SIGHTING: TOPPENISH, WASHINGTON (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I am a law enforcement officer in the Yakima Valley with four years of full-time experience and six years prior reserve law enforcement experience. I was working the grave yard shift which started at 2200 until 0600 hours late last year in 2008 in approx. November or maybe December. I was on routine patrol that night which was fairly quiet, checking the city cemetery which is west of Toppenish, Wa. off of Elmwood Rd. which is off of Fort. Rd. The time was approx. 0330 or 0400 hours and I was at the far west end of the cemetery looking into the empty field which is adjacent to the west. Beyond the field you can clearly see the house lights through out the county and some of the town lights from White Swan, Wa. which is approx. 30 miles away at the end of Fort. Rd. The land is mostly flat and runs into the Toppenish Ridge to the south. The Toppenish Ridge starts south of Toppenish and reaches passed White Swan and almost to Mt. Adams. There is a road that goes from White Swan to the top of the ridge called Signal Peak Rd. but turns into a Yakama Indian Nation Rd. and isn't listed on any map. At the top of the ridge at end of that YIN road, is a guard house with a guard who will not let you through unless you're a YIN member. As far as I know, the guard house closes at night around 2000 hours and the gate into the closed area is locked for the night. I had to explain this for my report to make sense. As I drove slowly I could see the twinkling of the house lights in the distance and not paying much attention to anything in particular. I was about to take a left turn when I noticed what appeared to be old fashioned police or firefighter lights coming from the top of the ridge just south of White Swan approx. 30 miles away. I found this to be strange since most everyone in the valley has either strobe lights or LED lights for their emergency vehicles. The Toppenish FD has old rotating lights but it never goes passed the casino on Fort Rd. I watched the lights which were on top of the ridge and I couldn't understand why an emergency vehicle would be on top of the ridge which is rough terrain, dirt, and some trees. As I looked at the lights, I thought it would be best if I shut my car lights off and shut off my computer screen in my car to get a better look. When I did, waited a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the night and when they did, the lights on the ridge looked exactly like emergency lights on a fire truck rotating but from a long distance away. I knew at the time, that the only fire call in the Lower Valley was in Grandview for an accident but there wasn't anything going on in the White Swan area. I watched the lights for approx. 10 minutes and they would elevate and descend from the Ridge. As I sat and watched, a second one appeared and now I was seeing two. The color of the lights were red and white and looked exactly like the lights on a fire truck. The lights were bright and were clearly visible to me while I sat in my car. I exited my patrol car and I stood in the dark and watched these two pair of lights move up and down and side ways which appeared to be doing some sort of pattern. As I stood there, I figured I would notify my dispatcher and ask her if she knew of any calls on the ridge. I got back into my car and got on my computer and I send her an instant message telling her I was seeing some strange lights on the ridge and asked her if she knew of any emergency calls in that area. The dispatcher stated she didn't know and would inquire. She later told me the only call the FD was handling was an accident as I stated above. I then IM'd another officer on duty who is a ten year veteran law enforcement officer and told him what I was seeing and asked him to come to the cemetery. When he arrived, we both watched the lights on the ridge for approx. 10 when a third set of lights appeared. We both stood in the dark and watched these lights for approx. another 10 or 15 minutes. We could not figure out who or what they were and we just stood there and watched. They would appear and disappear over the ridge and would some times hover over each other. Some times two sets would go off and one would stay and the one would go off and the other two re-appear. It was an incredible display which went on for a while. At one point, I tried to record them with my in car video called COBAN but the lights were too far away and COBAN could not get a clear enough picture. When our shift ended, the day shift officer was briefed on what we saw and of course he made fun of us and laughed. But he later told me he went out to the cemetery and saw the same thing we did on the ridge. He told us they were probably fire trucks doing some sort of exercise on the ridge and I responded by asking him " when was the last time you heard of volunteer firefighters doing exercises on the top of a ridge with rough terrain and no roads?" He didn't respond and told me he didn't know what they were. A few months later around June of this year, I was here at home surfing the Internet and decided to look up town marshal history for the Yakima Valley. To my amazement, I ran across a Web site that read, "Toppenish Ridge Lights" I read through the investigation which was very detailed and had some photographs taken at the time of the incident. I was even more shocked to learn that the lights were seen in 1972 and describes exactly how we saw it that night. This concludes my report and I have nothing further to add, nor do I have anything to gain or lose by typing this. What I saw and what my fellow officers saw is still a mystery to us and I want answers to the puzzle. I think MUFON should look into the matter and conduct interviews of the people who live in the White Swan area along Signal Peak Rd. and Fort Rd. Below is the link that will take you to the Web site I found.http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/yak2.htm This statement was typed to the best of knowledge and truthfully. I have worked in Law Enforcement and Nuclear Security for the past ten years and I believe I am a very credible witness to what I saw. I have taken five polygraph tests and passed them all throughout my career to include four psychological exams. "