The Miličín Glowing Spheres and Footprints

Miličín is a small town in the highlands of Česká Sibiř, Czech Siberia. It sits in Benešov District, about 17 km north of Tábor, among fields, cowsheds and villages like Mezno and Řepeč.

12 July 1991. Two women working in the fields between Miličín and Mezno saw a glowing sphere. One witness described "a huge red, deep-red sphere that was giving off some kind of energy." It seemed to ripple. It was several times larger than the Moon.

It climbed up very, very slowly. Then it came towards them. "If we moved further to the right, it came after us; further to the left, it came after us." It swayed like a clock pendulum. Its light covered a strip of ground 120 to 130 metres long, bright enough to pick out single strawberry plants at night. One witness called it "fantastic, except for that oppressive feeling." The first incident lasted several hours.

Later it turned white, with black spots that looked like a face. The mayor of Mezno and his wife, riding home by motorcycle, saw a yellow-green sphere that changed to yellow-red.

The sightings returned through the second half of 1991 and into early 1992. Women farm workers near Mezno said a large sphere landed. Inside was a figure about three metres tall and an animal they called a dog. A dairy worker met "a three-metre man with a dog" at about 2:30 a.m. In Miličín, residents woke to a strange noise and saw a large sphere on the roof of an empty cottage. Two figures inside seemed to be repairing something. One woman said figures came into her home. They left only after she screamed, cried and prayed loudly.

Others spoke of what it did to them. One woman heard her companions calling but could not move from the spot. A man walked towards the light as if hypnotised. After a calming beam from a boomerang-shaped craft, one witness found an hour missing. Before Christmas 1991, an army officer on a train near Ješetice saw an elongated object with windows.

Between 10 and 15 December 1991, six prints appeared in fresh snow by the veranda of a Miličín cottage. No tracks led to them or away. Each was about 21 by 12 cm, with four fingers or claws and no heel. Only the witness's sketch survives. Some later articles place the prints in mud.

The authorities never looked into it. Letters went to AAA magazine. In 1993 a witness, Z.I., told her story on Česká televize's Nedělní ráno s Eduardem Hrubešem. Zdeněk Pazdera published the testimonies online. Later, Projekt Záře, founded by Vladimír Šiška, reopened the case with journalist Jaroslav V. Mareš. The Moon was ruled out, since July 1991 had a new moon. So was a helicopter, which would be loud and could not hover for four hours. Optical illusion, a searchlight and mass hallucination went too. The verdict: cannot be identified.

Locals first dismissed the witnesses as drunk. The priest called it a divine miracle and told parishioners to keep quiet. Czech sceptic writing raises ball lightning as a cause of such lights, though no source applies it to Miličín. Šiška put it simply. "I know what it couldn't have been." Then: "I don't know." Some now call Miličín the Czech Roswell.