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Walton Goggins
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Mark Haladi
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Sergeant Anthony Rigano
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Mark Haladi
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Walton Goggins
So you want to start a business? You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but listen to me when I say you don't. You just need GoDaddy arrow. I'm Walton Goggins, an actor and I like the sound of starting my own business. Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses. But I couldn't do this my own. GoDaddy Arrow uses AI to create everything you need to grow a business. It'll make you a unique logo, it'll create a custom website, it'll write social posts for you and even set you up with a social media calendar. How cool is that. Well, listen to this. For a limited time you can get Arrow all access for just a dollar a week for 12 weeks. We're talking all the AI power of GoDaddy arrow plus a domain E commerce store, payments, professional email, a unified inbox. All for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Amalfi coast. You know what? That sounds like a plan. Get started@godaddy.com terms apply.
Gabe Leonard
Be sure to listen until the very end of this final season one episode. We have a special announcement. You won't want to miss it. Last time on Obscurum Invasion of the Drones. Yeah, so I can confirm that drone.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
Sightings were not related to F.E.
Gabe Leonard
Warren or the Air Force in any way.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
So that would include contractors or what.
Gabe Leonard
Other third parties that might be.
Mark Haladi
Gentleman put a pivot in, ran the electric line in. He nicked the communications cable and it's pressurized and I think they said 12 minutes over the top of her. This all falls back on the federal government who refused to do anything. There's a narrative and it's an FAA narrative and that's that they know everything.
Walton Goggins
They're the Feds.
Mark Haladi
I mean this is the way it work. A story that a UFO or UAP was in that area is not something they want to deal with.
Gabe Leonard
There are many nights I just wonder where will this story lead? I'm anxious, but I can't worry about what might happen or the consequences of revealing the truth. My curiosity into looking for a connection between the strange sightings that occurred in Arizona in September of 2019 and the objects that began appearing over my hometown a couple months later led me to uncover a string of unexplainable encounters which seemed too related to actually be a coincidence. I was able to confirm that in the same 30 day time frame of December 20, 2019 to January 20, 2020, shortly after the craft first arrived in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, clusters of unknown objects began popping up at night in large numbers in other remote areas of the country. And the FAA was aware. Chapter 17 what's out there?
Mark Haladi
My name is Mark Haladi. Last name is spelled H L A D Y. I'm a sergeant with the Rice County Sheriff's Office. I've been doing this 28 and a half years with this department. Rice county is mainly rural. We do have two towns of about 24,000 a piece. Northfield is in the north end of the county and Faribault, Minnesota is in the central to south end of the county. I35 splits us right in half.
Gabe Leonard
In Minnesota, Sergeant Hawati of the Rice County Sheriff's Office witnessed a wild spectacle in the night sky on New year's Eve of 2019.
Mark Haladi
It was new Year's Eve. Excuse me. So at about 6:30pm dispatch gave out a report of several drones. There's a small town, a very small town, unincorporated, basically just northeast of Faribault, called Cannon City. And some reports started to come in between Cannon City and Faribault that there were several drones flying over the area. I got out to the Cannon City area. They would hover, they would move. Then one of them literally went right over my head very, very slowly. And it was probably 80 to 100ft up, but it literally went right over the top of my head about 80, 90ft. I was standing outside of my squad car in a small church parking lot, and I was looking straight up. I went north on the road from this small town, straight north, and it accelerated from 40, 50 miles an hour up to, oh, I bet you it was 80, was outrunning me, and I was doing 50, 55 to 60 at most.
Gabe Leonard
Did it appear to you that these were aware that you were there, that you were pursuing that one?
Mark Haladi
There's no reason to be doing 20, 30 miles an hour flying around eastern Faribault and all of a sudden slow down to five miles an hour to pass directly over me. It was very obvious from the beginning that these drones were not being flown by line of sight. And it was obvious that these drones were being flown most likely over a cell service to receive the signals. Because these drones were going 25, 10, 15 miles. Was a drone I watched when. When it outran me, I stopped on the top of a hill and parked in a field entrance, and I watched this drone. And then it stopped. And it was a ways out, but I had my binoculars, and it was flashing white and green. And then it started to go up. And what was odd is it when it started to go up, it started to go up slowly, but it kept doing it for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes. This thing. This thing ended up being thousands of feet in the air, still flashing green and white. And I just. I couldn't. I couldn't figure it out. But one to two hours after the drones left our area, they showed up, or most likely the same group, we don't know, showed up in Goodhue and Wabasha counties along the Mississippi river. And they were being chased around by deputies down there to the point where the state patrol even sent, I believe it was a helicopter down in that area. But they never even. Never found anything, and the drones just up and disappeared.
