"The Stephenville Lights" w/ Kevin Kirkpatrick

Summary

Bigfoot Collectors Club – “The Stephenville Lights” w/ Kevin Kirkpatrick (Feb 4, 2026)

Podcast by: Wood Elf Media
Guests: Kevin Kirkpatrick (comedian/actor, Groundlings)
Hosts: Michael McMillian (actor, “True Blood”) & Riley Bray (musician, TOMI)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the enigmatic 2008 Stephenville, Texas UFO mass sighting—“the Stephenville Lights”—with returning clubhouse favorite Kevin Kirkpatrick. The trio balances personal anecdotes, high strangeness, skeptical banter, and listener-friendly irreverence, exploring UFO lore, paranormal skepticism, and the legacy of being lost (in the woods… and in life), before digging into the details and witness accounts of this major—but often overlooked—modern UFO event.

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Clubhouse Chatter: Food Hacks, Childhood Trauma, and Haunted Theaters

[01:18 – 19:11]

• Opening Banter & Welcome

• Kevin Kirkpatrick is introduced as a recurring “club scout” and comedic friend.
• The group opens with hilarious arguments about burgers, mustard-on-chips as a “life hack,” and impromptu “food innovation therapy.”
  • [04:01] Kevin’s Tip: “Dip your chips in mustard and it’s heaven.”
  • [04:47] Michael: “Edie Patterson, former guest… we were squirting mustard on corn chips and just chowing.”
• Creative sandwich-making philosophies are shared—including the “apple mush sandwich” and veggie improvisation.
• Running “apple family” gag returns: applesauce, apple tart, and the debut of “apple mush” (“the angriest member of the apple family”).

• Personal Paranormal & Nighttime Fears

• Michael notes a friend was too spooked by Kevin’s last story of “something crawling in the hedges.” Kevin reports continued “human-sized shuffling” in the bushes of his new house:
  • [07:51] Kevin: “I do still occasionally hear that human-sized shuffling… it’s either supernatural or the loudest mouse on earth.”
• Brief aside about raccoon domestication and animal evolution.

• Haunted Theater Story

• The group discusses whether the Groundlings theater (and all theaters) are haunted.
  • [10:19] Kevin: “The feeling… is almost like a weird free fall…every spirit in there is just like when the alien’s inches away from her face in that movie.”
• A ritual: pitch-black after-hours challenges, sensory deprivation, and manufactured spooks.
  • [13:10] Kevin: “We would challenge people to go just one at a time into the theater… and some people can’t do it.”
  • They improvise: “scary sounds you’d hate to hear in the dark”—everyone tries to out-gross and out-creepy each other.

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Recent High Strangeness: Bigfoot vs. Marines

[19:31 – 34:39]

• New Segment: “Where in the World is Bigfoot?”

• Michael presents a “recent” (though actually 20-year-old) report to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO): a 2005 sighting by three U.S. Marines at Quantico, Virginia.
• Report Details:
  • Marines attempted navigation at night; compasses inexplicably lead them in circles (apparent magnetic anomaly).
  • They witness an “8-foot, massive, hairy creature” manipulating two large trees, then pursued them through woods with heavy, crashing footsteps.
  • BFRO’s Matt Moneymaker rates this a “Class A” sighting.
  • Group discusses plausibility (“could it have just been a bear?”), the strange tree-manipulation, and why it took 20 years to report.
  • The “skeptics” (esp. Riley) note memory fallibility, social stigma, and the wish for direct wilderness voices.

• Lost in the Woods: Childhood Stories

• Kevin reveals his lifelong aversion to the woods stems from being lost as a child for 5-6 hours in rural Texas.
  • [32:13] Kevin: “My grandmother was sobbing… eventually found my way to a main road…”
  • Humorous retellings of both Michael and Riley’s “getting lost” stories (Michael in Rome, Riley driving into LA’s Skid Row as a new driver), along with a near-miss with a sinister NYC bellhop (Kevin).

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Believe It or Bullshit: Lightning Round

[48:24 – 51:45]

Quickfire beliefs (or not):

• Kevin’s lightning verdicts:

  • Ghosts: “Bullshit”
  • Bigfoot: “I kind of believe it.”
  • UFOs: “Bullshit” (“So much of the reporting smacks so hard of bullshit.”)
  • Loch Ness, Tarot, Ouija: “Bullshit”
  • Manifestation, Life after Death, Aliens: “I believe it.”
  • Mythics (Dogman, Goatman, Bat Squatch): “Bullshit”

• Quote—skepticism about UFOs:

  • [51:07] Kevin: “People have really abused that one… everybody’s got a UFO sighting because they see anything they’re not sure what it is—‘I’m so rare and fortunate…’ I get a real bullshit vibe.”

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Deep Dive: The Stephenville UFO Encounter

[53:32 – 86:44]

• [Background & Setting]

• Stephenville, TX—cattle/dairy town, lots of sky, population 20,000.
  • [60:51] Kevin: “I just remember it’s just rural. Yeah, yeah—farmland.”

• Main Eyewitness Encounters

• January 8, 2008: Multiple residents—including pilot Steve Allen, Mike & Claudette Odom, and more—witness large bright orbs and a massive, silent “mile-wide” triangular craft.
  • [58:33] Kevin (as Steve Allen): “It was like a hundred horsepower car trying to keep up with a 1000 horsepower one.”
  • Craft transforms: lights in a line, then arch, then vertical, then “burned like fire and vanished.”
  • Steve reports intense tranquility/peace during the event (a quasi-religious feeling).
• Constable Leroy Gaten: Sees colored orbs and military jets, and also catches a strange orb on dash cam (video rendered nearly useless as if “jammed”).
• Richard Sorrells (Hunter):
  • Witnessed the craft in daylight; triangle blots the sky, “rivetless” with structured indentations; rumors of “praying mantis-shaped alien occupant.”
  • [68:32] Michael: “Harassed by military helicopters and threatening visits (bullet left on dashboard, veiled warnings).”

• Public Response & Fallout

• Local reporter Angela Joyner becomes the story’s champion; paper sells out, but she is later fired for running with the piece against editor’s wishes.
  • Ironically, editor Sarah Vanderburg herself later sees the lights.
• Community uproar: hundreds attend MUFON town hall—dozens report sightings.
  • [72:19] “They set up 35 chairs and hundreds of people show up.”

• Military Response & Radar Evidence

• Initial military denials: “We weren’t flying jets” — then reversal: “OK, but nothing happened.”
• Radar data (obtained via FOIA) confirms presence of anomalous, transponder-less craft matching witness accounts:
  • Object seen on radar moving up to 2,000 mph, sometimes slow, corresponding precisely to witnesses' locations/timing.
  • [80:07] Robert Powell (MUFON): "These stories check out with radar data...there’s absolutely no doubt there’s an object in the sky...without a transponder code."

• Discussion & Skeptical Takeaways

• Is it military tech? “Maybe, but that doesn’t explain a mile-wide silent craft or ‘praying mantis occupant.’”

• Possible shushing or intimidation of witnesses by military.

  • [74:38] Kevin (as Steve Allen): “A reflection off two airliners? How about a reflection off my white ass!”

• Stigma persists—witnesses face ridicule/loss of business.

  • Allen, Sorrells, and Joyner pay social and financial prices for speaking out.

• [85:54] Michael: “It’s a big case and there’s not enough about it out there, I think... it’s one where witnesses are still alive.”

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Collector’s Corner & Final Thoughts

[87:07 – End]

• The hosts and Kevin recommend TV shows: The Pit, Traders, and Pluribus (tongue-in-cheek parody names).
  • Michael describes The Pit as “a roller coaster show… really well shot and written.”
• Michael thanks listeners for support after his father’s passing, and plugs bonus content/ad-free episodes (BCC Clubhouse).
• Riley demonstrates his Aztec flute, which produces “spooky” ‘Legend of Zelda’-like sounds—joking it might summon a UFO.
  • [91:17] Riley: “[Playing flute] Spooky, right?”

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Notable Quotes & Moments

Childhood Trauma in the Woods

• [32:13] Kevin: “I was lost in the woods in fifth grade... maybe 5, 6 hours. My grandmother was sobbing… my granddad told me when I got back, ‘I was about to call the police,’ as though it was my fault.”

On Paranormal Belief

• [29:05] Michael: “Maybe it’s just trying to chase them off…Maybe it didn’t want to catch them.”
• [34:29] Kevin: “I like a big sky. Like a big horizon. I don’t like to be closed in and I’m afraid I’ll get lost.”

Stephenville UFO

• [59:26] Kevin (as Steve Allen): “When it came past us, I developed the most peaceful, easy feeling I think I’ve ever had in my life… It was almost like a religious experience.”

Military Denial Snark

• [74:38] Steve Allen/ Kevin: “A reflection off two airliners? How about a reflection off my white ass.”

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Key Timestamps

• [01:18] Show intro, food hacks, mustard on chips
• [07:45] Paranormal update: “human-sized shuffling” story continuation
• [10:17] Haunted theater blackout ritual
• [19:31] New segment: Bigfoot recent sighting (Quantico, Marines)
• [32:13] Kevin’s lost-in-the-woods trauma origin story
• [48:24] “Believe It or Bullshit” lightning round
• [53:32] Main: Stephenville Lights deep dive
• [68:32] Eyewitness intimidation stories, possible Men in Black
• [72:19] MUFON town hall/ UFO community response
• [80:07] Radar evidence discussed
• [85:54] Reflections/discussion on stigma and potential military explanations
• [87:07] Collector’s Corner, plugged shows
• [90:45] Aztec flute demo

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Final Takeaways

• The Stephenville Lights remains one of the most compelling modern mass UFO sightings: dozens of credible witnesses, corroborating radar, and classic small-town drama.
• The episode blends humor and skepticism, with memorable personal stories about being lost—fitting for an episode about "the unknown."
• The hosts highlight the still-strong stigma against UFO reporting, the legacy of ridicule, and the ongoing need for open-minded—but critical—investigation.

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Useful For:
Anyone wanting a funny, in-depth, and human look at the Stephenville Lights UFO mystery, vivid reenactments, and top-shelf skeptical (but playful) podcasting. Even longtime fans will appreciate revealing backstories and heartfelt personal anecdotes.

Transcript

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

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[Michael McMillan]

Experian.

[Riley Bray]

It's bigfoot collectors club with michael and rile. I know a story of highest rangeness or two.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Let's do this.

[Michael McMillan]

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Bigfoot Collectors Club, the show where we talk to amazing guests about their personal paranormal history and share stories of high strangeness. I'm your host, Michael McMillan, and with me always is the Guatemalan Flautus of the Rio Grande Valley.

