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Speaker 1: Previously on OBSCURUM: Invasion of the Drones.

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Speaker 2: The items were in a I guess what you would

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Speaker 2: call kind of a mesh bag, and then there was

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Speaker 2: a frozen mass in there. They were picked up in

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Speaker 2: an area where drones had been seen traversing, you know,

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Speaker 2: back and forth.

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Speaker 3: So what do you really think is going on with all?

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Speaker 4: Though?

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Speaker 5: I don't know. But the weirdest thing is is, you know,

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Speaker 5: people are seeing strange lights in this area forever.

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Speaker 6: I know that one sheriff's office put out a notice

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Speaker 6: thing they wanted to have people looking for such and

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Speaker 6: such a vehicle. Within an hour, that whole thing had

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Speaker 6: been reversed and they said, there's nothing to see here.

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Speaker 5: Do you feel like this drone was targeting you specifically?

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Speaker 4: Yeah? Absolutely?

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 7: I took this alien blow up doll and I filled

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Speaker 7: it full air and put it out in front of

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Speaker 7: my house with Christmas lights on it, just so it's

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Speaker 7: sparkled because everybody's driving around looking for these drones and

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Speaker 7: this big old It lit up pretty good. So but

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Speaker 7: I wanted to take some helium and put in it

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Speaker 7: and hang it in Dead's cornfield to let it up

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Speaker 7: there about one hundred feet in the air, but he

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Speaker 7: said he'd get shot down.

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Speaker 1: So what started out is a few eerie reports about

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Speaker 1: unknown objects in the nice sky was quickly sparking more

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Speaker 1: coverage in local news outlets to add speculation into what

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Speaker 1: was behind the sightings. By the first full weekend of

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty, the mysterious aircraft were increasing an area in number.

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Speaker 1: They now spread from northeast to Colorado and southwest Nebraska

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Speaker 1: into central Nebraska and parts of Kansas. I learned a

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Speaker 1: few key things. Witnesses may have been victims of illegal activity,

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Speaker 1: strange aerial occurrences had happened in the region before the

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Speaker 1: flying objects had chased vehicles, and if drones were dropping anything,

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Speaker 1: they weren't dropping track logs. None of the unknown craft

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Speaker 1: had posed a direct threat to scheduled flights, but that

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Speaker 1: was about to change when something nearly collided with a

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Speaker 1: helicopter Chapter seven Game of Drones.

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Speaker 8: It was a routine medical call out East when a

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Speaker 8: mission to save a life almost ended in disaster.

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Speaker 7: And a drone just went right underneath us, probably about

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Speaker 7: one hundred feet.

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Speaker 8: It all happened within a couple of seconds. Like for

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Speaker 8: Life pilot Kirk People's.

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Speaker 1: It happens very very fast.

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Speaker 8: Couldn't even see what type of drone it was.

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Speaker 7: They're not telling anybody who they are, where they're going,

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Speaker 7: what they're doing.

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Speaker 8: When the sun sets, people's and the team rely on

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Speaker 8: night vision goggles and each other.

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Speaker 1: I watched a video of the report, then work to

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Speaker 1: set up an interview with an FAA official. Coincidentally, while

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Speaker 1: coordinating the time, I heard about a cluster of unexplained

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Speaker 1: aircraft that was even more concerning. These were spotted near

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Speaker 1: Denver International Airport, where planes constantly take off and land.

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Speaker 1: After a few emails, I was put in touch with

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Speaker 1: Commander Carl Smalley of the Adams County Sheriff's Department in Strasburg.

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Speaker 4: When you first started to hear about these things, what

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Speaker 4: did you think was going on? I didn't really know

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Speaker 4: because we've had we've had so many reports. There's definitely

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Speaker 4: something there. On January fourth, one of our deputy's deputy

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Speaker 4: bishop received a call for service. He was able to

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Speaker 4: see several strange lights in the area that appeared briefly

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Speaker 4: stationary and then would move in various and random directions.

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Speaker 4: He tried to count the number of objects with the

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Speaker 4: same light pattern he was guessed in the elevation to

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Speaker 4: be about three to five hundred feet.

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Speaker 1: With his description of strange lights, Smally was careful when

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Speaker 1: giving information about the craft.

