Morristown UFO Hoax 2009 – The the real story

The Morristown UFO Hoax was assumed as an aerial event that occurred on January 5th, 2009 in which mysterious red lights have been seen floating in the sky. The incident took place near Morristown in New Jersey during 8:15 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. These strange lights were further seen on four different days including January 26th, 29th, February 7th and 17th of the year 2009. The events were nothing, but a hoax as it was regarded as a social experiment.

ufo hoax

Joe Rudy and Chris Russo attach five flare lights with helium balloons and were released in the sky above Morris County located in New Jersey. These sightings were observed in places including Morristown, Hanover Township, Madison, Morris Plains, and Florham Park.

A total of seven calls were received by the police department of the Hanover Township on January 5th, 2009 in which the first one was made at 8:28 p.m. In addition to this, the neighboring departments of police also attended several phone calls that complaint about the strange floating lights.

Police Lieutenant Jim Cullen, who was performing his duties in Morristown, sent this information to the Airport regarding the possibility of a hazard. The workers at the Airport control tower reported the sightings of red lights in the sky, and they failed to understand what those are.

morristown ufo hoax

On the other hand, the police department of the Hanover Township was contacted to identify those objects by picking them up on the radar, which they later failed to pick up. Local and major news networks aired the story and websites such as Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) mentioned the occurrence of this event.

The hoax came to an end on April 1st, 2009 when Rudy and Russo provided video evidence of the incident in which they demonstrated that the experts of UFO could be easily fooled. The perpetrators of the Morristown UFO Hoax were charged for committing municipal misconduct, and disorder on April 7th, 2009 and both of them was sentenced to pay fines of $250 along with their involvement in community service for 50 hours.

morristown ufo sighting

Before the duo came to forward, a number of explanations emerged on the surface related to the lights. These reasons entailed supernatural or a phenomenon depicting spirituality, extraterrestrial craft, a surveillance blimp, helicopters that carry cargo, or a secret project conducted by the military.
The police department of the Morristown facilitated with the statement that these lights are the projection of road flares with the helium balloons. However, several witnesses and residents of Morris County disregarded the claim.

On the contrary, the 12 NJ News reporters contacted the director of the National UFO Reporting Center known by the name of Peter Davenport through a telephone call. He told the reporters that a red light is required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the tip of the left wing. He disbelieved it to be an aircraft. Furthermore, as the director of the National UFO Reporting Center, he has provided his services to the Washington Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network where he used to work as the investigation director.

ufo hoax

Later on July 18th, 2009, Rudy and Russo were invited as the guest speakers to deliver a public lecture for the New York Skeptics held in New York City. In this lecture, they described that how they designed the hoax and what were their motives behind the performance of this trick.

The UFO hoax of Morristown is acknowledged as one of the best-designed hoaxes in the history that aired on April 1st, 2015 on TruTV and both Rudy and Russo appeared as guests on that show.

What do you think about the Morristown UFO hoax? Let me know in the comments!

3 Comments

  1. Abel 14 January 2017
  2. masennus 20 February 2017
  3. 97Fanny 21 March 2017

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