[Riley Bray]

Josoy Riley Bray.

[Michael McMillan]

Where's the flute today?

[Riley Bray]

Where is the flute? I don't know.

[Michael McMillan]

Viewers at home, if you're watching this on YouTube, keep your eyes peeled for the flute. Somewhere in the background. If you can find it, we'll send you $100.

[Riley Bray]

Better not be a flute. Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, God.

[Michael McMillan]

There better not be a flute in here. Sitting with us in the clubhouse. We are live in studio this week. I shouldn't say. I mean, it's not live. You're just live for us. Live for us. Recorded for you is a dear friend, a brilliant actor, a wonderful comedic performer. You know him, you love him. Back for the first time in a year. But for your, I'm going to say eighth episode, at this point, probably, I have no idea. Club scouts of all timelines, please welcome back the one, the only, Kevin Kirkpatrick. How are you, Kevy? Hi.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

So good.

[Michael McMillan]

What's going on?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Nothing.

[Michael McMillan]

You had a.

[Riley Bray]

All right, episode over.

[Michael McMillan]

You had a bad burger today. You're mad at your burger.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Terrible Smash Burger.

[Michael McMillan]

Don't name the place because I like them and I don't want to dox them.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Okay, fine. A place that I that shall not be named gave me grill scrapings instead of a patty.

[Michael McMillan]

But you didn't get anything on it. This is the debate we were having. I did.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I removed the sauce and the cheese, which I know I was asking for it, but hey, that's how you know if the meat's any good. And it's not.

[Michael McMillan]

But if it was just about the meat. If a burger was just about the meat. And I understand we have a vegetarian

[Riley Bray]

here, which proves that a burger is not just about the meat.

[Michael McMillan]

There you go. That's my point. If the burger was just about the meat, then it wouldn't have all the other toppings.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I don't know. I love a backyard burger. That's my genre.

[Michael McMillan]

You like a good grilled classic burger? You're from Texas.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, I don't need it to be too tricky. I really. I mean, if it's done well, I can get into that. But the best is a good patty and then just. I like the veggies on it.

[Riley Bray]

Okay.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Okay. And I do like mustard, but nobody in LA seems to want to put mustard on a burger.

[Michael McMillan]

Not a big mustard town.

[Riley Bray]

I'm all. I'm pro mustard, big time.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, God. I want it on everything. Yeah. By the way, and this is really important for your listeners, try this next time you're looking for a snack at home.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Get you a corn chip. Could be a. Could be a Frito kind of thing. Or very much could just be a tortilla chip and open up a French's yellow mustard. Squirt some in a bowl and literally just dip your chips in mustard and it's heaven.

[Michael McMillan]

Dip your chips and mustard.

[Riley Bray]

Honestly, those are two of my favorite things that I've never combined.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I can't wait to hear you report back on this.

[Riley Bray]

I've never thought of this.

[Michael McMillan]

This sounds good to me. Except I think I would want, like a hot mustard. Like a spicy brown mustard.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Nope.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay. What about a honey mustard?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Nope.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, no. Are we not.

[Riley Bray]

Honey mustard is like sweet pickles.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I'm telling you, you're going to want to. Someone introduced me to this. Who is a freak.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay. Edie.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

TV legend.

[Michael McMillan]

Edie Patterson, former guest. Been a long time.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Edie.

[Michael McMillan]

Edie Patterson.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And we were sitting backstage at Groundlings and we started just squirting mustard on corn chips and just chowing. Yeah. And we were all like, oh, my God, this is so good. And now I do it at home.

[Michael McMillan]

I appreciate the advice. You know, my iced. I'm trying to think, like, what food hack I do around. Around the house other than just, oh, peanut butter pretzels and peanut M and M's.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah. Absolutely.

[Michael McMillan]

That's Roman. A bowl together.

[Riley Bray]

That's an old standby.

[Michael McMillan]

That's really good. What about you? Do you have a food hack?

[Riley Bray]

I just turn everything into a sandwich. Like any. Any old set of ingredients can be a sandwich.

[Michael McMillan]

Do you roll it or do you

[Riley Bray]

fold it depends on what I'm working with, you know, but even like on a plate, if I have like a dinner plate, like, everything gets combined into, like, sandwich bites.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, so you haven't. Let's say you have an eggplant, you have a salad. You have some grape tomatoes, and then you have some long carrots.

[Riley Bray]

Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. How do you make that a sandwich?

[Riley Bray]

You cut the eggplant half. You got two pieces of bread there.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay.

[Riley Bray]

You do some railroad ties with the carrots.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay.

[Riley Bray]

Layer on the tomatoes. What was the other ingredient?

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, Grape tomatoes. And then salad.

[Riley Bray]

Oh, yeah, salad. A little topping. Eggplant on top. Sandwich.

[Michael McMillan]

What do you do with a whole apple? What if you can't? What if you can't cut it? How can you make an apple a sandwich? This is what I want to know.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Easy. You slice those big sides of the apple to be your bread and you just pulverize the rest of it and put it in the middle.

[Riley Bray]

Apple sandwich.

[Michael McMillan]

Just pound it.

[Riley Bray]

That sounds good, actually.

[Michael McMillan]

An apple mush sandwich.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Apple two ways.

[Michael McMillan]

Apple mush.

[Riley Bray]

That's the new cat.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

That's what's coming out.

[Michael McMillan]

We just ye. We just summoned Apple Mush, the angriest

[Riley Bray]

member of the apple family tree.

[Michael McMillan]

We have a lot of apple based characters on this show. Kevin, you may or may not know. I don't think they've ever appeared.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Riley Bray]

Apple sauce. Apple tart.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

This is a children's show.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Applesauce, Apple. Well, apple.

[Riley Bray]

We're regressing.

[Michael McMillan]

Apple tart, who is like a prostitute sex worker from Apple.

[Riley Bray]

Who?

[Michael McMillan]

Apple tart. She's like a. She's a cockney sex worker. She's from Birmingham.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. I thought we were ending with a different consonant on that. And I was like, oh, I don't think you're supposed to say that.

[Michael McMillan]

Nope. Apple crumbs.

[Riley Bray]

Apple cr.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, yeah. Apple crust.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah, of course.

[Michael McMillan]

So now we got apple mush. We got five of them. Kevin, how are you? Have you had any strange things? Any updates? I have to tell you, I have a friend from back home in Kansas City who tried to listen to your latest episode, which was about a year ago now. Hi, Lucifer. Everyone, Lucifer's in the house. So's Nova, the clubhouse cat. And they could not Listen to the episode. They were so scared by your story about the thing crawling around in your hedges in the backyard of your new home.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Any, any. Any other strange activity or spooky stuff to report that.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I do still occasionally hear that human sized shuffling, Bill. I do.

[Riley Bray]

Whoa.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I'm not scared of it anymore because I don't know, I mean, it makes me feel a little weird in the moment, but I just am like, I know there's no room in there for anyone or even a large animal because I've now investigated the hedge and it's. So it's either supernatural or it's the loudest mouse on earth that somehow creates footfall. That sounds like a 300 pound man. But you don't think this could be a raccoon? It wouldn't fit.

[Michael McMillan]

How would you make a raccoon into a sandwich?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I wouldn't. I wouldn't.

[Riley Bray]

I'd make a sandwich for a raccoon, sit down at a table and eat it together.

[Michael McMillan]

I heard raccoons are evolving to do something and now I forget what it was.

[Riley Bray]

I think they're domesticating.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, yeah, they're domesticating.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

They're basically becoming domesticated animals.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, interesting.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, that's how they say dogs became domesticated because they were wolves that would hang around the campfire.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. They're just hanging out.

[Michael McMillan]

They realize eat the scraps.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

The best place to them to get their food.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Be kind of cool if like 200 years from now everyone has raccoons as pets.

[Riley Bray]

Love to have a raccoon.

[Michael McMillan]

I think you can.

[Riley Bray]

You got a.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

They're cute and they're real clean. They wash their hands. You probably get them to wash dishes.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Get them to help out around the house.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Suddenly dogs are unpopular, you know, because they can't wash dishes. Any spooky fortune tellings or prophetic dreams, Supernatural encounters.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No.

[Michael McMillan]

What about the Groundlings theater? Is that place not haunted? Every theater is haunted.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I do think it's probably. I do think it's probably haunted. And it's funny you should bring that up because I don't have a good story. I'm just gonna preface this with. This is not. This is an underwhelming story. But I will just say that the last show I directed there we were hanging out, as we often do, late at night after the show, and we did something we'd done years in the past where we were like, oh, let's just go in the theater and turn all the lights out and just like be in that completely pitch black. Old theater. And it gets real fucking weird in there. It gets really scary and weird. And that's when you just know there's gotta be some old ghosts hanging out in there.

[Michael McMillan]

What's weird about it?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

The feeling of. I mean, this is the least scary place on earth. First of all, there's maybe 15 of us still there. It's not a large place. It's a place we're so familiar with. There's no baked in psychological tendency for this should be scary. And the second you're in there and the lights and sound are taken away and we all are just quiet, it's like this thick feeling in the air of. It's almost like a weird free fall. Whoa. It's like. It's just. There's too much like mystery. It's weird. It's just a weird. It's a weird thing. I don't know, it just feels like you're. It literally feels like you're floating. I don't know why. And it's too dark. It's black, black, black. And I don't know, that just creates a sensation. And suddenly every. It's like every, every spirit in there is just like when the alien's inches away from her face in that movie. It just feels like every energy in that room is up against your face.

[Michael McMillan]

I wonder if it's because it is such a like echo space for all that. I mean there's live music, there's live audience, there's live performers. I wonder if all of that energy just gets trapped in there.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, interesting. It's just pure plain old energy that's just like when you take your other senses away and you're really just feeling the stillness of it. It's too much energy for a still space.

[Michael McMillan]

Have you heard of ghost stories in the theater? Has anyone ever said anything weird's happen in there before?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, not too specifically, maybe. No, I haven't heard anything specific.

[Riley Bray]

It may just be that you've. That the taking away your senses part though. Like maybe what you're reacting to is the existential pit inside yourself when you take away all the external stimuli.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, Kevin, that's what happens when you just close down your mind and you have to look inwards. You go, oh God. Terrified.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Wait, maybe I'm just experiencing my own inner thoughts.

[Riley Bray]

Yes.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yes, interesting. Yeah, it did. That's probably what it is.