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Speaker 4: Were these things drones? He said, Well, I couldn't tell

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Speaker 4: for sure. Okay, yeah, I get that. I mean, all

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Speaker 4: we got to do is just report the facts, you know,

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Speaker 4: referred to as objects with the same light pattern. Well,

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Speaker 4: he was trying to count the objects, you know. It

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Speaker 4: says that he heard a buzzing sound, and of course

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Speaker 4: it was a real windy night, so that's really odd

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Speaker 4: that they would be out flying on a windy night.

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Speaker 4: So they disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared.

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Speaker 4: That location there is probably about ten miles east of

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Speaker 4: Denver International Airport.

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Speaker 1: I could tell Commander Smally wanted answers just as much

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Speaker 1: as me. My next conversation was with Bill Bowerley, with

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Speaker 1: his experience flying in and out of DIA, he'd have

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Speaker 1: a unique point of view on what I learned. What

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Speaker 1: do you know about drones in defense? Like as far

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Speaker 1: as like if a drone would come into an airspace

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Speaker 1: like it DIA.

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Speaker 9: I know of nothing there. The only thing I can

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Speaker 9: tell you is from my profession. The big area we

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Speaker 9: had trouble was a quarter going into New York. We

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Speaker 9: had a lot of near missage of airlines coming in

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Speaker 9: on final approach, so many miles out, so they're down low,

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Speaker 9: and drones want to go and by the windshield, you know,

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Speaker 9: one of those going in an engine, even though it's

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Speaker 9: gonna be a couple of pounds, can take that engine out.

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Speaker 9: That engine can take out another part of the airplane

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Speaker 9: and bring an airplane. So I don't know what the

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Speaker 9: defense mechanisms they've got for them. The rumor and some

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Speaker 9: of the articles we had access to said the Israelis

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Speaker 9: aircraft had basically transmitters around the airplane that put a

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Speaker 9: bubble around it so that if anything got within so

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Speaker 9: a certain distance of that airplane, that transmitter would break

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Speaker 9: the ground control of it. Great idea, but don't certainly

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Speaker 9: have to have somebody controling them. They could be pre programmed.

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Speaker 1: There was another scenario I wanted to run by Bill.

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Speaker 1: Commander Smalley's deputy seemed sure the unknown aircraft he'd seen

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Speaker 1: weren't tiny airplanes, but could they be? After all, they

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Speaker 1: were seen near the third busiest airport in the world.

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Speaker 9: What's the percentage of people that actually saw something that

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Speaker 9: was a drone and not an airplane or a satellite

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Speaker 9: or a star or anything else. You know, it's tough.

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Speaker 9: It's tough to say, yeah, that's one right there. That's

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Speaker 9: why I don't trust my naked eye on it, because

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Speaker 9: I've been fooled. I mean, flying into Europe, you're coming

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Speaker 9: out at nighttime, the sun is coming up, which happens

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Speaker 9: very fast. It goes from dark all of a sudden,

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Speaker 9: you start getting light. You get the morning star. Venus

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Speaker 9: pops up first, one up and as it comes through

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Speaker 9: the atmosphere, you're traveling east. It's traveling this way, and

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Speaker 9: the rotation of the Earth makes sunrise happen extremely fast.

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Speaker 9: I have won a lot of bets for who's going

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Speaker 9: to buy the refreshments and that that is not an airplane,

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Speaker 9: that's a planet because it's setting there, blinking off and

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Speaker 9: on red white, red white, red white, red white, red white,

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Speaker 9: red white, bah it's Venus. It's moving through that atmosphere

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Speaker 9: so fast going upward that it changes and it looks

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Speaker 9: like it's blinking. I mean, I first time I would

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Speaker 9: have believed so relate that to this and there's some

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Speaker 9: of this is like explanations and it is not a drum.

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Speaker 9: But people, I think tend to believe what they want

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Speaker 9: to go out and believe.

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Speaker 1: Chapter eight brush. When I finished talking with Bill, I

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Speaker 1: checked the social media group brod Miller and his crew

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Speaker 1: were active on. There were now hundreds of people sharing

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Speaker 1: candid observations about the sightings. Before I had time to

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Speaker 1: go through the posts, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor agreed to

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Speaker 1: visit with me.

