It's A Mystery

Summary

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Sightings Podcast: "It's A Mystery" (April 20, 2026)

Host: McLeod Andrews & Brian Sigley
Guest Narrator: Terry Betts
Presented by REVERB | Daylight Media

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Episode Overview

This episode of Sightings dives into two compelling supernatural mysteries. First, the hosts dramatize the story of the Betz Sphere—a bizarre metallic ball discovered in 1970s Florida that defied explanation by scientists, journalists, and even the Navy. Following this, they share a listener-submitted story from Bill in Connecticut about a persistent, unexplained light haunting a rural property in the 1980s. Rather than focusing on terror or horror, both stories evoke awe, wonder, and the curiosity that comes with never quite knowing what's real.

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The Betz Sphere: An Unexplainable Object

(Story segment starts: 02:46)

Origins of the Mystery

• Narrated by Terry Betts (in character):
  • Discovers the metallic sphere on scorched Fort George Island land after a brush fire.
  • Describes it as “perfectly smooth with no seams” and “way heavier than it looked” (~8 inches across, 20+ lbs).
  • Observation: Only marking is a small triangle.
    “It was just there. Like someone had placed it there.” [04:10]

Strange Behavior

• Vibrates or hums when specific guitar chords are played.
• Moves on its own: When rolled, it returns, sometimes reversing direction or climbing inclines.
• Reacts to sunlight but not lamps: “It seems to respond to light somehow. Like it's noticeably more active on bright days.” [06:55]
• When shaken, produces a low vibrating sound as if something is inside.

Scientific Scrutiny & Growing Sensation

• Local paper’s photographer witnesses its odd movement.
• Media and scientists from around the world become intrigued, including Dr. Wilson from Louisiana who detects fluctuating magnetism and radio waves.
• The sphere is inconsistent: behaves unusually only for certain people at certain times.
• Sounds, like faint tones at night, begin after bringing the sphere home.

The Navy Gets Involved

(Navy segment: 11:59)

• Navy borrows the sphere for two weeks; report gives technical data:
  • Stainless steel shell, 7.96 inches diameter, 21 lbs, ½ inch thick.
  • Giant X-ray reveals two smaller fixed spheres inside.
  • Multiple, misaligned magnetic poles; sphere emits no radiation and isn’t explosive.
• Navy’s public explanation: Attractive but mundane—a perfectly balanced ball rolling due to minor surface imbalances.
  “I know that's a lot of bs. I ran this Thing on glass, carpet, hardwood surfaces. ... Our floors aren't that bad, but sure, whatever.” [13:40]

Scientific Symposium & The Final Mystery

• UFO organization showcases the sphere at a National Enquirer symposium.
• Dr. Allen Hynek concludes it’s “probably man made,” but can’t explain its behavior.
• The Betz Sphere becomes a public curiosity but fades from conversation after the 1970s.
• Terry reflects:
  "That ball and whatever's inside isn't nothing. And it was in that field long before I found it. Which means it was waiting for something. ... Maybe." [15:33]

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Discussion and Analysis

(Begins: 16:13)

Hosts’ Reflections

• McLeod: The story strikes “a note of uncomplicated wonder,” akin to that found in other legendary tales.
• Brian: “It’s kind of just a fun mystery. ... Like, what is this ball? And it’s cute. It’s adorable. It’s like it becomes his best friend.” [16:51–16:56]
• Awe and curiosity are celebrated, not only fear and horror.

Theories & Skepticism

• Brian: Modern claims identify the sphere as an industrial ball, possibly made by Bell & Howell, or as part of a sculptor’s stolen orbs—but none fully explain its reported interior mechanics or strange behavior.
• McLeod and Terry discuss plausible explanations—weighted interiors (like a weeble or punching bag) or natural resonance matching musical notes.
• Yet, the origin and oddities remain unresolved:
  • Navy and scientists didn’t reach a consensus.
  • An engineering professor once claimed the interior was “heavier than any known element” and warned it could explode if drilled—a suggestion met with skepticism and amusement.
• “Basically, it's either a ball bearing ... or an alien doomsday device.” [21:00]

Fate of the Betz Sphere

• No more reported activity after the '70s.
  “I don't know. There's no record of the ball or Terry or anyone else doing anything with it in recent years, so. Okay, that's it. So it's still kind of a mystery to me.” [22:10]
• Actual photos exist; listeners encouraged to check Instagram for images.

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Listener Mystery: Bill from Connecticut and the Field Light

(Story segment: 25:17–36:09)

The Setting & First Encounter

• Teenage Bill sees a yellow, bobbing light moving across a rural field at night from his family’s kitchen window.
• On repeat visits, the light always stays at a distance, never getting closer to the house.
• Attempts to involve others generate skepticism or unease.

The Light’s Behavior

• Never moves closer than an invisible perimeter in the field—sometimes searches in one area, other times travels a straight path to the treeline.
• Remains mysterious—no sound, too dark for binoculars or cameras.