[Michael McMillan]

It did sound like it. It would make a good sensory deprivation tank. Maybe on like Wednesday nights you guys can start renting it out. You know, for people to have self discovery sessions.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I mean, the challenge is the center staircase that goes down from the back of the audience to the stage. It's not that much distance. The challenge is, like, when we send each other one at a time, and you have to go up the back and you have to walk down through the theater and then dart off stage to go back to the lit green room. And, like, some people can't even do it. They can't make it. They don't make it.

[Michael McMillan]

Wait, this is what you make each other do during the darkness period?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Wait, so it's like a ritual?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Sometimes we all go in there and, like, hang out or hide from each other or whatever.

[Michael McMillan]

This is getting more antiquey than I thought it was.

[Riley Bray]

Oh.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I mean, like, we don't do it every time, but it happened a couple times during the run of the last show. We just went in there and fucked around. And like. Like, some people were, like, purposely making noise to scare each other, and some people were, like. A couple people were, like, huddled on stage. Just felt so fucking scary and weird because it was so silent. But then the other thing is, we would sometimes challenge people to go just one at a time into the theater and walk that center staircase down. And, like, sometimes people can't do it.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, here's what I want to do as an exercise.

[Riley Bray]

Okay?

[Michael McMillan]

So if you're listening to this at home, close your eyes. Unless you're driving. If you're watching this on the YouTube. When we get to the moment, let's kind of. Let's cut to black. Kevin, I want you to make the scariest sound you can think of to hear in a pitch black space.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Okay?

[Riley Bray]

All right? And we're gonna close our eyes.

[Michael McMillan]

And we're gonna close our eyes, too.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

All right?

[Michael McMillan]

So let me know when you're ready. Don't think too hard about it. We can go around and do it if we want to.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

We can.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Let's each do it.

[Michael McMillan]

Let's each do it. Okay, we're gonna start with Kevin. Okay, I'm gonna close my eyes. You ready? Okay, everyone close your eyes. We'll cut to black hair on the video. Let's go.

[Riley Bray]

Okay, that's pretty terrible.

[Michael McMillan]

That just sounded like a butthole slightly opening and letting out a little.

[Riley Bray]

Try to sneak one.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. Is that what you want? Up against your face? Pitch black haunted theater. I think that's pretty scary.

[Michael McMillan]

That's pretty good. All right, Riley, it's your turn.

[Riley Bray]

Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay. Let's really try to scare each other. Okay. Not bad. Got a little chokey there at the End. Which really terrified me.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, it started like an animal in distress and I was like, immediately like, oh, it's cute. I gotta go save it. And then when it started almost laughing, I was like, get the.

[Michael McMillan]

Away from.

[Riley Bray]

Went a little sinister.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, it became sinister.

[Riley Bray]

It's good.

[Michael McMillan]

All right, let's try.

[Riley Bray]

Here we go.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, it was. It was good.

[Riley Bray]

Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

I don't know where we're going with this.

[Riley Bray]

Hey, everybody. It's Bigfoot collectors.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, here we go.

[Riley Bray]

I bet you feel better now.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

That went from your audition to be the next Count Chocula to some sort of like, what's the big slimy guy in Star Wars?

[Michael McMillan]

Jabba.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. Then it went to just Jabba the Hut barfing up his lunch.

[Michael McMillan]

Listen, there are many, many different things to be scared of in the dark. All right, we're gonna take a break. When we come back.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Break already? What a pile of nothing you just gave everyone.

[Michael McMillan]

You know what? Fuck you.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Okay, Sorry.

[Riley Bray]

They know what they signed up for.

[Michael McMillan]

This is fucking free. What do people expect?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, no, no, no.

[Michael McMillan]

We do it for free. All right, we'll be right back. Speaking of free, this is why. Here you go.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

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[Michael McMillan]

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[Michael McMillan]

Okay.

[Riley Bray]

Welcome back to a Pile of Nothing.

[Michael McMillan]

Welcome back to Big Ass Pile of Nothing. I'm your host, Michael McMillan.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I mean, I thought you guys were supposed to give them stories.

[Michael McMillan]

We're just taking a break. We gotta take a break for commercials.

[Riley Bray]

We're catching up with our old buddy.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Riley Bray]

Making scary sounds.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No. People will think that's fun. Where'd this come from?

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, okay, now we're officially back. All right, everybody, let's get on to the good stuff. We have a new recurring segment here on the show that we started last year after your last appearance, Kevin. So we all know Bigfoot stories and legends from days of yore, but what's going on with Bigfoot lately, like in the past couple months? That's a question we ask ourselves here on Bigfoot Collectors Club. We ask ourselves, where in the world is Bigfoot? San Diego. Okay, so we have a recent Bigfoot sighting. Actually, this is a recent report, and it's not so recent of a sighting.

[Riley Bray]

Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

The sighting is.

[Riley Bray]

Took a while to get around to reporting it.

[Michael McMillan]

Over 20 years old.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

However, it's a good one, and it involves Marines. Anytime we got Marines versus Bigfoot, it's worth talking about.

[Riley Bray]

Sure.

[Michael McMillan]

So it was just recently reported over at bfro. Do you know what BFRO is?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Bigfoot Reporting Organization.

[Michael McMillan]

That is pretty close. It's the Bigfoot. It's the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. So you. You. I. I'd give you.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I would give you a dropped an F then.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, they did.

[Riley Bray]

Bigfoot's one word.

[Michael McMillan]

Bigfoot's one word.

[Riley Bray]

I bet you they had a lot of debate about that.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

They.

[Riley Bray]

We're not calling it the BFFRO.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

People.

[Riley Bray]

People will think we're saying we BFFs.

[Michael McMillan]

We are the BF Research Organization.

[Riley Bray]

We're the BFFRO.

[Michael McMillan]

So here we go. This was reported in the year 2000 or this happened in the year 2005 in July in the state of Virginia in Stafford County. All right, get ready for this guys. Location details. This incident occurred on Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia in a restricted military training area near the Mount Military Operation in Urban Terrain Training Town. So this is like they have one of those fake sets where they're like, oh, this is what it's like to like really take over America. The patrol originated from the Mount Town at approximately and then they give us some latitude and longitude that I don't want to know about. Okay. In the summer of 2005. This is from the person who is reporting the story, who was a Marine. I was stationed in the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia working as part of the opposing force for the Basic School Infantry Officers course. I was there for over three years during one of the multi week field training exercises in the Mount Town training area. Myself and two other Marines were instructed to leave the town at night and move on foot through the woods to link up with the vehicle at a designated pickup point approximately 500 to 70 meter 700 meters away. The area was considered active with students operating and using blank ammunition. Because of this, we were moving quietly with the flashlights off. There was little to no moonlight and none of us had night vision devices. All three of us were non commissioned officers with several years of training and experience and we had operated in these woods many times before. We cut an azimuth on our compasses. Can someone tell me what an azimuth is? No, let's do a quick oogs as a moth definition. A horizontal angle. Just say diagonally.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

That's not what I thought.

[Michael McMillan]

What did you think it was going to be?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

You know when people unfortunately have a mouth that looks also like an ass?

[Michael McMillan]

Oh yeah, yeah, it has a mouth. We cut an azimuth on our compasses and began moving in what should have been a nearly straight line towards the pickup point. After walking for what felt like an unusually long time, we reached a clearing and found ourselves at a road. To our surprise, we realized that we were back near the same area we had originally departed from. All three compasses had indicated we were moving correctly, yet we had somehow looped back to our starting point. This was disorienting and unsettling. So we got a trickster Bigfoot in the area that's making them lost.

[Riley Bray]

Magnetic field manipulator.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, he's fucking with the magnetic devices. We decided to cut a new azimuth to a different reference point.

[Riley Bray]

Just say route.

[Michael McMillan]

Just say. Yeah, line, anything. Why is it azimuth? No one has ever hear heard of this word before?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Well, it was big 20 years ago.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, my favorite word is azimuth. That's the name of my dog and my new pet raccoon. We then adjust a course towards a different pickup spot further down the road. Approximately 15 to 20 minutes into the second movement, we heard a loud sound to our left like a tree cracking or falling. Concerned about the possibility of a falling tree, we turned on our flashlights and looked in that direction. We observed two trees next to each other bending towards one another. When we looked up, approximately 20 to 30ft above the ground, we saw a large hairy creature with its back facing us. The creature appeared to be pulling the two trees together. The hair was a brown and reddish brown color. I could not determine whether it had climbed the tree or was already in it. But it was clearly manipulating both trees with great strength. These are not small trees. The creature was large, approximately 8ft in height, with a large body far larger than a person. And its proportions and movement did not resemble a human. At that moment, I froze. I was the third person in our file. The Marine in front of me immediately started running. The second Marine shouted something and also started running. I turned my flashlight off because we were still in the training area and began running after them. As we ran, we heard a very heavy thud and then fast moving pursuit behind us. What do you think so far, Kevin?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Imagine.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, I love it. There were loud crashing and breaking sounds like something large moving rapidly through dense brush. This continued for approximately 20 to 30 seconds. At that point, I yelled for the Marine in front to turn on his light so we could move as fast as possible without falling. We turned our lights on and ran at full speed in the general direction of where we believe the road had picked up and the pickup point. Were no longer using our compasses. After approximately five minutes running, we reached the vehicle. We jumped in and urgently told the driver to leave immediately. What we saw was not a black bear or any known animal in the area. Black bears in Quantico are relatively small. That would not explain the size and the way the creature was holding onto the trees. With the long arms and the strength required to bend the trees together and the speed and power of the movement we heard pursuing through us in the dense forest. This figure did not resemble a person in any way. I do not believe a human could have been in that position. Or moved that way. The distance from us to the creature when we observed it was approximately 20 yards. The event has stayed with me for over 20 years. I have never encountered anything before or since that explains what we saw that night. So the only other thing they noticed was just a compass issue. As previously stated, there were three total witnesses. All three were U.S. marines serving as non commissioned officers at the time. They said just prior to the incident, we were moving on foot at night through a wooded area on a Marine Corps base after being instructed to depart them out town. So there's no other stories, no other instances that this guy had the follow up by the BFRO instigator, Investigator Matthew Moneymaker. Famous guy, said, I spoke with this former Marine Andrew Bird at length. He is credible and he was not the only one who observed this figure. That night, two other Marines were with him and saw the same thing. This is a class A sighting because of the behavior and the location. So he gives it a grade A signing. I mean, this is pretty good. One got three Marines. You got a Bigfoot up in a tree doing some kind of tree structure. Kevin, when you hear these stories, what does this make you think about? The possibility of Bigfoot existing?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I like it. I like the possibility. I'm gonna bet that there is possibility. But as you know, I always want more proof than I ever get. Yeah, I mean, was it a bear?

