Organizers of an effort to get UFO reports taken more seriously teased journalists on Friday with glimpses at dark, grainy video showing what appeared to be a face peeping up from a window.
The video was played at a downtown Denver news conference, after days of buildup from a Denver resident who is circulating a petition calling on the city to create an "Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission" to deal with reports of alien encounters. The petition drive's organizer, Jeff Peckman, hopes to get 4,000 signatures to place his initiative on the ballot.
Peckman publicized Friday's briefing as providing conclusive proof that Earth was being visited by extraterrestrials. However, after the briefing, he told MSNBC that the video had to be seen in the context of other reports of alien visitation.
"Collectively, it's all very convincing," Peckman said, "but that [video] capped the experience."
Peckman said the video was shot by Stan Romanek, a Colorado resident who has claimed more than 100 unexplained experiences, including abduction by aliens. In the footage, a weird-looking face pops up several times from the bottom of a window.
The Denver Post quoted Peckman as saying Romanek shot the video in 2003, while he was living in Nebraska, because he was concerned that a "peeping Tom" was looking into his house. The Post said Romanek was not present for Friday's news conference, which was attended by about 30 journalists.
Peckman did not allow public distribution of the video. He said the footage was being reviewed and may be used in a future documentary. "We'd like to have more people look at it in the future," he told MSNBC's David Shuster.
When Peckman was asked why he was pushing for a ballot initiative on extraterrestrial reports in Denver specifically, his answer came with a slight hint of a chuckle.
"There have been, I think, 150 or 250 UFO reports just in the last few years within Denver as well," Peckman said on MSNBC. "But Denver, after all, is closer to outer space than most other major cities — we're the Mile High City — so it's a natural first stop for them."