Escalation & Unnerving Atmosphere

• Family dog, Rex, reacts aggressively: barking and refusing to chase the light.
• Once, power flickers coinciding with the light’s presence (no weather reason).
• Bill finally ventures outside to confront the phenomenon:
  • Experiences an eerie silence as the light dims up close and then fades when he shines his flashlight.
  • Light reappears closer, moving in a conscious, deliberate way, generating a “cold sensation, like something was very wrong.” [32:15]
• Panics and returns to the house; later, the light appears much closer, right in the backyard, brighter than ever.
• Father finds nothing upon inspection; the light never returns after that night.

Bill’s Reflection

• Never tells his family the full truth of his experience.
• Evaluates explanations (prank, UFO, ghost, fairy) but emphasizes the feeling of “escaping something that shouldn’t exist.” “How the light moved like it was alive and aware, how the silence felt wrong and heavy. How running back to the house felt like escaping something that shouldn't exist.” [35:44]

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Hosts’ Discussion and Theories

(Begins: 36:09)

• Brian:

  • Even if not supernatural, the possibility that someone watched the house for months is disturbing.
  • The lack of resolution makes the story extra unsettling.

• McLeod:

  • Considers practical causes (reflections, misperceptions) but notes these don't fit all observations.
  • Jokes about the possibility of the “country fairy.”

• Brian:

  • Observes the light is yellowish, not the “chilly blue” of ghost lore; muses on whether it's more angelic or fairy-like.
  • Shares McLeod’s genealogy note: an ancestor allegedly married an “Elfin” (fairy) person in Scotland.
    [Humorous tangent about family magic ensues.]

• Takeaway:
  Like the Betz Sphere, the mystery endures—ordinary life occasionally punctuated by unexplainable events that resist tidy answers. “Whatever you saw seems like quite the mystery, Bill, because just like the betsphere that we heard about earlier, it's kind of unexplainable.” [40:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It would roll a few feet and then stop. And he gave me this look, like, okay, and ... a few seconds later, the ball came back to him. And his face. Oh. It was pretty great, actually.” – Terry (09:56)
• “I like that we were able to give ... listeners who have been itching for McLeod to play a character to do that.” – Brian (40:36)
• (on the sphere) “It’s like the 1970s version of Furby or something.” – Brian (16:56)
• (on the listener story) “How running back to the house felt like escaping something that shouldn't exist.” – Bill’s story (35:44)
• “It’s a very tantalizing little bit of kind of magic in an otherwise mundane day, you know?” – McLeod (22:26)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:46 – Start of Betz Sphere narrative
• 11:59 – Navy involvement and scientific testing
• 16:13 – Post-story roundtable and analysis
• 25:17 – Listener story: Bill from Connecticut
• 36:09 – Hosts discuss possible explanations
• 40:10 – Episode wrap-up; reflections on the enduring power of mysteries

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Tone & Style

The episode blends earnest curiosity with playful skepticism. The hosts maintain a warm, storytelling tone, showing appreciation for the inexplicable and the power of the unknown. Rather than sensationalizing or debunking outright, the discussion invites listeners to wonder—and perhaps, to seek the magic and strange possibilities in their own lives.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Brian Sigley]

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[McLeod Andrews]

A minor don't miss the return of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

So what's next?

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[McLeod Andrews]

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They're hunting us. It's time we started hunting them.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

I can work with them.

[McLeod Andrews]

This should be tons of fun. Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again now streaming only on Disney plus. We like to believe that the world is knowable. That given enough time, enough science, enough determination, every mystery eventually surrenders its secrets. But what about the ones that don't? The objects that shouldn't exist. The phenomena that refuse to be explained. The discoveries that leave even the sharpest minds staring into the void. Some things, it seems, were never meant to be understood. Welcome to sightings. I'm McLeod.

[Brian Sigley]

And I'm Brian. And we are excited to be back with you for something a little bit different this month.

[McLeod Andrews]

Ooh, I like different.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah, we heard you guys. And we know you love the stories where McCloud can really get into character and bring to life kind of these infamous supernatural events and incidents. So today we're going to bring you exactly that. It is a touch shorter than our normal stories that we did last year. But don't worry, we've got an equally mysterious listener story coming up right after that.

[McLeod Andrews]

But for now, put your thinking caps on because we're about to explore the mysterious Betz sphere found in Florida in the 1970s. Is it a man made metal ball or something much more perplexing? Find out on this episode of Sightings.

[Brian Sigley]

This episode is sponsored by Quints McCloud. This time of year always makes me rethink what is in my closet.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Monsters.

[Brian Sigley]

Yes, obviously there are monsters. I was thinking more along the lines of clothes. For the purposes of this. Yeah, and when it comes to clothes, I am trying to keep fewer things but better ones, which is why I keep coming back to Quince.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

My wife and I love quints. The fabrics are great and the fits are spot on. We actually recently got some pots and

[McLeod Andrews]

pans from them, and they're working great, which is amazing.