[Michael McMillan]

He says, you know, black bears are small.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. But if it's that dark out and the bear's sort of up in the tree in the shadows, what might look like where you might not see that it's bear and foliage, that foliage may look like part of the creature. So it might have looked really big. But I think, I think it's possible. Something about the way he said, pulling that tree together, pulling those two trees together, that just is so specific. This doesn't sound like just a bullshit story. Yeah, it's just very specific to me. But then, okay, how then that thing, the Bigfoot, lands on the ground and pursues them. Why can't it catch them?

[Michael McMillan]

Maybe it's just trying to chase them off. Maybe didn't want to catch them. Maybe it's just trying to like bluff, charge and get them out of its territory.

[Riley Bray]

My question is, why 20 years later?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Why?

[Michael McMillan]

Why not report it?

[Riley Bray]

Yeah. Or why report it at all at 20 years? It's just why that's such a long amount of time to tell the story.

[Michael McMillan]

I don't know. It could be a thing where, like, people. I wonder if it's somewhere on Here in the notes section. It could be just a thing where people are like, this has always bothered me. I never knew what this was. If you're somebody who's like, not into this.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

And then later, you're retired, you have a little bit more time on your hands, and you're like, what was surfing the web, Surfing that Internet.

[Riley Bray]

Efro.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. And you're like, well, watching Discovery Channel.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Travel Channel. Something comes on, and you're like, wait a minute. You know, so maybe it's like, now, after all these years, maybe I should report this thing because there is a stigma. You know, we know that. We know that to be true. You know, this.

[Riley Bray]

We've learned.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

We've learned there's experience today, myself, and even though they've come to the conclusion, this couldn't be human, this couldn't be whatever. I mean, it's at night. It's not like they literally were at the Grove at 3pm and saw Godzilla, you know, smash a building. It's like, if I saw what I thought was Bigfoot at night, I know. I wouldn't. I'm not. I wouldn't even think to, like, figure out which organizations to report it to.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I would just be like, whoa. Yeah. They probably telling their friends their whole life, like, this crazy thing happened to me. But, yeah, if they're not in that world, they probably don't think about reporting it.

[Michael McMillan]

How. Why would you. We're in too deep, you know, doing this show.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Riley, what do you think? You're our resident Bigfoot skeptic.

[Riley Bray]

I mean, it's a compelling story. Three witnesses. I would like to hear from the other two.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Where are they?

[Riley Bray]

You know, I just. Something about 20. Like, the memory is so fallible, and 20 years is a long time.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, but sometimes you have those things. You're like, I remember it clearly.

[Riley Bray]

That's true. And I have some things like that. But, yeah, you know, add it to the pile is what I say.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Have you guys. Who's the person? Like, you need a person on here who spends an enormous amount of time in the wilderness.

[Michael McMillan]

Us? Yes. Not me.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. It's none of us.

[Michael McMillan]

And no.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I mean, I've spent maybe five hours total outdoors since I was a child. But, like, you need somebody who. I bet that's who. I would love to hear what stories they have.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. You don't like the woods? You're not a woods guy.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, I detest them.

[Michael McMillan]

I've spent more.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, I hate the woods. Oh, wow. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Do you want to tell Us a little.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Your beautiful house here in the canyon is like, as. And it's like, right off of the most main.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah, it's like 10 minutes.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

But my God, like, this is.

[Michael McMillan]

This is Max.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

That I want to go into the woods.

[Michael McMillan]

Can you share why I was lost

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

in the woods in fifth grade?

[Riley Bray]

Really?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

He has an origin story.

[Riley Bray]

Whoa. Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. I was very. I was. What. What is that, nine or ten? Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Fifth grade. Yeah. Around then. Around 11. Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I just. My grandparents lived out. They had like, hundreds of acres. I think they was in a very rural area, and it was hilly and woods, and I got separated from my brother when I was a little kid. My older brother. And how long were you lost? Like, maybe. Maybe like five, six hours.

[Riley Bray]

That's a long time.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Riley Bray]

Whoa. Holy shit. That is scary.

[Michael McMillan]

Did where the police called?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Huh?

[Michael McMillan]

How do they find you?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Well, you know, it was back. Back then. I mean, this is. The police were about to be called is my guess, but they were. I remember my granddad telling me when I got back to their house, finally, he's like, I was about to call the police, as though this was my fault. His kind. He had kind of a stern response because he couldn't show his fear.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And my grandmother was sobbing, but. Yeah. But I eventually found my way to a. Halfway into the ordeal, I found my way to a main road. And then I was not as Then I was frustrated and all the things, but I wasn't as scared because I knew I was on a main road and eventually would find a person, you know.

[Michael McMillan]

How old were you?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

10, maybe.

[Michael McMillan]

Did you make friends with a big furry man who was like, come with me, Kevin, and I will show you how to get back home.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Really big feet. Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

But he didn't talk like that. Oh, yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

How did it sound? It would be magical if you're like. Now that I think about it.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Think about it.

[Michael McMillan]

I was carried in the arms of a large, hairy creature who guided me back home.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Riley Bray]

Bending two trees together as I approached.

[Michael McMillan]

Fed me berries.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. So it does not take much. Much for me to feel a little panic when the. I feel closed in by the woods and I can't see. And I love the desert because you can see forever.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And like. Yeah. I don't like to be closed in and I'm afraid I'll get lost.

[Michael McMillan]

You want to see that horizon?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I like a big sky. Like a big horizon.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Did you. What were your feelings about the woods before this incident?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I loved them as far as I can remember. Back then I loved going to my grandparents house and like trekking around their property.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Riley Bray]

Maybe we need to do some immersion therapy.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I have to go back to that.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, you gotta go, you gotta go back. And we're just gonna let you go for six hours.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. And you're gonna give me a little recording equipment and I go into the woods, I spend the night.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And if I'm not mauled by a mountain lion, freeze to death and I win.

[Michael McMillan]

And we'll almost call the police for you.

[Riley Bray]

It'll be really stern when you get back.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, we'll blame you for doing it

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

the whole time it was funny. They just had a list of things that we were afraid you fell into a thing. We thought, well, we were afraid this and all the things. They almost said we were going to get police helicopters but none of it happened.

[Michael McMillan]

We almost looked for you.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

They sat for five hours just going, well this could be terrible.

[Michael McMillan]

Just imagining everything without actually doing the foot.

[Riley Bray]

Wait, so you, you made your way back, they didn't find you?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, they didn't find me. I eventually got to the main road and then went the wrong way forever on the main road and that led to. And the only houses I came across, no one was there because a lot of people that live there, that's a nightmare. A lot of people, that's their country house, they're not always there. So yeah, I couldn't find a soul, not one car, anything. And then eventually I just, I came around a corner and I knew these people's house, my grandparents, friends.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

They were way on the other side of this canyon, you know, miles from where I had gotten lost. Oh wow. But I was like, oh, this is the, I don't remember what their name was. The Smith's house. And so then sure enough, there he was in the driveway. So I walked up to him and then just started sobbing as a kid. And then he put me in his car and drove me the five minutes around back to my grandparents house. And then I begged him to let me go on the street in front of their house because I thought I would get in trouble for bothering him. So I didn't want to, oh no, I didn't want my grandparents to know that I had asked for help, you know, and I don't know, my kid brain was like, oh, don't drive, don't. Not all the fanfare of you returning me home. Just leave me at the end of the driveway and I'll walk back up to the house. And I, I don't Know, if I would have just played it cool, like, hey, I'm back. Which would have gotten me in so much trouble if I'd been gone just chilling for six hours. But I just thought the worst thing would be if everyone knew I had, like, cried and gotten help and, like, you know.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Riley Bray]

Wow.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

But of course, he was like, no, no, I'm. I'm driving you up, and I'm gonna go talk to your grandparents and be

[Michael McMillan]

like, hey, watch your grandson. 1980s grandparents. Come on.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I wonder if I looked filthy and feral. Like, I don't know.

[Michael McMillan]

I know I want to. I was like, did you ever, like, stop to gaze at your reflection in a creek?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, there was no water, but. But, I mean, lots of the area I was in was. I was, like, going through the shrubs, like, you know, dragging my face through shrubs. Like, it wasn't always clean path to walk.

[Michael McMillan]

Right.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

So I probably got pretty mussed up.

[Michael McMillan]

This is nightmare traumatic.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

I'm sorry, Kevin.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And, you know the cattle guards at the end of people's driveways? They're like a pit with bars over it. You don't think anything about those when you're, like, driving over them and stuff. But as a little kid, I got to one of those and I had to cross it, and I was like. It felt very nervous to walk over because I'm going to fall through and, like, break my leg or something.

[Michael McMillan]

This is, like. This became, like, high adventure.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. So I remember I was on all fours crawling across a cattle. But, like, they're not flat, they're round. So each footstep is on a round thing. And to my little foot and little kid, I just thought, this is. I'm gonna slip through.

[Michael McMillan]

What was the scar? What was the moment that was the scariest for you? Did you ever go, I'm just. I'm living in the woods now.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I don't remember. The scariest part was in the beginning, and it was in the very beginning when I first couldn't figure out, yeah,

[Michael McMillan]

how did this happen?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I feel like. I hope the story's not boring.

[Michael McMillan]

No, it's fascinating.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

My brother and I were out, and we were following along this ravine, which we kind of. He very much knew the path back home. And I thought I knew it, but I was dead wrong. And I thought. I thought it was, like, down the dry creek, creek bed, hundred yards, and then a hard right into the thick. And if you just scale that thick embankment through the trees, you emerge into a clearing. And that was near the house. Like, that's in my Brain. I knew that was the way home, but that was. I was mixing it up with a different path. I mean, it's such a huge property. And so my brother and I were walking the creek bed, and I thought it would be funny to run way ahead of him around the bend and then hide behind a tree and scare him.

[Michael McMillan]

This is how this happens.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

So I ran ahead and hid behind the tree. And then he came around the bend way, way out of ear and eyeshot of where I was, and he went the correct way, which was a fork to the left. And so he went away from me and then just walked off and went home. And so then I was just waiting forever for him to cross my path and to scare him, and he never showed up. And I waited and I waited and I waited. And then I was hollering at him. And we don't know if he heard me hollering or not because I've gotten a mixed facial expression response from him about that.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Bless his heart. He could have probably heard me and thought I was fucking around with him, you know, because I. Clearly, he knew I was in that mood. He saw me run off like I was gonna go scare him. So he probably thought, yeah, whatever. But I'm sure he felt very guilty when three hours passed. But so from where I was then, and I was waiting for him and I couldn't find him, I thought, well, I'm gonna. I know the way home. And that what I was doing was taking myself just deep into the rough, into the.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Into the wilderness. That's how that happens. Have you ever been lost, Riley, as a kid?

