Sighting record / 2004
A Tuesday evening in May 2004. Over Torbay, something long and dark hung in the sky. The phones started ringing at the Herald Express in Torquay. Readers described a cigar, a cylinder with a dome-like middle and a yellowish tinge. Some had pictures to prove it. One man fetched his binoculars and watched it hold its place for about 10 minutes, move on, pause again, then disappear. That Friday the paper had a suspect. Staff at the Grosvenor Hotel had released two helium-filled dolls dressed as a bride and groom. "It might have been us," one of them said. Not every witness agreed.
Torquay sits on the curve of Torbay, on the south Devon coast. In late May 2004 the Grosvenor Hotel on Belgrave Road hosted a wedding on a Saturday. Left over afterwards were two helium-filled, life-size dolls, about 6 to 7 ft tall, dressed as a bride and groom. The bride was silver. The groom was brown, with yellow hair.