[Brian Sigley]

And that's because Quince works directly with ethical factories. They cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality, not brand markups.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

So everybody out there, it's time to refresh your wardrobe with quince. Go to quince.com sightings for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Eh? Go to q u I n c e.com sightings for free shipping and 360 five day returns. Quince.com/sightings. Okay, so here we go. My name is Terry Betts. I'm 21. I'm about to show you something that is absolutely wild or let you hear something that's absolutely wild. Actually, no, I should start from the beginning because otherwise this isn't going to make any sense. And even then, I'm not entirely sure it does. So a few weeks ago, I found something that is. Well, it's pretty darn unexplainable. And believe me, I've tried to explain it harder than most people probably would. I guess that's, you know, that's just how I'm wired. So, a few weeks ago, my mom and I drove out to Fort George island to check out this land that my parents bought. It's a bunch of acres of marshland and timber east of Jacksonville. But here's the kicker. There'd just been this big brush fire on the land, so we needed to see how bad it was. And since my dad was away at sea, he's a marine engineer, it was up to the two of us. And, yeah, it was pretty bad. Just huge stretches of growth were scorched to nothing. Like, literally there was nothing left. Well, nothing except the sphere. I remember I was walking back to the car when I saw it. Just sitting there on the blackened ground was this metal sphere or ball or whatever you want to call it. And it's. It's weird. There was no crater, no disturbance, like it had fallen from somewhere. It was just there. Like someone had placed it there. So I called my mom over, and once we decided it wasn't like a bomb or something, I picked it up. And even though it was only 8 inches across, give or take, it was way heavier than it looked. £20 at least. And it was perfectly smooth with no Seams anywhere? Nothing at all except this little triangular mark on one side. So my mom and I pass it back and forth, trying to figure out what it was. And she thought it was maybe some kind of fancy cannonball, since Fort George has a long history of, I don't know, colonial era stuff. But there were no signs it had ever been fired out of a cannon or handled or anything. And it wasn't all rusty like most cannonballs that you would find. So, anyway, I decided to take it home with us. It didn't seem dangerous. If anything, it just seemed unusual enough to be interesting. I kept it in my room, mostly on the window seat, you know, in case it wanted to enjoy the view. And it didn't really do anything. I mean, why would it? It's a ball. But then one night, I was in my room playing my guitar, and I noticed it. The ball was vibrating or humming. It's like a tuning fork when it hits that exact frequency. And I played a different chord and the ball stopped. Then I played the first chord again, and there it was. I sat on my floor for probably an hour, just playing different notes at this metal ball, watching it respond to some notes and not others. Then after that, I started testing it more deliberately, Rolling it across the floor, stuff like that. And I realized that if you gave it a push, it would roll a foot or two, then pause, kind of like it was thinking, then reverse course and come right back to you. I figured maybe it was just some curvature in my floor, so I tried other surfaces, too. Same thing on my mom's glass coffee table. It would roll to the edge, then stop and change direction every single time it did it. It never fell off. Even weirder, when you put it on some angled surfaces, it rolled up the incline on its own. I still can't explain that. Oh, another thing. Sunlight. It seems to respond to light somehow. Like it's noticeably more active on bright days. On cloudy days, it just sits there. Kind of sad. I tried putting a lamp next to it to see what happened, but it made no difference. It's only the sun. So. So all this got me realizing I was dealing with something unusual. Which brings me to now. I have this hammer. It's in my right hand. That doesn't matter, but it's in my right hand. And I'm going to tap it very gently just to see what happens. See?

[Brian Sigley]

Did you.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

You hear that? And then earlier, I tried shaking the thing, and it made this low vibrating sound, like there was something inside. Not loose or rattling exactly, but there it was. Inside it? I don't know. So I don't know if any of this makes sense. But you can hear the ring. You can. And if there's some explanation for any of this, I don't know what it is. All I know is that sure as hell isn't a cannonball. Till next time, this is Terry Betts, over and out. Okay, so I wasn't planning on making another one of these so soon, but things have gotten a little bigger than I expected. And I figured, you know, like a good field test agent, whatever scientist, I should just keep doing what I'm doing. I guess the main thing is it's not just me realizing there's more to this ball than meets the eye. I showed my mom everything, and she ended up calling the local paper. They sent this photographer, and I could tell right away that he thought we were just wasting his time, which, honestly, fair. But I handed him the sphere and I told him to, you know, hey, just roll it across the floor, you know? And he did. And it rolled a few feet and then stopped. And he gave me this look, like, okay, and. And I just told him, wait for it. And. And a few seconds later, the ball

[McLeod Andrews]

came back to him.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

And his face. Oh. It was pretty great, actually. So he turned the ball over in his hands for a long time after that, and he just looked for some kind of trick to it, but he didn't find anything, same as me. And then the article ran. And after that, things got crazy. Calls started coming in from all over. Papers from New York, London, Tokyo. Scientists, too, including this guy named Dr. Wilson who came out from Louisiana and spent six hours with the ball. After that, he told us it was emitting radio waves and that its magnetic field was fluctuating in ways he couldn't account for, which. Wow. Of course, I don't. I don't have equipment to measure that stuff myself, so I have to take him at his word. But here's the weirdest thing. It doesn't seem to behave the same way for everyone. Sometimes it moves exactly, like all these times I've described. Other times, it just sits there. And then people look at me like I made the whole thing up, which is frustrating, because I know what I've seen. It's like it picks when it wants to cooperate. And I know how that sounds. I do. Which makes what I'm about to say sound even worse. Because at night, there's these sounds. Kind of like tones, I guess. Not loud, not constant, just something you notice if you're sitting still long enough. And it's really quiet, like when you're going to bed. Is it connected to the ball? I don't know. But it started after I brought the ball home, and it hadn't happened before. Anyway, I just wanted to get all that on record because a few days ago, things went to the next level because the Navy called. They heard about the ball and wanted to investigate it. Not just for a day. They wanted it for two weeks. And my mom was paranoid or protective or both. I don't know. And she wrote up this whole contract that said we would get the report they made, and when they returned it, it wouldn't be government property. The Navy signed it. Apparently, they have this giant X ray machine they think can get through the shell. So will they find something inside?