[Riley Bray]

Not really, no. Nothing sticks out.

[Michael McMillan]

I did something similar. I was. I was older. I was in eighth grade. So I was like, you know. But I was in Rome with my dad. He had been on a business trip and took me to Rome. And we were at the Roman Forum. And it was one of those things. He's like, all right, well, let's head back because we're going to go to the Coliseum. And he was like, it's this way. And I was like, no, it's not. It's this way. And he's like, all right.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And I was, challenge accepted.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. My dad. Yeah. So I was like, I'm going to race my dad back to the entrance. And I ran off on the other side. Another thing. And I was like, giggling because I was like, I'm gonna beat him. He's gonna get there and he's gonna see that I was right. And I immediately got turned around. Didn't speak any Italian. Had no clue where I was. Retraced my steps. Dad wasn't there. Took me a long time to find the entrance. Found the entrance and then waited around. And my dad never showed up.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Where was he?

[Michael McMillan]

He had crossed over to the Coliseum. Cuz he was panicking and he's like, well, we talked about going to the Coliseum. Maybe he's over there.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

How old were you?

[Michael McMillan]

I was like, I mean, probably 13. I was, I was, you know, but

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

you're in a foreign country and that's very young.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And it's hilarious.

[Michael McMillan]

In a huge city.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

This is where my colleague said he would meet me. So I'll go there. Very, you know, fully leaving it up.

[Michael McMillan]

He's no longer alive to defend himself, but very. Joe. Joe McMillan.

[Riley Bray]

Move.

[Michael McMillan]

So I.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

The Larry's at the restaurant. He thought, well, he should know this is where we're having dinner tonight.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, to his credit, he was like, now if we ever, ever get separated, you need to get a T. He had given me a flyer from our little hotel. He's like, you show them this and you say, take me here and.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Pretty cool.

[Michael McMillan]

And he was like, have the front desk pay the taxi driver and when I meet you there, I will repay the front desk. And that's exactly what I did. I was like, all right. I was like, I guess I'm gonna take a taxi back to the hotel. So I got in and then I threw my broken English Italian. Like the. The hotel manager figured out what was going on, paid the guy, and then I just sat on the stoop. And about 15 minutes later, another taxi arrived. And my dad got out and he went. Clutched his chest when he saw me just sitting there, you know, waiting for him to come back.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Wait. But okay, so, yeah, I mean, I kind of like gave her dad shit, but like, that's some really good, like, planning.

[Michael McMillan]

Yes, yes.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And then he also trusted you and knew you would execute it. And so then he thought, because that's. He could have wasted a day like, hunting for you.

[Michael McMillan]

And he was, he was. This is a man who is terrified of pickpockets. Like, any time I would go, like Kate and I went to Paris last year, he's like, you have to be aware of the pickpockets. The pickpockets in Rome? The pickpockets in Paris. I mean, yeah, there are pickpockets, but like, he's acting as if I'm swimming in shark infested waters, you know what I mean?

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

So he was like the most relieved I've ever been is when I got out of that taxi cab and saw you sitting on the hotel steps. But it always begins with a little fun and games. Like, I know better. I'm going to trick or scare somebody, you know, and then you're like. Next thing you know, like, I'm lost in a big city or I'm lost in the woods.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I was lost in New York City with my high school group, and I got. Our high school theater club went. And I got lost from everyone. And all I knew is I had to get to Tavern on the Green. We had a lunch reservation at Tavern on the Green, which is inside the park. Yeah. Or it used to be. I don't know if it's still there. And I was on the. Somewhere near. I made it to somewhere near the fringe, the outer. The outskirts of Central Park. There was a big hotel there, and I was standing on the sidewalk. And what I needed to do now, I realize, is walk into the park. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Or ask the front desk, where is Tavern on the Green? And they will immediately be able to.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

But I was standing there, and I wasn't particularly freaked out or anything, but I was just trying to figure out where I should go. And I was standing there on the sidewalk, and I hear, what are you looking for? And I turn, and it's a bellhop in a uniform. Some.

[Michael McMillan]

Like, how hairy was the bellhop? How big were his feet exactly?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And, God, he was hairless. I bet this, like, slimy white dude and he was in his bellhop uniform, and he went, what are you looking for? And I mean, let me paint the picture. I was 17 and gorgeous. I had a full head of hair, and I was so skinny and angelic, and just. With just a. Just a kiss of the gay already emerging, I was a real target. And he goes, no. He goes, where are you going? I go, I'm supposed to meet my group at Tavern on the Green. And he goes, oh, you want to. This is the shortcut. And there was a service entrance into the hotel that he was standing near. Like, maybe he was on a smoke break or something. And he wanted me to go in this. Like, not a front door of a hotel.

[Michael McMillan]

Like, here's a shortcut, kid.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

He goes, here's a shortcut. And so I went, okay. And I started following him. And some dude on the street, some regular passerby New York Joe was like, hey, hey, hey, where are you going? And I went, I'm trying to find Tamara the Green. And he goes, no, no, no, come here. It's Right there. Go into the park. You see that building? Right. That's Tamara there. And then I look back in.

[Michael McMillan]

The bellhop advanced.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

The bellhop had gone back into the portal from which he'd come.

[Riley Bray]

Yikes.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

So I almost either got kidnapped and pulled into another dimension by this supernatural beast or demon, or I would have gotten just fondled in a hallway.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Yikes.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

True terrors of the woods in the city. True terrors.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And I had no Joe McMillan telling me, like, here's your emergency plan now.

[Michael McMillan]

If you see a bellhop and he tells you to go into the service entrance, I just had no.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No plan.

[Riley Bray]

Do not follow.

[Michael McMillan]

Walk in the opposite direction.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Follow him in.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Riley Bray]

I did think of a time I got lost.

[Michael McMillan]

Uhhuh.

[Riley Bray]

But it was a little older. But it was when I first got my driver's license and, like, I'm old enough that we, you know, we just, like, had the Thomas Guide, you know, the book.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Thomas guy talked about it on.

[Riley Bray]

So I had the Thomas Guide. I planned my route, and it was trying to. I. I got off the. I got. I missed my exit, and I got off the freeway downtown and I. I drove into skid row. Yeah. And I was completely lost. And I had never seen anything like that before.

[Michael McMillan]

And la, for those of you who don't know, LA has a notorious skid row area.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

It's like where the Night Stalker used to, like, find his victims.

[Riley Bray]

It's very grim. Yeah. And so that was like. That was a moment of sort of just like, true panic because I'd. I'd only been driving for like, a month.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Riley Bray]

Or something like that. And it just. I don't know, it was just like, pure fear. But I just sort of, like, just wandered around. And it was an eye opener for sure. Like being like, a sheltered kid and then seeing, oh, people live like this.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. And it's, like, right here, one block away from, like, regular downtown.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah. Like financial district and all that. Yeah. So that was.

[Michael McMillan]

That's scary.

[Riley Bray]

That was. That was a good lump in my throat.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. It's like driving into a zombie apocalypse.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Scary stuff. All right, well, we've learned some real valuable lessons today on the show. We're going to take another break, and then when we come back, we'll get into some high strangeness. All right, everybody, we're back from our little break, and it's time to kick off a brand new 2026 list of our favorite game to play here on the show. I'm going to run down a list of phenomena. Rapid Firestyle. If you're open to it, you're gonna say Believe it. If you're not open to it, you're gonna say bullshit. They have to decide here and now.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

How many seconds do I get to decide?

[Michael McMillan]

A fraction of a second.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

This is a game that we call bullshit or believe it.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

All right, Let me take a sip.

[Michael McMillan]

I almost called you Kevin McAllister because you were lost in New York.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Gotta get hit that coffee. If I'm supposed to respond quickly.

[Michael McMillan]

Yes. Just. Just, you know, let it flow out of you.

[Riley Bray]

Here we go.

[Michael McMillan]

Kevin Kirkpatrick. On your mark. Get set. Ghosts. Wait.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

What are my options?

[Michael McMillan]

Believe it or.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Okay, yeah, okay. Ghost. Okay, one more time. Ghost. Bullshit.

[Michael McMillan]

Bigfoot.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I kind of believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

UFOs

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

bullshit.

[Michael McMillan]

The loch Ness monster?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Bullshit.

[Michael McMillan]

The Bermuda Triangle.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Ish. Believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

Tarot cards?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Bullshit.

[Michael McMillan]

Manifestation. Believe it. El Chupacabra.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I don't know enough about that.

[Michael McMillan]

Ouija boards.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Bullshit.

[Michael McMillan]

Seeing the future out of body experiences.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. Believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

Aliens.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I believe it. I just don't think we've really met them.

[Michael McMillan]

Dog man.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Huh? Well, no. Well, I don't know about him.

[Michael McMillan]

Goatman.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, I know about Goatman.

[Michael McMillan]

Sheep Squatch.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Sheep Squatch. I don't know anything about that big

[Michael McMillan]

sheep, but, like, walks like a man.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Bullshit.

[Michael McMillan]

Bat Squatch.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Stop. Bullshit.

[Michael McMillan]

Life on other planets.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. Believe it. Life after death, in some sense. I think I believe it. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, great. Now, why did you say bullshit to UFOs and you kind of held your finger out like. Let me come back to that.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, I did. I don't know what I did with my finger.

[Michael McMillan]

UFOs are bullshit. Well. Well, I think.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, I tend to. And a lot of that is. So much of the reporting smacks so hard of bullshit. And when I've seen the people talking about it, I just get my bullshit. Radar goes crazy. Does that mean in that cacophony? Is that the right word in that? In all those reportings? Maybe there's one or two that are true. But so many people have been bullshitty about it, reporting them that I. It's colored. Are you okay?

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

What's going on?

[Michael McMillan]

I lost my glasses. I heard every word you were saying.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah. So I think that. Okay, if I'm gonna say I believe it, it's probably that I believe there's been one or, you know, a handful of sightings. But just I feel like. God, I feel like people have really abused that one. I feel like everybody's got a UFO signing because they see anything that's. I'M not sure what that is. And they're immediately like, I'm so rare and fortunate to be someone who saw a ufo. Like, I don't know, I just get a real bullshit vibe.

[Michael McMillan]

Wow. Okay, well, this is actually. You've set me up perfectly here, Kevin, because.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And by the way, I. You, you're colored by the fact that you want UFOs to be true so bad. Like if you.