Gabe Leonard
As a seasoned investigator, Sergeant Holladi knew what needed to be done next.
Mark Haladi
I called the FAA and air traffic control, and air traffic control took the message. And then I had an FAA supervisor from Texas somewhere call me and question me about this. And it was interesting because I kind of got the idea that he wanted to blame it on. It was that these were planes. And I'm like, these were not planes. They were not moving the way planes move. And I told him, I said, I heard one. It went right over the top of me at five miles an hour. He goes, well, we don't have any record of anything. I'm like, okay, I'm just letting you know. I don't know. I'm not. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm not saying they were lying to me or, you know, maybe they didn't know either. But it's odd. That's all I can say.
Gabe Leonard
When you talk to the FAA official, did you feel like they were gonna, you know, do follow up on this and figure out what actually going on?
Mark Haladi
Oh, absolutely not. I kind of got the idea that he wanted to be able to put, these were planes so he didn't have to file a report. That is the God's honest truth of what I. After getting off the phone with him, I'm like, I think I have perturbed him more than. It was informative. What he was trying to get me to say is they were down at 500ft. I'm like, no, they're a hell of a lot higher than 500ft. I think maybe he would have had to file a report if something was above a certain point. So he wanted to get me to say it was lower. And he's like, yeah, but distance can make it look higher. And I'm like, okay, I've got 2020 vision at 50 some years old. I know what I'm looking at. And I can tell you I've watched this thing go up for 20 minutes, and it's a lot higher than you're thinking it is.
Gabe Leonard
You never even, like, you know, months later, no one ever called you to say, hey, did you ever figure that out? Or nothing at all. You had no follow up?
Mark Haladi
No follow up. None. I started reading about on the news about all these drones in northeastern Colorado and western Nebraska. I'm like, well, something's up. What's out there?
Walton Goggins
So you want to start a business. You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but Listen to me when I say you don't. You just need GoDaddy arrow. I'm Walton Goggins, an actor and I like the sound of starting my own business. Walton Goggins Goggle glasses. But I couldn't do this my own. GoDaddy Arrow uses AI to create everything you need to grow a business. It'll make you a unique logo, it'll create a custom website, it'll write social posts for you, and even set you up with a social media calendar. How cool is that? Well, listen to this. For a limited time, you can get Aero all access for just a dollar a week for 12 weeks. We're talking all the AI power of GoDaddy arrow plus a domain E commerce store, payments, professional email, a unified inbox. All for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Amalfi coast. You know what? That sounds like a plan. Get started@godaddy.com terms apply.
Mark Haladi
Hi, this is Jevon, your blinds.com design consultant. Oh wow, a real person.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
Yep.
Mark Haladi
I'm here to help with everything from selecting the perfect window treatments to. Well, I've got a complicated project. No problem. We make the complex simple. I can even help schedule a professional measuring install. I didn't realize you did that. We can also send you samples fast and free. Wow. I mean, I always thought I needed.
Gabe Leonard
A designer to come to my home.
Mark Haladi
But scheduling's always a Nightmare. Not with blinds.com, we're on your schedule and there's no haggling pressure or hidden fees either. Hmm. I just might have to do more. Whatever you need. How about you tell me what you had in mind? Okay then. So the first room we're looking at.
Gabe Leonard
Is for guests coming over and I'm thinking of some.
Mark Haladi
Blinds.com has covered over 25 million windows, all backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Shop blinds.com now and save up to 45%. Site wide rules and restrictions may apply. When you're in hr, it can feel like nothing is easy. From payroll to pto, from onboarding to benefits and everything in between, it's a constant juggle of tasks systems and spreadsheets. But your HR software, that's the easy part. Meet BambooHR. Trusted by over 34,000 companies, it handles.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
All your HR tasks, payroll, benefits and.