[McLeod Andrews]

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Hey, guys. Terry Betts. Just figured I'd kind of wrap this whole thing up. So the Navy brought it back, they dropped it off, and the ball looked the same as it did before. So if they did anything to it, I couldn't tell. They also gave us their report, and it was. Is kind of a bummer. Basically a lot of technical detail that added up to nothing. But anyway, here's what they found. The ball is 7.96 inches in diameter. It weighs just over 21 pounds. The shell is stainless steel, about half an inch thick. Their giant X ray machine, which apparently is 300 kilovolts, which I don't know what that means, but that's what it is for. Found two round objects inside. Not bouncing around, but fixed in place inside. I don't know how. They also said the thing has multiple magnetic poles and they aren't aligned the way they should be. One of the guys tried to explain it to me, but it kind of went over my head. So the short version is this thing isn't normal, but, yeah, that's kind of basically where it ends. It's not radioactive, thank goodness. It's not explosive, but still, it's not identifiable. They did ask if they could cut it open, but my mom shot that down immediately. Maybe I should have argued with her, because part of me kind of wants to know what's in there, but I didn't. So the ball just went back to my window. Eventually, the Navy spokesman told the press that the ball's movement was just down to our uneven floors. They said the ball was so well balanced that even a small change in the floor surface could make it roll or change direction. But I know that's a lot of bs. I ran this Thing on glass, carpet, hardwood surfaces. I leveled myself. And the floors, our floors aren't that bad, but sure, whatever. Anyway, while all this was going on, this UFO organization reached out and said they wanted to show the sphere off at this scientific panel in New Orleans. The panel was organized by the National Enquirer, which I know sounds bad, but the people on it were legitimate. Like, Dr. Hynek was there and he's a big deal. So I drove the ball to New Orleans and the panel had two days with it. They ran tests and then Hynek told me his conclusion. He said. He said it was probably man made, which. Yeah, not that I ever thought it was alien or something. I just kind of hoped for more than it's man made, but they couldn't tell me anything more than that. So the ball's back on the window seat in my room. It's been a while now and, you know, we're basically basically just back to where we started, except now half the world knows about it and our phone just won't stop ringing. I still roll it sometimes just to watch it come back. And personally, I still can't explain it. Maybe no one can. But here's the only thing I do know. That ball and whatever's inside isn't nothing. And it was in that field long before I found it. Which means it was waiting for something. I. I don't know. I can't say. I don't know if that something was me, maybe.

[Brian Sigley]

All right, McLeod, well done on that.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Thank you. Thank you.

[McLeod Andrews]

Thank you.

[Brian Sigley]

Fun story, huh?

[McLeod Andrews]

Thank.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Really fun story. It kind of like it struck a

[McLeod Andrews]

similar note of uncomplicated wonder that like, Valiant Thor did for me. Like, there's just like, kind of something sweet about it.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah.

[McLeod Andrews]

Like, it's innocuous, you know, here's this ball.

[Brian Sigley]

It's definitely not a scary supernatural story. Yeah.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

But I like that.

[McLeod Andrews]

I think awe and wonder are an important aspect of the supernatural that are often superseded by, like, terror and fear and horror.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of just a fun mystery.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

Like, what is this ball? And it's cute.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

It's adorable. It's like it becomes his best friend.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. It's like it's like the 1970s version of Furby or something.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Right. It's like in it, like the idea that it has emotional reactions to, like, different people kind of.

[Brian Sigley]

Is that.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

So I'm guessing some. Some version of this happened, right?

[Brian Sigley]

The whole version of this happened. The whole version pretty much happened. Other than your character embellishments like the events. Like, he found the ball in the field that had burned down. And it started the rolling and the sounds it made and the, you know, the weird sounds at night. And I left out a whole thing about the dog was scared of it.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Oh.

[Brian Sigley]

And you know. But the Navy took it and examined it and they took it to these panels and Dr. Alan Hynek, WHO. Not at the time. Cause it wasn't public yet, but he was the guy behind Project Blue Book. He investigated all this UFO stuff.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Oh, wow. So they really took it seriously then.

[Brian Sigley]

All kinds of people were looking at this thing and no one knows definitively what this thing was. I think some people have kind of come up with recently, we're pretty sure what this is. But the behavior of the ball is so weird that I'm like, really?

[McLeod Andrews]

What?

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Yeah. Well, you know what? The behavior of it I can kind of almost like explain. Like, once they found that there was like weighted balls on the inside, like, I'm like, okay.