[Michael McMillan]

That seems like an unfair judgment.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, you want it so bad, so if you see, if you saw a shooting star, your brain would go, ah, ufo.

[Michael McMillan]

I'm not an idiot. I know what a shooting star is.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Like, whenever there's a new model of car come out and it zooms by us at a cafe, you're always like, that's true.

[Riley Bray]

He does do that.

[Michael McMillan]

I'm like, low flying ufo time travelers. That's what I say. Time.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And then I have to go, no,

[Michael McMillan]

I'm like, that car was too futuristic. It must come from the future.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, that's not Pole star, Michael.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, okay. I want it to be true so badly. Okay, so we are going to get into this week's story of high strangeness. And I hopefully don't have to tell you the passcode to this iPad. Kevin, just hold on to this because you're going to play one of our characters. You'll. I will give you a little signal when it's time. Don't worry about it right now, but just maybe have your finger hovering over that so it doesn't lock screen on you, but you're gonna read those lines.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

The screen.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, exactly. But don't, don't, don't, don't worry about that yet. So full disclosure. Okay, so here's what happened.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

So keep physical contact at all times with the iPad at all times. But then also don't worry about it.

[Riley Bray]

Correct.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Okay.

[Riley Bray]

Yes.

[Michael McMillan]

You can two whole. You can hold two truths at once.

[Riley Bray]

It's like a Tamagotchi. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Every now and then just give it a little tension. Yeah, a little.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

My pee brain right now is just flooded right now.

[Michael McMillan]

I know.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

With.

[Michael McMillan]

Touch it, touch it.

[Riley Bray]

Keep it away.

[Michael McMillan]

Touch it, touch it. Well, just don't worry about it.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, I got it. I got it.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay.

[Riley Bray]

So, so distracting.

[Michael McMillan]

I gotta be.

[Riley Bray]

Now I'm just watching him tapping the pad.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

It's just like, it's like what I assume like pleasing a woman. Like it's just this light little.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah, that's it. That's how you do it.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, just a light little, you know, little. But don't think about it. Too much, right?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

You know? Yeah, just like.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, you got to pay attention to what else is going on in the room.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

You know, we're making fun of man, by the way, by saying that.

[Riley Bray]

Yes, yes. Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

So as I was saying, maybe at the top of the show, depending on what the cut was. It's been a little bit of a rough re entry into podcasting at the beginning of 2026, but. So I sat down this week, spent days reading on the story that I've been wanting to do on the show, writing, researching. And then about 15 minutes before I had to leave to come here, I noticed another document in my notes where I was like, huh? And then realized that I have already talked about this on the other side in a loosey goosey episode this summer where I kind of, like, read from some articles. So I call Riley in a panic and I say, I think I've done this already. Completely forgot about it, but I hadn't really done it yet as. As a segment of high Strangeness. So if you. If you heard the proto version of this over on the other side, well, hey, welcome to my process.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

And. And if you haven't heard this before, then get ready because I don't think Kevin has.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

No, I bet I haven't.

[Michael McMillan]

You, Cube. How's that going over there?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Good. How. How many seconds do you think it. It lives without needing to be?

[Michael McMillan]

Exactly four and a half seconds.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Every four seconds, I touch the iPad.

[Michael McMillan]

I would just. Every 10 seconds, just give it a little, I don't know, 30 seconds.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Would it be distracting if I count

[Michael McMillan]

out loud the screen dim? Give it a little.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, that's a great one.

[Riley Bray]

Maybe just mouth the words, don't say it out loud, and then we'll be okay.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

And then if it locks, I'll give you the code, and then we can just beep it. Or I'll change the code on the iPad.

[Riley Bray]

On the event that a listener finds

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

your iPad, you're gonna get jumped by one of your listeners. Listeners are going to snatch your iPad.

[Michael McMillan]

Give me that iPad.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

And then what do they have access to?

[Michael McMillan]

It's my dead father's iPad, okay? And that's why I don't have it set up the way that I want.

[Riley Bray]

Oh.

[Michael McMillan]

It was the last thing he ever gave me. As he died, he handed me his iPad and then said, just touch this like you would a woman to keep it open. I was like, okay, dad. Okay, here we go. On January 8, 2008, four people outside Stevenville, Texas, Steve Allen, Mike Odom, and his Wife. Not her name. That's not, it's.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

It's.

[Michael McMillan]

Hold on. Timeout. Already fucked up. How's that iPad going?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, it's great.

[Michael McMillan]

Let me double check her name because I. I know I got it wrong here. Okay, can we start over?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

We are.

[Michael McMillan]

No, we're not going to start over. Oh, here it is. Okay, I'm just going to copy and paste this. I put Claudia, but it's Claudette. Okay, everybody. Okay, Here we go. January 8, 2008. Four people outside Stephenville, Texas.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Oh, wait, I have heard this just like a few seconds ago.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Steve Allen, Mike Odom and his wife Claudette and their friend Lance were set to enjoy a campfire on Odom's property when they witnessed a massive unknown craft heading east to west. In the evening sky, the craft bore large bright lights the color of magnesium flares, which appeared as orbs. At first, Allen, a pilot himself, described them so bright that they almost hurt your eyes to look at them. As the orbs moved overhead, the men could see that they were part of a large triangular aircraft. As it vanished to the west, the Group watched as two F16 jets flew overhead, chasing after the craft. Read your first line there, Kevin. You're going to play Steve Allen. This eyewitness.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Legits look like they were chasing the lights, and the lights seemed to be toying with them. It was like a hundred horsepower car trying to keep up with a 1000 horsepower one.

[Michael McMillan]

Now, Steve Allen described witnessing these seven lights across the back of the craft, starting as a line, but then they transform into an arch shape, then converted into a vertical shape and then split and made two shapes, and then these turned into fire and just vanished.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Whoa.

[Michael McMillan]

And he's not the only person that would go on to see that same shape. Other people would report that same sequence of lights happening that night. The weird thing about it is that as he watched his craft fly by, he described feeling full of peace and bliss.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

What amazed me is there was no wind noise, no engine noise. There was silence. When it came past us, I developed the most peaceful, easy feeling I think I've ever had in my life. It was almost like a religious experience, like I was at one with whatever it was, something I've never had before or since then. It was unreal.

[Michael McMillan]

And he said this thing was. He had a friend ask him, well, how big was it? Was it about as big as a Walmart? And he said, oh, it was bigger than a Walmart. He said, this thing was a mile wide, this giant craft.

[Riley Bray]

Whoa.

[Michael McMillan]

So this encounter was just One of dozens that occurred on the night of January 8, 2008 in Stephenville, Texas, involving strange multicolored lights, orbs and a big black flying triangle. The case remains a mystery. A mass UFO encounter that rivals the size of the Phoenix Lights, if not in the size of the populace who witnessed the crafts, then certainly in the size of the relevance of the case to the UFO phenomenon. Club scouts of all timelines. It is time for us to finally turn our attention to the UFO story known as the Stephenville UFO encounter. Now, have you ever been to Stephenville, Texas? You're from Texas.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I've been through it.

[Michael McMillan]

What's it like from your memory? Can you describe it? No, I'm sorry, it's, it's a dairy town in would you say Central Texas. It's about an hour, hour 15 drive southwest from Fort Worth. It's located in Erith County. It has a population of about 20,000 people in 2008. And it's a farmland. It's a farmlands, big dairy. They call it the dairy capital of the world. And it's not really the type of place, from what I could gather that you would think anything exciting would really happen.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I don't ever. I'm sure there's a little downtown, but I don't even remember that. I just remember it's just rural. Yeah, yeah, farmland.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, what happened on January 8th of 2008 changed all of that. After Steve Allen and his friends witnessed the mile wild, mile wide luminous craft, he called friends who worked at the local airport who then checked in with the radar tower at Fort Worth airport who claimed that they had nothing to report. Frustrated with lack of answers, Allen the next morning phoned the local paper, the Empire Tribune in Stephenville, where he spoke to a local reporter named Angela Joyner. Now, Angela Joyner, excuse me everyone, I have a bit of a frog in my throat. You're fine there. You can let go of that. Now Angela Joyner is really the local hero of this story. She's the one who took the case seriously, started reporting on it and then basically got punished for it, which really fucking sucks. And sadly she died in 2021 of COVID But she would go on to be like, you know, talk about this story for the following decade and really try to say this is something that really happened to people here. So Angela Joyner talked to Steve, she said, I really, I, I believe this guy. He is a no nonsense dairy farmer or you know, he was in the farm industry there and he was a pilot himself. And she was like, if this guy, if Steve says he saw this, then they really saw something, because he's, like, not the type of guy to, like, go out and, like, spin a yarn. So she took the story to her editor, Sarah Vanderburg. And Sarah Vanderburg had recently moved there from California, took herself very seriously, wanted to be respected as an editor, and she heard the story and said, okay, write me up a little bit of a. Of a pitch and we'll talk about it. She went home that night, and Angela Joyner went, I'm gonna publish a story. And she put the paper to print without her approval. And the next morning, Sarah Vanderburg woke up to see a huge front page headline that read, possible UFO sightings in Aerith County. And she got off. Afraid that the news was a tabloid piece. Vandenberg got back to the office to bitch out Joyner and then was surprised to learn from the publishers that they had sold out of the. Every paper at every stand in the. In the area. And she went, okay, there's something to this story. Well, why was this a big sellout? Beside, aside from the grabby headline, it turns out that many people in the Stevenville area had seen weird lights that night. And not just that night. Dozens of eyewitnesses came forward with their stories, including a hunter named Richard Sorrells, a police, and a police constable named Leroy Gaten. A couple weeks earlier, Sorels was deer hunting on his property when he saw a massive craft flying over the tree canopy. He said the whole woods went dark like there was an eclipse. And he looked up and saw a black triangle that blocked out his entire view of the sky. He said he looked to the right and could not see where it ended. He looked to the left, couldn't see any corners. And he looked down past. Tried to see past the nose of this thing and couldn't. Couldn't see any sky.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Whoa.