Mark Haladi
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Sergeant Anthony Rigano
HR is hard.
Mark Haladi
Bamboohr is easy. Ready to simplify all your HR tasks for a limited time, get a $100 Visa gift card when you complete a free demo@bamboohr.com giftcard again, that's bamboohr.com giftcard terms and conditions apply. My brother in law died suddenly and now my sister and her kids have to sell their home. That's why I told my husband we could not put off getting life insurance any longer. An agent offered us a 10 year $500,000 policy for nearly $50 a month. Then we called Selectquote. Selectquote found us identical coverage for only $19 a month, a savings of $369 a year. Whether you need a $500,000 policy or a 5 million dollar policy, SelectQuote could.
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Mark Haladi
You save full details on example policies@Selectquo.com commercials thank you for calling City of Elgin 311-after-hours. If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 91 1.
Gabe Leonard
After leaving a few messages, I was tipped off about a separate incident in a neighboring state.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
I'm Sergeant Anthony Rigano and that's R I G A N O. So I'm you can just go with Tony. I'm a sergeant with the Elgin Police Department in Elgin, Illinois, which is halfway between Rockford and Chicago.
Gabe Leonard
I sent in a Freedom of Information act request with the department. Then I was granted access to a report Sergeant Ragano filled out. Take me back to that day, January 8, 2020.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
What was that day like for you? So at the time I was a patrol sergeant, so I was a sergeant on the afternoon shift, which is about basically 3pm to 11pm we had had a call earlier in the day. I remember it was a very cold day and it had been relatively busy. A caller said there was drones in the air over Elgin High School as the day progressed, maybe fast forward about 20, 30 minutes. Our dispatchers will routinely ask us to call up to their communications division when they have a question or they have a call that they're not sure if they should dispatch or they have just general questions. So I called upstairs and spoke with dispatch and they said, hey, we have more callers in a different area now saying that there's at least 30 drones up in the air over the area of the water treatment facility, which is kind of north of the police department by not. Not by very much. I said, don't dispatch the call. I'll just go check on it myself. So I drove out of the police station and I went up to kind of check. Now it was a. It was a very cold day and we have our own drone unit here at the police department. So I'm relatively. I'm not on the drone unit, but I'm relatively familiar with them. I know in cold weather they don't really fly for that long, at least not the. The ones we have some cold weather batteries, and they still really don't stay up for that long. So I was kind of surprised that they were up in a different area that far away from the first dispatch. So when I got out there, there were a lot of them and they were all kind of moving at the same speed and kind of in unison. And some of them were huge. I'd never personally seen a drone that big. There was probably, I would say, 20 of them at least, that were, I would estimate, about 6ft from like tip to tip. Those were kind of strange because again, I don't really haven't seen anything that big before as far as a drone that's just being flown for, you know, fun. And so I drove back to the police station and a couple of them broke off from the formation flying southeast and stopped over the police station. It was kind of at that point that I reached out to the faa. I had our dispatchers call the faa because we have it, an FAA building in Elgin. So I thought, well, maybe they know about whatever this is. And our local FAA said, we don't know anything about that. We don't show any scheduled flights. We don't show anything on our radar. We don't show anything in the air. Kind of being a police officer, my mind started to spin a little bit and I said, well, why don't you get a hold of somebody who might be able to tell me what's going on with this? Because this is not normal. I thought, what are some high target areas in our town? So I started to kind of go to some different areas. I mean, it started at the school, a large high school in the area. Then it moved up to the water treatment facility, and then they started moving to the southeast side of town over this huge salvage yard junkyard. There were probably 30 of them, by my estimation, just hovering. I got on the phone with a guy from the faa actually, ironically, out of Nebraska. And he was apparently the point person for this. So I spoke with him. So he said, well, see if you can drive and see if you can catch up with them. So I ended up actually following some of them into the town just east of us, which is Bartlett. I was driving about 30, 35 miles an hour and they were pulling away from me. That's also something I'm not really used to. I didn't know. I know drones do do that because I actually do know somebody in my personal life who does drone racing, but those are not large drones, six feet wide. The FAA guy that I was speaking to from Nebraska, he actually told me to see if I could shine my spotlight on one of the smaller ones. So I did at his direction and when I did so, the lights turned off completely and it flew away.
