SIGHTING: OAKES, NORTH DAKOTA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"After leaving a grocery store and while loading groceries into my car, i heard a woman shopper ask, "what are those?" i followed her pointing arm and saw 4 lights very close together coming our direction from the sw at a moderate velocity. (see photo) as we watched, the objects separated, slowed, and then hovered in a wide arc formation nearly at our zenith. while hovering, all four varied in intensity - high and low but not in sync. at the time of the second picture, the light on the far right of the arc appeared to dim much more than the others or perhaps move away from us while the others remained. after 7 minutes, the two on the outside of the arc departed to the north. of the center two, one departed south and the other departed east; again at a slow to moderate speed. all four remained in sight until lost behind buildings and other horizon blockage. i asked the woman observer if she would be willing to file a report. she absolutely declined. as an observer i did not identify myself as a field investigator to her nor did i affect any form of action other than filing this report in case someone else filed a supporting observation. as solid as the lights appeared, there is a possibility that they were merely ice crystal reflections from the sun. i am not, however, sure how to explain their relative motions nor how one passed in front of two others when it departed. in the second picture there appears to be two dimmer lights below the two center lights in the arc. neither those nor any other lights or craft of any description were noticed at the time of the observation. absolutely no alterations have been done to the digital photographs other than reduction in size for transmission. the photos were taken on an android moto cell phone."