[McLeod Andrews]

It's sort of like one of those. One of those, like punching bags you can't knock down that always like, stands back up because, like, the weight is unevenly distributed. And so it will like, like only roll so far before it kind of like pulls itself back with like the uneven weight distribution. Like, so I'm like, okay, that's not so wild.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

And like, even the vibration, I'm like,

[McLeod Andrews]

everything has a natural frequency. And so sure, it has its own natural frequency that matches with one of his guitar with a specific, you know, tone or note. It's the provenance and the uniqueness that's just such a head scratcher.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Like that it's just found sitting in the middle of a field.

[McLeod Andrews]

Also, importantly, after a massive fire, it

[Brian Sigley]

would seem to me like, did the ball cause the fire somehow? Like, I would have thought, like, did it fall from space?

[Ad Voice 3]

Right.

[Brian Sigley]

And I think a lot of people thought initially, like, oh, this is maybe a satellite or something like that, you know, but like, it had no machining on it or anything. Like, a ball wouldn't just.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Is it possible that, like, can a meteorite be a perfect sphere like this?

[Brian Sigley]

I am not a meteorite scientist, but I would think no. That seems awfully good.

[McLeod Andrews]

Are you br.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

I don't know.

[Brian Sigley]

I don't know. But you know, there are theories now I should say that an equipment supplier identified an 8 inch, 21 pound stainless steel ball that was made by a company called Bell and Howell. And they're like, this is what it was. But there's no indication that the ball had anything inside of it that I could find.

[McLeod Andrews]

Sure.

[Brian Sigley]

So I don't know also, what was

[McLeod Andrews]

it, how to get there?

[Brian Sigley]

Well, there's one story that came out in 1974, which was the same year that this all kind of happened. There is a sculptor who claimed to have lost that and a few other orbs when they fell off of his car while he was driving through Jacksonville. Oh, I don't know if he was driving on that island, but he apparently had stolen. He or a friend had stolen these spheres from some manufacturing plant. There were two different sizes of them. And, yeah, he's like, oh, yeah, they fell off the thing, and that's what they are.

[McLeod Andrews]

So they're like a kind of specialized industrial ball bearing or something.

[Brian Sigley]

Kind of is what I was thinking. But I didn't see him produce any other spears for his art project or something like that, being, like, here they are, you know.

[McLeod Andrews]

Right, right, right.

[Brian Sigley]

So that's kind of an explanation for what this could have been in my mind. Could it have just literally just been like a ball bearing or, you know, with something inside of it that, you know, it started rolling weird, and this family just kind of like. Not. Like, it's not like a situation of mass hysteria or anything like that, but, like, it's like, this is really cool. Like, let's do a whole bunch of stuff with it. And, like, it does it sometimes, it doesn't do it other times.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

And they just kind. You know, it's almost like the personification of inanimate objects, you know, like, it became a thing to them, you know, this whole family.

[McLeod Andrews]

Right.

[Brian Sigley]

Because it sounds like when Alan Hynek and some of these other scientists were looking at it, it didn't do anything for them.

[McLeod Andrews]

Right.

[Brian Sigley]

You know, but they still couldn't figure out what it was, and. Which is weird. Like, if the Navy takes it for two weeks and comes back and says, like, we don't know. That's kind of weird, isn't it?

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

Obviously, there are people who. Like, one dude, one scientist looked at this and was. He's an engineering professor from Berkeley, and he said that whatever was inside the. Like, the inner inside of the main ball were heavier than any known element.

[McLeod Andrews]

What.

[Brian Sigley]

Which doesn't. Wouldn't it be heavier than 20 pounds if that were the case? It would seem that maybe the balls inside were very small.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

He said, though, that if you drilled into this ball, it could explode like a nuclear weapon.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Wow.

[Brian Sigley]

That's a bit. So he thought it was some kind of, like, alien doomsday device. Or something like that.

[McLeod Andrews]

Oh, gosh. And so we're just, like, hoping nobody, like, finds it and, like, just takes a drill to it, I guess so.

[Brian Sigley]

So. So that's what we got. Basically, it's either a ball bearing, which seems like the most likely explanation for

[McLeod Andrews]

this, or an alien doomsday device

[Brian Sigley]

to wrap this up. I guess I can say the only thing to really note is after the 70s, it never really came up again. Ever.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Yeah, I was just gonna say, where's Terry now?

[Brian Sigley]

I don't know. There's no record of the ball or Terry or anyone else doing anything with it in recent years, so. Okay, that's it. So it's still kind of a mystery to me. Yeah. Even if it is just a normal ball, pretty cool.

[McLeod Andrews]

It's a very tantalizing little bit of kind of magic in an otherwise mundane day, you know?

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah, yeah. And we'll put some pictures of the ball on Instagram.

[McLeod Andrews]

Oh, great.

[Brian Sigley]

So they can see it too, because there are pictures of this ball like it is a thing that exists in the world. This is not a. We have to take people at their word that the ball exists. It exists.

[McLeod Andrews]

My guess is it will look like a shiny ball.

[Brian Sigley]

It will look like a shiny ball. That is what it will look like.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

So you know what, listeners? Don't even bother going to the Instagram.