Gabe Leonard
If the FAA had told police to spotlight drones, I was unaware of it.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
At one point as I was leaving Bartlett, I had to stop at a two way stop sign to cross the street. And one of the drones, it stopped moving and then elevated and then it lowered itself behind a tree. That's the one part that really kind of messed with me a little bit. That was the part that was the most responsive, I guess, other than the spotlighting where it just kind of, it was clearly why else did it stop? It knew I was, you know, I guess apparently must have noticed I was following it. For every one small one, there were two of the larger ones.
Gabe Leonard
Did you ever have any follow up from the faa? Were they able to help you conclusively, like gather more information about this?
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
No, I did have contact with another agent and I did forward my report to them. And as well as the, the two callers I think that called it in, they were, they said they were going to follow up and talk to them to see if they saw anything further. I certainly went on the Internet and saw, started reading some of the stuff about the task force forming out in Colorado and Nebraska and some people theorizing, you know, what it may or may not be from. But no, I never got any further interaction, so to speak, with the FAA in regards to what it was or nor have I. And I, you know, I check every once in a while out of curiosity to see if I can Google and get any answers. And to, to my knowledge, I have yet to see anything that really explains it. The impression I got was they said these are very consistent sightings that we're getting into these various different areas. And you know, their stance at that point was that they were just waiting any day that the military was going to tell them, hey, that was us, don't worry about it. But they said that, you know, in times past where we have some strange sightings, the government's pretty quick to confirm, yeah, that was us, you know, because they don't really. Obviously if they're dealing with some type of technology they don't want out there, they're not going to want it to become some big article. So I, you know, he kind of seemed surprised. I would say that they have not gotten a phone call to that point indicating it was something. It was them. I guess the overall sense I got from them was, well, we hope we just get a phone call that explains this. And to that point, we don't really know what else to point a finger at to say what it could even be.
Gabe Leonard
What sergeant rigano didn't tell me about his report was just as compelling as what he did. In the last line, he wrote that the investigations into these drones in elgin Were not even carried over to the next shift because they were dismissed by the police department as UFO sightings. To my knowledge, there wasn't another agency that played a larger role in the investigation than the faa. Agent Ragano's account solidified that there was high FAA confidence the sightings were not related to covert military operations. An off the cuff interview comment by then united states transportation secretary Elaine chao Further echoed that stance.
Mark Haladi
We heard recently that there were these coveys of drones flying at night over the. In Nebraska, in Colorado. We don't know who they. We don't know who they belong to. We don't know who's operating them. To this day, we do not really.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
Are they investigating still?
Mark Haladi
The local law enforcement initiates the action.
Walton Goggins
We're very lucky nothing happened.
Mark Haladi
So the local law enforcement have stepped down. So we're not actively investigating that because the local law enforcement stood down.
Gabe Leonard
It's been over five years since I began looking into this story. With the government shooting down weird objects in the sky, congressional uap hearings, and reports of an agency harboring and reverse engineering alien aircraft, Interest in strange sightings has never been higher. I continually look to the sky. But on the ground, I've been left with a revealing web of theories, lies, and shocking truths. I'm frustrated, but hungrier than ever to connect the dots. When I travel to my hometown, I still hear accounts from locals who may be out in the tractor late one night or coming home from a high school football game and see lights in the sky that aren't supposed to be there, Sometimes following them ever so Slowly before going dark. The first few episodes of this podcast have been released and I'm back in LA figuring out my next steps. I'm reminded of the stark differences between Southern California mountains and prairies in middle America. I'm turning right towards a beach in Malibu. It's humid but mild. The water is glistening in the sunlight.
Mark Haladi
Pausing workout. Hello. Hey, Gabe, how's it going? Good.
Gabe Leonard
How are you doing?
Mark Haladi
Doing okay, Doing okay. You know, I've been listening to the podcast. I think it's great, really interesting. But I actually have something you may want to look into. You know my background. Well, you know my background in covering national security for a lot of years. And I've been talking to some of my friends who are sources and who are sources and who are off the grid.
Walton Goggins
You'll never hear from these people in.