[Michael McMillan]

And Joyner says that this story was particularly unique because it was the one eyewitness account that happened during daytime. He was. He said that the craft was rivetless. There were no nuts and bolts. He's staring at this thing through the scope of his rifle, and he thought about shooting it. And he was like, maybe I don't want to start an intergalactic war. But he said the one thing he said he could see indentions, column like indentions in the belly of the craft that started a bit wide and then made, sort of ended in cone shapes going, yeah, yeah, into the craft. He also, there were rumors, and Steve Allen had heard this and I. I don't think because Sorel's ever said this in the news, but there were rumors going around town in a very Mac, Brazil and Roswell kind of way after the Roswell incident that he had, that there were portals in the craft and he could see an occupant in the craft that looked like a giant, giant praying mantis. And mantids, Kevin, are one of the common types of alien beings that people will report in alien abduction stories. So he watched it take off. He said it was barn gray. It wasn't shiny, called a barn gray. So I think like a matte finish. And he said he watched this thing take off at a 45 degree angle, thought that it would go like tip up to go, but was stayed flat. And then suddenly he said it was almost like it vanished. It was almost like it disappeared in thin air. No noise. He said this thing, the way it took off, it should have sucked him up in, in the draft and taken him with it. But he said there was no interaction with the atmosphere, which made me think about the Age of Disclosure documentary that we just talked about over on the other side. That these things don't interact with atmospheres or going in and out of water, that they have some sort of warp bubble around them that allow them to completely manipulate the like physics, basically. So a couple. Let's see. So Sorrells, who would recount his story on later that week on Larry King Live, said that after he reported this story, military helicopters and other military people started showing up on his property and harassing him. He said low flying helicopters would come and they drive his cattle, like work his cattle into frenzies. And he would get knocks on the door and they'd be like, whatever you saw, you're not supposed to talk about it anymore. He said he got into his pickup truck and there was a bullet casing sitting on his dashboard. He told the Empire Tribune that a military guy told him, son, we have the same caliber weapons you have, but we have more of them. Him, you need to shut your mouth about what you saw. And Sorrell said, I'm trying to decide whether or not to open the door. We're just standing there face to face, looking at each other. I'm thinking he's dressed for the elements and the dogs are raising such a ruckus. He must know he's in danger of being caught. And that's when I realized he wanted me to see him. The man then turned away and then walked back into the woods. So he was getting harassed like mib style by military types. Weird.

[Riley Bray]

Like, why weird?

[Michael McMillan]

I don't know. This is all goes into the. The classic UFO stuff. On January 8th, the same night that Steve Allen and his friends saw the massive craft, police constable Leroy Gaten was walking out to the car, about to leave to go rent a video for his wife's birthday, when he looked up to the sky.

[Riley Bray]

And that's all you're doing for your wife's birthday.

[Michael McMillan]

He's like, they had had cakes.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Lucky her.

[Riley Bray]

This guy doesn't know how to keep an iPad on, you know, there was.

[Michael McMillan]

Were there iPads in 2008? Yeah, it's true. He had no practice. He didn't have touch screens yet. So he looks up and he sees in the sky flashing red orbs and his son just going, blinking in and out all around the sky. And then his son came out and watched them and was like, daddy, what's that? And then they formed a line and then shot off into the night sky. That was the same night. That's. And then two F16 fighter jets pursue it. So 2008 wasn't the first time orbs had been seen hovering over the area. Another eyewitness, Dr. Norma Briseno, a high school principal, claims that she had first seen them way back in 1989 during Christmas break while getting ready to travel to Mexico with her family. It was Mother's Day and her mom was out feeding cows, and lights started appearing in the sky like bubbles. She called out her daughter, Norma, and mom was afraid of the. Of these light bubbles. She thought they were evil spirits. And the next day, while driving to Mexico, the bubbling lights returned and Norma watched them from her car window. And she thinks that they were the same lights, whatever they were, that appeared in the night sky on January 8, 2008. She's like, these things have showed up here before. I saw them when I was a kid. Constable Gaten was initially reluctant to share his story because he was an elected official, but relaxed when so many other people came forward with their stories. And come forward they did. Pat Leewood, a local bank chairman, reached out to MUFON director Robert Powell, who was a nanotech engineer, to host a town hall so eyewitnesses could gather and report their story to, well, the experts who were mufon. Nobody knew who to call and talk about this with. And the military was saying, we weren't flying any jets. We didn't do anything that night. So not only was Pat Lee, what a big deal in town, his family had been there for a long time. His Father had been mirror. Pat and his wife Lisa were eyewitnesses on the night of January 8th as well. They had their friend Kent over for a backyard hang. I love. Everyone's just having a, like, campfire on this night. So they were out drinking next to the campfire, and Kent starts telling them, I saw the weirdest thing a couple days ago. I saw a big, black flying Dorito flying through the sky. And they were all laughing at him and teasing him, and he got up and looked up in the sky and goes, oh, well, they're back. And they went, who's back? And they looked up and they saw this giant craft flying overhead, the black triangle with the row of seven lights on the back. So Pat was like, I gotta figure out what the hell this thing is. So he contacts Robert Powell from mufon. He said, let's do a town hall thing. How many people usually show up for these conferences?

[Riley Bray]

And.

[Michael McMillan]

And Robert Powell says, I don't know, 35 is usually max what we get. So they. They set up a hall for people to banquet hall. They s. They tell everybody, we're going to have a meeting with the muon people to talk about the UFO sightings. They set up 35 chairs and hundreds of people show up. Sure. And Robert Powell goes, how many of y' all had an incident that night? And dozens of hands shoot up in the air. And they were like, holy, there's really something going on here. And Angela Joyner from the Empire Tribune was there that night taking people's stories and continuing to report on this. Sadly, a few weeks later, Angela Joyner got fired from the paper by her editor because she had ignored her, you know, orders to sit on this story. And despite all of the town and selling out all of these papers, they basically were like, you ran the story without permission.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

You're.

[Michael McMillan]

You're done. But she continued to go online and be sort of a champion for the. What became known as the Stephenville lights. Ironically, nine months later, that same editor in chief, Sarah Vanderburg, would see the lights in the sky that July. Driving home, she pulled over and she watched it. And she went, well, that's what everybody's been seeing.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Wow.

[Michael McMillan]

So let's look at the evidence of the case. The military, as I mentioned, denied flying jets in the airspace over Stephenville and blamed the UFOs on the eyewitnesses. Stupidity, basically, from an NPR article published that week. Military officials, however, were skeptical. They said the residents are letting their imaginations run wild and pass it off as an optical illusion. They said it was likely nothing more than a reflection of sunlight on two airliners. Officials at a nearby Air Force base also said their fighter pilots didn't chase down anything that night. And then hearing this, I'm going to pass this over to. To. For Kevin to read. I forgot about this line. Steve Allen heard this explanation by the military, and he said. He said this, Kevin, you see where it's a.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Reflect. A reflection off two airliners. How about a reflection off my white ass?

[Riley Bray]

Hell, yeah. Steve, he was.

[Michael McMillan]

He became a real keyboard champ, you know, hero, trying to figure out what this was. He was pissed because he was getting denied left and right by the military and everything. He also said that somebody came to his door and said, you know, you're a prominent guy in town. It would be really. It would be tough to explain why, how you would disappear without explanation. So he was getting threats as well. So then, then two weeks later, the military goes, oh, did we say we weren't flying any F16s out there? Uh, hold on. We were, they said. The Air Force Reserve in nearby Fort Worth initially scoffed at reports and denied the possibility that had fighters in the area. Air Force officials reversed course Wednesday, however, and admitted that there were nearly a dozen F16 flying over Stephenville that night. Major Carl Lewis attributes the change in response to an internal communications mistake. There was an error that was reported, and we corrected that error as soon as possible, he said.

[Riley Bray]

So they're saying that all the lights were F16s.

[Michael McMillan]

They were like, oh, we. At first they said, well, we never. We weren't even flying F16. Right then they went, well, we were, but there weren't any UFOs out there.

[Riley Bray]

Right?

[Michael McMillan]

So then what happens next is Robert Powell from MUFON teams up with this guy Glenn Schultz Waltz, who has radar experience from working at the White Sands Missile Range. And these guys decide, all right, let's get the radar data from that night and see if anything shows up on the radar that would corroborate Steve Allen's story, Pat and Lisa's story, and Leroy Gaten's story, and sure enough, they find it. They had to file multiple Freedom of Information act requests to get the radar, but basically got from the FAA the radar logs of June 8, 2008, and tracked all the F16 jets. And it lined up with where the eyewitnesses said that they were. Anything that had a transponder on the radar, they were able to pinpoint that night. And then they could find anomalous things showing up on the radar that did not have transponders but moved at speeds that were described by the eyewitnesses, which is pretty insane.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Schultz.

[Michael McMillan]

Powell concluded that the radar data confirms the witness observations of an object as well as the Air Force's statement that said 10 aircraft are operating in the area. They say that it is too difficult to say what the witnesses saw, but there was something there. Twice they say radar picked up an object traveling at nearly 2,000 miles per hour and at other times it showed a slow moving object. So Gaten said that it was moving slowly and then turned and shot off in a direction that was basically towards where Steve Allen and his crew were.

[Riley Bray]

Right.

[Michael McMillan]

And it all corresponds with happening around the same time, around 6pm that night. Really cool stuff.

[Riley Bray]

The radar doesn't say anything about the size of the object at all or.

[Michael McMillan]

Let me see. I have all of this in my notes.

[Riley Bray]

Check that radar data for me real quick.

[Michael McMillan]

Let me pull up the radar. So, Kevin, what are you thinking as. As I'm describing this stuff? As someone who thinks that UFOs are bullshit, what do you think's going on here?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Well, I like this one.

[Michael McMillan]

And why?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Well, because there's a. There's a lot of corroboration. So I'm liking this one as something.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay. Now it's. Yeah. Living in Texas, you know how big that sky is. We were talking about it. So you can really see what's going on up in there, don't you think? Yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

We didn't always get a lot of sky. Sometimes it was sort of obscured by. We had a lot of Dorito planes.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, a lot.

[Riley Bray]

Of course.

[Michael McMillan]

So here are the quotes from Robert Powell who says, so once I identified where the F16s were, I went to start looking for objects that did not have transponders. What I find is radar data that confirms what Steve Allen and Leroy Gaten have told me. There are two radar points that showed an object moving without a transponder. The two data points match the time and geographical location of Steve Allen sighting. This is outside of the military operating area. So it should have a transponder if it is a military aircraft, but it doesn't. In the case of Leroy, I had about five data points on the radar indicating there is this object. It's not very often that you get radar data that just corroborates exactly what a witness said in terms of geographic location at the time. These stories check out with radar data. So there's absolutely no doubt that there's an object in the sky and that the object that's in the sky does not have a transporter code that tells you that you're dealing with something, that tells you you're dealing with something real, whatever it is.

[Riley Bray]

Right, yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

So they didn't necessarily say the size of it, but they said it, it was there and moved in the patterns that the, that the eyewitnesses on the ground were saying.

[Riley Bray]

Are we saying these seven lights and the, the Doritos are the same thing?