[Brian Sigley]

Oh, man. Well, on that note, listeners, we are going to jump to an ad break, and when we come back, we have another really cool, mysterious listener story coming your way. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Financial stress affects far more than our bank accounts. It can take a serious toll on mental health and relationships. I'm not surprised that 88% of Americans are feeling some kind of financial stress at the start of 2026. I'm one of them. And while trying to juggle rent and work and family and living, it's a lot for me to try and keep a grip on. So this month, BetterHelp wants to normalize the emotional weight of financial stress and remind people that struggling with money doesn't mean they've failed. Sometimes it's just about accessing the right kind of support. So if you want someone to talk to, try BetterHelp. BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. With 30,000 therapists and over 6 million people helped globally, a fit is out there for you. So when life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% [e-mail] sightings. That's betterhelp.com sightings thanks BetterHelp for sponsoring this episode.

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[Brian Sigley]

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[Brian Sigley]

All right, welcome back, everyone. We have got this listener's story queued up and ready to go for you guys.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Love it.

[McLeod Andrews]

Hit me.

[Brian Sigley]

All right, so this story, McLeod, is from Bill from Connecticut.

[McLeod Andrews]

Bill from Connecticut.

[Brian Sigley]

I don't know where this story took place, though, because it doesn't quite sound like Connecticut. Well, it's rural, so maybe he's in the woods somewhere, but it seems like there's, like, fields and stuff. There's fields in Connecticut.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Yes, there are.

[Brian Sigley]

So anyway, let's get some music going.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

All right, well, no preamble. Just launching me in. All right. Bill in the woods.

[Brian Sigley]

He's older now, but I don't know how long ago this happened. So I think he's 20s, 30s, 40s. Just make a choice and go with it.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

This was back when I was still living at home in the mid-80s.

[Brian Sigley]

There you go.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Definitely Bill from Connecticut. My thick Connecticut accent. Poor listeners. We came here for the stories.

[Brian Sigley]

No? Well, you're here for our witty and awesome banter too, right? Yes, you are. You know it. You know it.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yes, you are.

[Brian Sigley]

All right.

[McLeod Andrews]

This was back when I was still living at home in the mid-80s. I must have been 16 or 17 at the time. We lived on this rural property about 20 minutes outside of town. Not completely isolated, but definitely country living. Our nearest neighbors were maybe a quarter mile down the road, and there weren't any streetlights or much traffic after dark.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Just farmland and woods and the kind

[McLeod Andrews]

of quiet you only get when you're far enough from civilization. Our house sat on about three acres with a big yard that backed up to this open field. The field wasn't ours. It belonged to some absentee owner who had lived in the city and never did anything with it. No fence between our property and the field, just this gradual transition from mowed grass to tall weeds and wildflowers. The field stretched back maybe half a mile before it hit a line of trees and then more farmland beyond that. I loved the back porch, especially at night, since you could see everything from there. Deer would come out around dusk to graze, and on clear nights, the stars were incredible. After about five years living there, I knew the house and that backyard well. Like every sound that house made, I knew it by heart. But still, nothing ever felt strange or off about the place. Then I saw the light. It was probably late spring when I first saw it. I was up watching Saturday Night Live or some old movie on the living room tv. We didn't have cable, and the reception wasn't great way out there, so pickings were pretty slim after midnight. But I was a night person like my mom, and I liked having the house to myself. When everyone else was asleep, I got up to get a snack from the kitchen and happened to glance out the back window. That's when I saw a small light moving slowly through the field. Just a tiny, pale yellow glow bobbing gently through the tall grass maybe 200ft from the house. My first thought was that it was someone with a flashlight. Maybe teenagers messing around or a neighbor checking on something. The light wasn't moving fast, just a slow, steady bobbing motion, like someone walking carefully through uneven terrain. I watched it for maybe 30 seconds, then went to get my dad. Took a minute to wake him up, and by the time we got back to the kitchen window, the light was gone. He looked out at the dark field and shrugged. Said it was probably just someone taking a shortcut. Or maybe a guy checking his hunting stands. Even though it wasn't hunting season. And that made sense to me. We lived in farm country, and people were always walking through fields. For various reasons, I went back to watching TV and pretty much forgot about it. But the light came back. Not the next night, but maybe three nights later. Same thing. Small bobbing light moving slowly through the field at roughly the same distance from the house.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

House.

[McLeod Andrews]

I watched it for a few minutes before it disappeared. Over the next couple weeks, I started paying more attention. The light kept coming back, but never came closer than that invisible line about halfway across the field. And it never moved very fast. Sometimes it would bob back and forth In a small area, like someone was searching for something. Other times it would move in a straight line parallel to our property, then disappear into the tree line. I tried to get a better look with my dad's old binoculars, but. But it was too dark to make out any details. Just that pale glow moving through the darkness. I thought about trying to record it with our video camera, but the light was too faint and too far away. Probably wouldn't have shown up anyway. I mentioned it to my friend at school and he immediately started joking about aliens and ghosts. I laughed along, but when I suggested he come over and see for himself, he suddenly had excuses. I got the feeling the whole thing made him nervous, even though he was trying to play it off as a joke. And the light kept coming, but there wasn't really a pattern I could figure out. Sometimes it would show up three nights in a row, then disappear for a week. Sometimes just once every few days. But it was always in that same general area of the field, and always that same slow bobbing motion. My mom saw it once when she was up late reading. She mentioned it at breakfast the next morning, saying she'd seen someone with a flashlight in the field. Dad just shrugged and said maybe it was the landowner checking on his property. End of conversation. But then things started feeling different. Our dog, Rex, was this old lab mix who was usually pretty calm. One night, I was watching for the light when Rex started going crazy, barking and growling at the back door, like something was threatening the house. I looked out and sure enough, the light was there, just sitting still in its usual spot. I let Rex out, thinking maybe he'd chase off whoever it was, but he just stood on the porch barking. The light stayed put for maybe 10 more minutes, then slowly moved away toward the trees. Rex calmed down as soon as it disappeared. After that night, I started sleeping with my curtains closed. Something about the light being out there while I was trying to sleep made me uncomfortable. Like it was watching the house even when I couldn't see it. One night, our power flickered, just for a second, like someone had jiggled a loose wire. It wasn't stormy or windy outside, so there was no reason for the electricity to act up. Rex started whining and pawing at the back door. I looked out and the light was there, motionless in the middle of the field. The whole thing was starting to get to me. I wasn't sleeping well, and I kept finding excuses to check the back windows, even during the day.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