Mark Haladi
Person, but you know, these aircraft or drones or whatever the hell they are that you're looking at, I can't share any more with you right now on it. I'm going to try to get some more on this, but it could be a problem.
Gabe Leonard
This whole thing is just crazy.
Mark Haladi
This could be a real national security threat.
Gabe Leonard
That call in. Your many tips have opened new doors. The team and I are actively chasing fresh leads to document how this story continues to evolve. Reports of unidentified aircraft are popping up in other areas of the country. In late 2024, mysterious drones began appearing in the Northeast. We were on the ground investigating possible connections between those sightings and what occurred over the Midwest five years earlier. Which brings me to our special announcement. Next Tuesday, we're dropping a raw teaser of what we first experienced in New Jersey as the chaos unfolded right here on our podcast feed. Stay tuned.
Walton Goggins
So you want to start a business. You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but listen to me when I say you don't. You just need GoDaddy arrow. I'm Walton Goggins, an actor, and I like the sound of starting my own business. Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses. But I couldn't do this my own. GoDaddy Arrow uses AI to create everything you need to grow a business. It'll make you a unique logo, it'll create a custom website, it'll write social posts for you, and even set you up with a social media calendar. How cool is that? Well, listen to this. For a limited time, you can get Arrow all access for just a dollar a week for 12 weeks. We're talking all the AI power of GoDaddy arrow, plus a domain E commerce store, payments, professional Email, a unified inbox. All for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Amalfi coast. You know what? That sounds like a plan. Get started@godaddy.com terms apply.
Mark Haladi
Hi, this is Debbie, your blinds.com design consultant. Oh wow, a real person. Yep. I'm here to help you with everything from selecting the perfect window treatments to I've got a complicated project. No problem. We make the complex simple and I can even help schedule a professional measure and install. I didn't realize you did that. Yeah, we can also send you samples fast and free. Wow. I mean, I always thought I needed a designer to come to my home, but scheduling is always a Nightmare. Not with blinds.com we're on your schedule and there's no haggling, no pressure, no hidden fees either. Hmm. I just might have to do more. Oh, okay. Whatever you need. How about you tell me what you had in mind? Okay then. So the first room we're looking at is for guests coming. Blinds.com has covered over 25 million windows, all backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Shop blinds.com now and save up to 4. 45% site wide rules and restrictions may apply. When you're in HR, it can feel like nothing is easy. From payroll to pto, from onboarding to benefits, and everything in between. It's a constant juggle of tasks, systems and spreadsheets. But your HR software, that's the easy part. Meet BambooHR. Trusted by over 34,000 companies, it handles.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
All your HR tasks, payroll, overall benefits.
Mark Haladi
And time tracking so your team and your company can grow as fast as well. Bamboo and BambooHR software is actually easy to use. One simple system that pulls all your people data together in one place. So you can ditch scattered systems and wasted hours on tasks that should only take minutes. Because when HR is easier, you can focus on what matters Most. Your people.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
HR is hard.
Mark Haladi
Bamboo HR is easy. Ready to simplify all your HR tasks for a limited time, get a $100 Visa gift card when you complete a free demo@bamboohr.com giftcard Again, that's bamboohr.com giftcard. Terms and conditions apply. My brother in law died suddenly and now my sister and her kids have to sell their home. That's why I told my husband we could not put off getting life insurance any longer. An agent offered us a 10 year $500,000 policy for nearly $50 a month. Then we called Selectquote. Selectquote found us identical coverage for only $19 a month. A savings of $369 a year. Whether you need a $500,000 policy or a 5 million dollar policy, SelectQuote could.
Walton Goggins
Save you more than 50% on term life insurance. For your free quote, go to selectquote.com selectquote.com that's selectquote.com selectquote.
Mark Haladi
We shop. You save full details on example policies@selectquo.com.
Walton Goggins
Commercials.
