Member-only story
The Lights Over Beaver County
On a brisk, clouded night like tonight, where the sky is a slate of gray, and the wind whispers through the trees, there’s a story that chills even the boldest hearts. It happened not far from here, 40 years ago, in the quiet town of Conway near the Northern Lights Shopping Center.
Old Frank Panzanella still tells the tale, though his white hair and weathered face suggest he’s told it far too many times. Back then, Frank was a strapping Conway police officer, pulling a night shift near the Atlantic service station. The town was silent, save for the hum of a distant transformer and the occasional hoot of an owl. Frank didn’t expect anything unusual — just another uneventful patrol before sunrise. But then he saw it.
Frank first noticed the light — a brilliant, blinding cone of white that sliced through the pre-dawn darkness like a knife. And then the shape came into view. Hovering above the Northern Lights Shopping Center parking lot was a metallic, half-football-shaped craft, about the size of a ranch house, eerily silent as it floated 100 feet above the ground. Frank blinked rubbed his eyes, but the strange craft didn’t disappear.
Frank wasn’t alone for long. Moments later, tires screeched, and two patrol cars from Ohio skidded to a halt beside him, their sirens silenced. Out jumped three panicked lawmen, their faces pale with fear. They’d…