So finally I decided I had to

[McLeod Andrews]

go out there and see for myself what was going on. My parents had gone to bed, and my sister was spending the night at a friend's house. I'd been watching the field for about an hour when the light appeared, right on schedule, just sitting there like always, pale and steady in the darkness. I put on my shoes and grabbed a flashlight. Rex was lying by the back door, and he looked up at me when I reached for the handle. Usually he'd want to come outside with me, but this time he just whined and stayed put. I should have taken that as a warning. I walked slowly across our yard toward the edge of the field, and the light was still there, maybe a hundred feet away, just hovering in the tall grass. When I got to where our yard ended and the field began, I stopped. The light seemed dimmer up close, and I realized I couldn't hear anything. No insects, no rustling grass, nothing. Just this strange, heavy silence. So I clicked on my flashlight and aimed it toward where the light was floating. And for a second, nothing happened. Then the light flickered and went out completely. I stood there in the dark, wondering if whoever it was had finally decided to leave. But then the light reappeared, and this time it was much closer, maybe 50ft away and moving slowly in a circle, like it was aware of me. That's when I felt this cold sensation, like something was very wrong. The light wasn't behaving like a flashlight anymore. It was too steady and perfect, and it was moving without any of the natural bounce you'd get from someone walking. I called out and didn't hear anything, so I turned and ran and didn't look back until I was on the porch. When I finally turned around, the field was completely dark. No light anywhere. Rex was waiting for me inside with his tail between his legs, like he knew something had happened. I sat on the kitchen floor, petting him and trying to calm down. I eventually went to bed that night, but I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I kept thinking about how the light had moved toward me, how wrong everything had felt out there in the field. I must have been lying there for an hour when I noticed a faint glow coming through my bedroom curtains. At first I thought maybe it was car headlights from the road, but. But my room didn't even face the road. I got up and pulled the curtain back just enough to peek outside. The light was in our backyard, not out in the field where it belonged, but right there, maybe 30ft from the house. And it was bright, brighter than I'd ever seen it before. It was so intense, I couldn't tell if someone was holding a flashlight and pointing it directly at my window, or if the light itself was just that much stronger. It hurt to look at directly, but I couldn't make out any shape behind it. Just this blazing white glow sitting motionless in our yard like it was waiting for something. I ran to wake up my dad and told him there was someone in our yard with a light. But when we went downstairs and looked outside, there was nothing. The yard was empty and dark except for the weak glow from the porch light. Dad stood there for a minute, scanning the area, then turned to me with this look, like he was starting to question my mental state. He asked if I was sure I'd seen something, and I said yes, but I could hear the doubt in my own voice. The light had been there. I knew it had been there. But looking out at the normal, peaceful backyard, I started wondering if I'd imagined the whole thing. Dad told me to go back to bed and said we'd talk about it in the morning, but we never did. The next day, he acted like nothing had happened, and I didn't bring it up again. The light never came back after that night. I watched for it every night for the next month, but the field stayed dark. Rex went back to his normal behavior, and the house felt safe again. I went off to college soon after that, and I never told my family what really happened that night in the field. How could I explain that I'd gone out to investigate a light and somehow felt like I'd barely escaped something I couldn't understand? I'm not saying it was a ghost or aliens or some kind of supernatural phenomenon. Maybe it was just someone playing elaborate pranks. But I know how it felt that night when I went out to investigate. How the light moved like it was alive and aware, how the silence felt wrong and heavy. How running back to the house felt like escaping something that shouldn't exist? Bye, everybody.

[Brian Sigley]

Well, I think the reason that I really like this story was we've had some other UFO kind of stories, and I don't know if this is even, like, UFO category, but, like, what was unnerving to me was, even if it's nothing supernatural and there's someone watching your house for, like, a year, it seems like, with a flashlight.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Yeah, I.

[Brian Sigley]

It's on. It's. It's just a very unnerving story.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Yeah.

[McLeod Andrews]

Man, things get weird out in the country, huh? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I was thinking to myself, like some sort of reflector or reflection like that, like, from inside it Looks like it's moving. It's actually like a reflection of a light somewhere. But, like, your perspective is thrown off because you don't. You can't place where it should be because you don't see it as a reflection. You see it as something that's outside. And then you're like, why is it moving so weird? Because your mind keeps trying to place it as being outside, but it's not. I don't know.