Gabe Leonard
If you have any information surrounding the events detailed in this podcast or have your own similar account, please visit our website@obscurumseries.com and share your story. You'll also find exclusive behind the scene content on the site. To connect with us on social media, you can follow obscurumseries and Abelurs on all social platforms. Obscurum is produced by Imagine and Leonard's Entertainment for iHeartMedia. This series is written, hosted and produced by me, Gabe Leonard. It's executive produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Karl Welker, Nathan Clokey, Nikki Etour and me. Additional production by Jacob Plew Music and sound effects courtesy of Epidemic Sound Brand Management in Digital Design by Labyrinth Branco Video Editing Writing by Alex Semy Kopenko this project was mixed and mastered by Jacob Plew. Special thanks to Dan Bodanski, Josh Hiller, Keaton Stortz, Bryson Keyes, Ailey Burchfield, David Wasserman, Katrina Norvell and my family. Obscurum Invasion of the Drones is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Follow now.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano
PayPal lets you pay all your pals.
Mark Haladi
Like your graduation gifters.
Gabe Leonard
Who's paying for the mattress topper?
Mark Haladi
You mean the bean bag chair?
Gabe Leonard
Aren't we getting a mini fr?
Walton Goggins
Can we create a pool on PayPal?
Mark Haladi
It lets us collect the money before we buy. Ooh yes, that's smart. Glad we can agree on something easily. Pool split and Send Money with PayPal.
Walton Goggins
Get started in the PayPal app. A PayPal account is required to send and receive money. A balance account is required to create.
Mark Haladi
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Walton Goggins
You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but listen to me when I say you don't. You just need GoDaddy arrow. I'm Walton Goggins, an actor, and I like the sound of starting my own business. Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses. But I couldn't do this my own. GoDaddy Arrow uses AI to create everything you need to grow a business. It'll make you a unique logo, it'll create a custom website, it'll write social posts for you, and even set you up with a social media calendar. How cool is that? Well, listen to this. For a limited time, you can get Arrow all access for just a dollar a week for 12 weeks. We're talking all the AI power of GoDaddy arrow plus a domain E commerce store, payments, professional email, a unified inbox. All for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Amalfi Coast. You know what? That sounds like a plan. Get started@godaddy.com terms apply. Now you can get Disney plus and.
Mark Haladi
Hulu together for just 2.99amonth for four months. We sure would love that.
Walton Goggins
Get both and watch Marvel's Daredevil born again in Moana 2 on Disney Plus.
Mark Haladi
Can I get a Chihu on Hulu?
Walton Goggins
Check out Good American Family and Paradise.
Mark Haladi
Call it in now.
Walton Goggins
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Mark Haladi
New and returning subscribers 18 + only after four months. Plan auto renews at $10.99 a month until canceled offer ends. 3:30, 25 terms apply.
OBSCURUM: Episode Nine - "The Final Call" Summary
Introduction
In the gripping finale of Season One of OBSCURUM, titled "The Final Call," host Gabe Leonard delves deeper into the enigmatic drone phenomena that have unsettled rural America since 2019. This episode serves as a culmination of investigations, personal accounts, and elusive government responses, painting a comprehensive picture of the mysterious aerial intrusions over the Midwest.
Overview of Drone Sightings
The season's central narrative revolves around a surge of unidentified drone sightings across Nebraska, Colorado, and surrounding states starting in 2019. These sightings have sparked a myriad of conspiracy theories, ranging from covert military operations to extraterrestrial activities. "The Final Call" seeks to unravel these threads by presenting firsthand accounts and probing the responses from authorities.
Sergeant Mark Halady’s Firsthand Account
A pivotal segment of this episode features Sergeant Mark Halady from the Rice County Sheriff's Office, who recounts his direct encounter with the drones on New Year's Eve of 2019.
Mark Halady [05:32]: "I was standing outside of my squad car in a small church parking lot, and I was looking straight up. I went north on the road from this small town, straight north, and it accelerated from 40, 50 miles an hour up to, oh, I bet you it was 80, was outrunning me..."
He describes observing multiple drones hovering and maneuvering in ways that defied conventional drone behavior. One particularly large drone, estimated to be 80-100 feet above, moved erratically before ascending thousands of feet high.
Mark Halady [07:14]: "There's no reason to be doing 20, 30 miles an hour flying around eastern Faribault and all of a sudden slow down to five miles an hour to pass directly over me."
His account highlights the drones' advanced capabilities, such as adaptive speed and coordinated movements, suggesting they were not operated manually.