[Michael McMillan]

This is where things are. It's kind of like the Phoenix lights. They're of the same thing or they break apart from it and it changes. It's. It's an anamorphous object. Got it. Because they did say that that mile wide craft is the big Dorito. But then he said he saw the tail lights on this thing go from blinking in and out in a line to an arch to a vertical shape with a hot red center and then break into two sections, burn like fire and then vanish.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Weird.

[Michael McMillan]

So whatever this craft is, it might change shapes as well. Or sometimes they're just appearing as bubble lights in the sky, blinking in and out and not in a straight line. So it's hard, it's really hard to say if it's just one object, if there are multiple objects and then one like mothership, essentially where these lights are breaking off from, you know, it's also happening at night. So they're getting, you know, the outline of the craft but not getting daylight views in the case that like Ricky Sorrell's did when he was out. Out hunting.

[Riley Bray]

Right.

[Michael McMillan]

But Leroy Gaten saw lights again on February 2. He got a call that there was a break in alarm in a local store. So he got up, took his car down and above the store there was a single orb floating in the sky. And he filmed it on his dash cam, which was vhs. He said it was brand new tape equipment running properly. But on playback it's all distorted. But you see a flashing ball in the sky with the timestamp on it from his dash cam. But that goes in and out. It's like basically a really bad recording as it. If whatever it is is interfering with the equipment, that's taking, it's taking the video.

[Riley Bray]

That's wild.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. So this is the Stevenville, Texas UFO event of June, January 8, 2008. So about what is that? What are we? Do the math for me. 12, 15 years ago. What is that? Close enough, close enough, yeah. 12 years ago. So what do you think? What the hell is that, Kevin?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, that's pretty. That's a compelling case. There's so Many. So much corroboration of evidence and eyewitness. That's really interesting. And I've heard of this. I mean people. And a lot of people probably heard of the Stephenville.

[Michael McMillan]

It's a lesser known.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Follow this. It's lesser known.

[Michael McMillan]

It's a lesser known one. Netflix has a story on it in their Encounters miniseries, which is not a

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

standalone documentary on this.

[Michael McMillan]

No, there should be. There's the Encounters episode. Larry King did a segment on it the week of and it was like a big deal. And Steve Allen and his wife and Richard Sorrells was on it. Leroy Gaten was interviewed. Angela Joyner was interviewed. And then that's when like also unfortunately, a lot of the people, with the exception of, I think Leroy Gaten, Steve Allen lost a lot of business because of it. He was ridiculed. Angela Joyner got fired from the paper because she ran the story. This. There was still such a stigma around this stuff, especially in this part of Texas. And a lot of the other eyewitnesses, some we didn't even talk about on this segment, they were like, talk. They really keep coming back to this feeling like a religious experience, probably because it's Texas and the culture there. But a lot of people think that it's like. Like the, the UFO thing might be some sort of spiritual thing as well. You know, whatever angels are. That this is how they. They appear to people. But weird stuff sounds really military involved. Very.

[Riley Bray]

Is there a base right around there?

[Michael McMillan]

There? I'm sure, yeah. I mean, Fort Worth is nearby, so I mean, I'm sure there's so many military bases. I mean, they're flying those F16s out of someplace active.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I think there's normally activity with military,

[Michael McMillan]

but it's got the weird rumors. There's a lot of like, of. Of seeing an occupant, which is a mantle manted alien. And that there's also like, there's a parallel between Richard Sorrell's the Hunter and Mac Brazil because if you recall in the Roswell series, Mac Braswell was driving a new truck around town and people thought that the military paid him to shut up and stop talking about it. It. And people also said that they think Richard's. Because there was a point where Richard Sorells just stopped talking about it. And they think that maybe he got paid off by the government to just finally keep his mouth shut. So there's a lot of. Also like, oh, I heard a rumor about this and I heard a rumor about that. And why is he suddenly not wanting to talk about it anymore, you know, or they really scared him to the point that he shut up. But, you know, he. On Larry King, he didn't seem scared to talk about. He's like, I told this guy to get off my property.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

You know, this is like, again, Texas, you know?

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

So it's a cool case. You know, it's a big case and there's not enough about it out there, I think. And it's one where witnesses are still alive. So we could. We could really do some good research and get a lot of stories out there. So recent, I mean, 2008. It's not that. Not that long ago.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah. And the fact that you have the, like the actual radar data too, although they were testing some sort of top secret thing, it probably wouldn't have a transponder on it.

[Michael McMillan]

It wouldn't. I mean, that. And if it's top secret, great. But also that doesn't explain it being able to, like, vanish in the blink

[Riley Bray]

of an eye or being a mile wide.

[Michael McMillan]

Or being a mile wide and running without engine sound. Silent. I mean, it doesn't make sense.

[Riley Bray]

No, it really doesn't.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

But it also doesn't make sense that a praying mantis could build.

[Michael McMillan]

That makes perfect sense.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

A destroyer.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, it might be a robot.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Think about their hands.

[Michael McMillan]

It might be a robot. Good boy.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

How can they hold a wrench?

[Michael McMillan]

It might just be a robot.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

In the.

[Michael McMillan]

Looking out the window doesn't necessarily mean it's the person who invented the craft. You know, you see a dog sitting in the car. Do you think that dog built the car? I've wondered. You know, could be a pet. We don't know.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

It's the. Yeah, it's their pet.

[Michael McMillan]

It's their version of a dog just hanging out, waiting for their owner to come back from collecting soil samples. I like that. All right, well, there you go. The Stephenville UFO event. Kevin Kirkpatrick, thanks for being here.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

My pleasure.

[Michael McMillan]

We appreciate it. Yeah. So do we have a Collector's Corner? Plugs, anything?

[Riley Bray]

You guys chat for a second.

[Michael McMillan]

Where are you going? Are you gonna go grab something and show us? So we have a segment at the end of the show called Collector's Corner, Kevin, where we talk about anything that we're, like, into right now. Are you watching or reading or collecting anything that you recommend? I, for one, am into the pit. Love the pit. Finally catching up on that. Loving it.

[Riley Bray]

I'm.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

I'm current on the pit. I don't know if I love it, but I, I don't actually. I like watching it. Just fine. And I do not understand what is particularly compelling about.

[Michael McMillan]

I find it so like I put it on and I'm immediately sucked into it.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, but what do you, what are you sucked into? Just like figuring out what's the case, what's wrong with that patient?

[Michael McMillan]

No, I just think it's like shot so well. I think Noah Wiley is so compelling as an actor on that show. I'm really enjoy. I love the, like, it's all kind of real time. I don't know, I just really like the characters. I like the feeling it, it gives me that sense of nostalgia of watching like ER on a Thursday night. I must see tv. But, but it's like made for premium cable or premium streaming now. It just, I really enjoy it. I think it's really well shot. Well, so well written. There's, you know, they get in and out of stuff really fast, which I really like. They sprinkle in the character drama. They don't like, like, you know, it's, it's just, I like that it's always moving. It's on a track. It's a roller coaster show. It's really good.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yeah, I think, yeah, they way more so than like ER was, right?

[Michael McMillan]

Oh yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

The pace of it.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh yeah.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

They're really tapping into the way unfortunately, in the way people's brains now need, needs, if you even call it storytelling. Like nobody can like sit like they could before with something slow. Like it has to be like this, then that.

[Michael McMillan]

But I, I, I think other shows do do that and do do that well. But this is just what this show does. It makes you feel like you're in the middle of the urgent emergency.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

It's, Yeah, I agree with all that. I just don't know. I'm, I'm curious what makes it like can't wait to watch it. Like for me and Traders, like, I can't wait.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, I love Traders.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Like, I cannot wait to watch the next Trader.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, I love it. I don't know, I just think it's really good, really good storytelling.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Yes. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Love Traders. Big Traders fan.

[Riley Bray]

I watched Pluribus. Finally.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, Pluribus. Have you watched Pluribus yet?

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Nope.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh man. Good. I love it.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah. Recommend.

[Michael McMillan]

It's my favorite show of 2025. Yeah, for sure. Before we. Peace out. I want to say thank you ever. Oh, first of all, thank you to everybody on the Discord who sent messages about my dad passing. I talked about it a little bit over on the other side a couple weeks ago and you guys said some very Nice things and I really appreciate it. Shared some of your own stories about things that happen in the days following your own family members deaths. And so thank you. And if you want to listen to that episode, go check out BCC the Other side. It's part of BCC Clubhouse. On bcc.supercast.com you'll get three bonus episodes every month. You'll get access to ad free episodes, including slowly but quickly working through the early classic episodes. We just posted, for example, Kevin's first appearance on the show a couple weeks ago. And it's fun going back and listening to those and checking those out again. So all of that's on the ad free. And then we have Cosmic Tracks by Riley where perhaps you'll hear something like this.

[Riley Bray]

So this isn't a Guatemalan flute, but it's an Aztec flute.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Whoa.

[Riley Bray]

That I got at a flea market in Mexico City.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

This is real.

[Michael McMillan]

This will summon a ufo.

[Riley Bray]

And then right now I really freaked out bringing it back because I was like, am I like raiding artifacts? But like apparently it's fine and stuff's just everywhere.

[Michael McMillan]

So maybe somebody just made it like a couple months ago.

[Riley Bray]

No, I think this is like hundreds of years old.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay. Whoa. Nova.

[Riley Bray]

Spooky, right?

[Michael McMillan]

It's really spooky.

[Riley Bray]

It's three chambers.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

Nice.

[Riley Bray]

It's like a nonsensical scale.

[Michael McMillan]

Very Legend of Zelda. I like it.

[Riley Bray]

Anyways, we'll see what happens.

[Michael McMillan]

All right, well, if we don't see you over on the other [e-mail] we'll see you back here next week for an all new episode of Bigfoot. But Collectors Club. Until then, good night and go get regressed. Bye Bye.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

There's a. There's three Aztec man crawling up out of the ravine.

[Michael McMillan]

Give that back.

[Riley Bray]

He's got my smash.

[Michael McMillan]

Bigfoot Collectors Club is executive produced by Riley Bray and Michael McMillan and engineered and edited by Riley Bray. Our theme song is Come Alone by Suneaters courtesy of Lotus pool Records. For ad free listening and bonus episodes every month, join BCC Clubhouse on bcc.supercast.com Want to see us watch video episodes and explore exclusive content on YouTube.com ICFootCollectors Club? This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in with a full lineup of non alcoholic beer styles. You can enjoy bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water.

[Kevin Kirkpatrick]

In the second half, stock the fridge

[Michael McMillan]

for tip off with a variety of non alcoholic craft styles. Available at your local grocery store or online at athleticbrewing.com near Beer Fit for all times.