In October 2000, Sharon Rowlands took footage of what she believed to be a UFO. Hearing what she described as an eerie noise from outside the house, one evening, Mrs Rowlands took her camera and aimed it towards the sky. She captured what she described as “a giant disc with a bite taken out of the bottom” hovering in the sky about two miles away.
Reportedly, Sharon Rowlands was offered, £20,000 ($32,000) for the footage by a Hollywood producer and NASA representatives had even asked to examine the video because they believed that they had caught sight of a similar UFO, when on a space shuttle mission.
The story and occurrence caused a massive amount of exposure to the village of Bonsall where the sighting took place. A wave of reporters came and went, as a fascination with the incident built up. Mrs Rowland herself used a still image from the video and talked about the money she had been offered for it over the internet, which created a worldwide interest.
Despite many videos that carried the name, the actual footage of the incident was never released. Sharon Rowlands was contacted by Robert Kiviat, who is a Hollywood producer and he did tell her that he would offer her the money, but as Mrs Rowlands later found out this was all a lie. Robert Kiviat went on to tell Mrs Rowlands that she was going to be offered the money for an exclusive interview that was to be broadcasted on a UFO TV show, which was never made. He also told her that NASA wanted to examine the tape which, Mrs Rowland found out, was another lie.
The story became engulfed in the myth and the ridicule that so often accompanies these sightings. Had Robert Kiviat lived up to his word and been an honest man, the whole case might have produced hard evidence of a UFO encounter. As it was, the infamous footage remains a mystery and the credibility of Mrs Rowlands is shattered.
However, the fact does remain that the footage was filmed and while the myth might have killed off the credibility, the footage itself is evidence of at least something. We may never know whether what Mrs Rowlands filmed was anything more than military aircraft or some sort of weather affect, but what does remain is that myth and fact have to be so clearly segmented when you discuss UFO/Aliens and that lies and greed will continue to plague some of the sightings, we have to take away only what we can prove.