Interaction with the FAA
Sergeant Halady took proactive steps by contacting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to report the anomalies. However, his experience with the FAA was less than reassuring.
Mark Halady [08:54]: "I called the FAA and air traffic control, and air traffic control took the message. And then I had an FAA supervisor from Texas somewhere call me and question me about this."
The FAA's ambiguous responses and apparent reluctance to acknowledge the drones heightened Halady's suspicions that these were not mere civilian drones. He suspected a cover-up or misclassification of the aircraft.
Mark Halady [09:47]: "Oh, absolutely not. I kind of got the idea that he wanted to be able to put, these were planes so he didn't have to file a report."
Despite following up, Halady received no further communication from the FAA, leaving many questions unanswered.
Additional Accounts and Expanding the Mystery
The episode also introduces Sergeant Anthony Rigano from the Elgin Police Department in Illinois, who shares his parallel experience of drone sightings in January 2020.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano [15:20]: "There were at least 30 drones up in the air over the area of the water treatment facility... Some of them were huge. I'd never personally seen a drone that big."
Rigano's encounter mirrors Halady's, featuring large drones operating in formations and displaying autonomous behavior, such as shutting off lights when spotlighted.
Sergeant Anthony Rigano [19:23]: "At one point... one of the drones... it stopped moving and then elevated and then it lowered itself behind a tree."
These overlapping incidents across states suggest a coordinated or widespread phenomenon, now straining the capacities of local law enforcement and federal agencies.
Government and FAA Responses
Throughout the episode, both Halady and Rigano express frustration with the lack of substantial responses from federal authorities. The FAA's general stance was dismissive, attributing sightings to misidentified planes without providing concrete evidence.
Mark Halady [22:38]: "We heard recently that there were these coveys of drones flying at night over Nebraska, Colorado. We don't know who they belong to. We don't know who's operating them."
This lack of transparency fuels public distrust and speculation about the true nature of these drones, whether they are advanced military craft, experimental technology, or something beyond our current understanding.
Ongoing Investigations and Theories
Gabe Leonard emphasizes the persistent gaps in the investigation and the resilience of the phenomena.
Gabe Leonard [20:09]: "The impression I got was they said these are very consistent sightings that we're getting into these various different areas."
Leonard connects these historical sightings with newer incidents in the Northeast, hinting at a possibly expanding pattern that transcends geographical boundaries. Theories discussed include potential military experiments, surveillance operations, or even extraterrestrial activity, though no definitive evidence supports any single explanation.
Special Announcement and Future Directions
As the episode nears its conclusion, Gabe Leonard shares a special announcement, teasing future developments and hinting at unresolved mysteries.
Gabe Leonard [26:51]: "Next Tuesday, we're dropping a raw teaser of what we first experienced in New Jersey as the chaos unfolded right here on our podcast feed. Stay tuned."
This announcement suggests that the investigation will continue into subsequent seasons, potentially exploring new sightings and deeper government secrets.
Notable Quotes with Timestamps
Mark Halady [07:14]: "There's no reason to be doing 20, 30 miles an hour flying around eastern Faribault and all of a sudden slow down to five miles an hour to pass directly over me."
Mark Halady [09:47]: "Oh, absolutely not. I kind of got the idea that he wanted to be able to put, these were planes so he didn't have to file a report."
Sergeant Anthony Rigano [19:23]: "At one point... one of the drones... it stopped moving and then elevated and then it lowered itself behind a tree."
Gabe Leonard [20:09]: "The impression I got was they said these are very consistent sightings that we're getting into these various different areas."
Conclusion
"The Final Call" encapsulates the essence of OBSCURUM's investigative journey into the mysterious drone sightings that have perplexed communities across the Midwest. Through detailed firsthand accounts, interviews with law enforcement, and an examination of governmental responses, the episode paints a vivid picture of an unresolved and potentially escalating phenomenon. As Gabe Leonard hints at future revelations, listeners are left with a compelling urge to stay informed and engaged with the unfolding mystery.
Key Takeaways:
For those intrigued by the unexplained and eager for deeper insights into rural America's hidden struggles, "The Final Call" serves as a powerful conclusion to a season filled with suspense, investigation, and the relentless pursuit of truth.