that night I checked the area and found a spot near the road about 100 feet beyond the place they were seen that morning where the high grass was quite disturbed. It was twisted and matted, and there were two fresh paths going to the spot. A few days later I talked with the children who lived in the house which the figures approached. A girl, about nine years of age, said that at about nine o' clock that Monday morning she saw an object like a huge bubble come down from the sky to that very same place I found. She said two figures were waiting there. When the vehicle landed, they entered. It then rose and quickly disappeared." Having written this case up in one of my publications, in interviews about it in several local newspapers I tried to have Lasko come forward so I could interview him myself. However, nothing ever came of it. I did learn several years ago from an obituary upon his death, that he lived with his sister and husband just blocks from my home. Another opportunity that slipped away from me. 1973 On September 30 Mrs. Barbara Marquardt was driving on Bagley Road in Olmsted Township, (About three miles from my home - R. H.) and observed a green ball-like object hovering in the dark sky at about 3:30 a.m. "It was about three normal houses in height above the ground," she told reporters. "Suddenly, it fell to the ground, not straight down, but in a curve." Police later said that another woman in the area called, and reported that she heard some sort of small explosion near the scene at about the same time.