[Brian Sigley]

But then he can see it when he's out there.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah, he does go out there. Yeah, obviously.

[Brian Sigley]

So, I mean, clearly. I mean, that's a good theory to start with, I think.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

And then the thing obviously comes into the yard and.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah. And says hello.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah, I'm surprised it didn't come in the house.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Me too.

[Brian Sigley]

You know, we would had a repeat of that one listener story where you remember that one where that person woke up and there was that red light with tentacles or something.

[McLeod Andrews]

And he wrote it off as like, just like kind of a waking nightmare. But then his friend saw the same thing, whereas, like, his brother saw the same thing.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah, it would have been interesting. I mean, it sounds like the mom saw the two in this case, but I don't know. It was a very unnerving story to me. And that's why I think I really liked it.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah. I kept thinking ghost, maybe like some sort of ghost.

[Brian Sigley]

He described it as, like a yellowish light, though. I always think of. This is just maybe my limited view of ghosts, but I always think, like, it would be like a bluish light or like a whitish. You know, like that. You know? Cause ghosts always have that, like. Think Casper kind of is like that, Right?

[McLeod Andrews]

That chilly. Like a chilly light.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. Yeah. Rather than like a warm light. Because warm lights always feel an angel. More like angels or fairies or something. Like maybe you had a fairy in your house.

[McLeod Andrews]

Could be a fairy, a country fairy.

[Brian Sigley]

I don't know.

[McLeod Andrews]

Did you know that in my genealogy that my grandmother did, like, tracing back to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, the Clan MacLeod.

[Brian Sigley]

Wait, you're a fairy?

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Yeah.

[McLeod Andrews]

Apparently some guy in our family line married an Elfin.

[Brian Sigley]

What? Wait, like, that was their name?

[McLeod Andrews]

No, like, married a fairy creature. Oh, like married an elfin entity person.

[Brian Sigley]

And this is written down somewhere?

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. It's like, written on her. Genealogist has supposedly married an Elfin. I think so.

[Brian Sigley]

Now, did that relative's bloodline lead to you?

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

Oh, so you're part.

[McLeod Andrews]

I'm part fairy.

[Brian Sigley]

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

[McLeod Andrews]

I'M not. Yeah, no, that was, like, a very cool gift that our grandmother left us.

[Brian Sigley]

Oh, you need to get little wings for your daughters.

[McLeod Andrews]

Now they have them.

[Brian Sigley]

Oh, man. Do they know that they're fairies, too?

[McLeod Andrews]

That's a. You know what?

[Brian Sigley]

You need to have that discussion with them.

[McLeod Andrews]

I need to have that talk with them.

[Brian Sigley]

Your children are magic.

[McLeod Andrews]

Listen. They are magic. This is true.

[Brian Sigley]

It's like Percy the Jackson, the Olympians, but for fairies, it's like, by the way, you are special and the world hinges on you.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

No pressure, girls.

[Brian Sigley]

So, anyway, we went way off of track from a, like, dude with a flashlight.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

I don't know.

[McLeod Andrews]

I like fairy.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

I'm into fairy.

[Brian Sigley]

It's very bright fairy, though, if it was like.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah, I don't necessarily think fairies are only a nighttime phenomenon, though. Maybe it's harder to see them in the day.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, before you said that you were part fairy, I would have been like, fairies are a bunch of hooey. Yeah. Cause I don't know. I don't know. I never really got into, like, the whole fantasy realms thing.

[McLeod Andrews]

Well, sure. That all comes primarily from Norse mythology, I think, and where they truly believed in fairies and whatnot.

[Brian Sigley]

Well, whatever you saw seems like quite the mystery, Bill, because just like the betsphere that we heard about earlier, it's kind of unexplainable. And McLeod. Yeah, I guess that wraps it up for today.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Oh, man, this was a fun one, you know?

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

I gotta say, I kind of dig

[Brian Sigley]

this format, like the kind of hybrid that we got going on.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah, the hybrid.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

Like a little bit of the listener story, a little bit of the supposedly real story.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah, and I like that we were able to give the, you know, all you listeners who have been itching from the cloud to kind of play a character to do that.

[McLeod Andrews]

Nice.

[Brian Sigley]

So, yeah, next month, we've got some cool stuff coming your way on that front. We got some listener stories queued up. We've got another neat, true, allegedly true supernatural event to bring to life for you guys. And you just have to wait till next month to see what it is.

[Terry Betts / Guest Narrator]

I can't wait.

[Brian Sigley]

All right, awesome. Well, thanks for listening, everyone, and we will see you then. Sightings is hosted by McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley. Produced by Brian Sigley, chase Kinzer and McLeod Andrews. Written by Brian Sigley. Music by Mitch Bain. Mixing and mastering by Pat Kickleiter of Sundial Media. Artwork by Nuno Sarnatos. For a list of this episode's sources, check out our [e-mail] Sightings is presented by Reverb and Q Code. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you're first to hear new episodes every week. And if you know other Supernatural fans, tell them about us. We'd really appreciate it.

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[McLeod Andrews]

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