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Speaker 5: I bet you've just been Yeah, just been totally flaunted. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: pretty much in your investigations so far into what's been

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Speaker 5: happening in northeast color Out. Have any laws been broken?

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Speaker 10: I've given that we don't have any real concrete evidence

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Speaker 10: of what's been occurring. I do not want to speculate

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Speaker 10: about anything to do with these reports. I just I

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Speaker 10: don't want to weigh in on whether it's something does

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Speaker 10: or does not or Quota could not comply with the regulations,

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Speaker 10: because you know, absence concrete reports is really nothing to

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Speaker 10: base the determination on it this time. Sorry, I'm meant

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Speaker 10: to say concrete evidence. I really don't want to speculate it.

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Speaker 10: I really don't want to speculate about whether you know

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Speaker 10: something whether a report of a certain activity would potentially

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Speaker 10: comply or violate the regulations, because we just don't have

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Speaker 10: any any concrete evidence to base an assessment on at

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Speaker 10: this time.

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Speaker 5: What confirmation and evidence have you seen that would suggest

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Speaker 5: that these in fact or ones or could they be

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Speaker 5: something else?

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Speaker 10: Well, you know, at this point, we have reports, we

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Speaker 10: don't have any concrete evidence. So, you know, rather than

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Speaker 10: try to speculate about what people might be seeing, I'm

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Speaker 10: just gonna I'll just say that at this point, we

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Speaker 10: don't know.

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Speaker 1: Ian told me he had no idea what was happening

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Speaker 1: in the airspace the FAA regulates. Given the number of

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Speaker 1: sidings that was disturbing.

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Speaker 5: We can see flocks of birds on weather radar.

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Speaker 4: Would you.

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Speaker 5: Not be able to see what people are describing as

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Speaker 5: six to nine foot drones on radar?

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Speaker 10: Well, there's a couple of things at play here. First

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Speaker 10: of all, if you're not near an airport, the purpose

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Speaker 10: of radar is to look way up into the sky

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Speaker 10: to track aircraft. If you are closer to an airport,

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Speaker 10: you know radar would radar does catch your aircraft that

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Speaker 10: are closer to the ground. But you know, a small

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Speaker 10: a small object such as a drone typically would not

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Speaker 10: get picked up on the regular radar.

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Speaker 5: There was a report out of Fort Morgan that a

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Speaker 5: helicopter was flying Flight for Life and had a drone

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Speaker 5: come within one hundred feet of that aircraft. Would that

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Speaker 5: constitute an f AA violation?

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Speaker 10: One of the one of the key rules for drone

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Speaker 10: operation is that you cannot interfere with the flight of

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Speaker 10: any manned aircraft. You know, we in twenty nineteen, we

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Speaker 10: you know, it's not it's not uncommon for pilots to

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Speaker 10: report drones in flight. We received about twenty one and

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Speaker 10: fifty drone siding reports from pilots nationwide in twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 10: And well, you know, we don't doubt the veracity of

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Speaker 10: the reports that we received. We're not able to validate

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Speaker 10: the mind.

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Speaker 5: What is your you know what?

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Speaker 10: Hang on kind of day?

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Speaker 5: There you go.

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Speaker 10: While we while we don't doubt the veracity of the

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Speaker 10: reports we see we receive, we're not unable. So boy

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Speaker 10: or boy, try that one more time.

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Speaker 4: You're great.

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Speaker 10: While we're while we don't doubt the veracity of the

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Speaker 10: reports so that we receive, we are unable to verify

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Speaker 10: the vast majority of them.

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Speaker 1: As I listened to Ian, I couldn't help but feel

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Speaker 1: as if he'd been briefed on what to say.

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Speaker 5: And I know, and I understand, there was an aircraft

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Speaker 5: that went up and tried to gather some some data

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Speaker 5: based on these reports. Can you can you explain a

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Speaker 5: little bit more about that?

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Speaker 10: You know, going forward, we are not going to talk

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Speaker 10: about any of the details of the initiatives that that

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Speaker 10: any of us undertake to try to get to the

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Speaker 10: bottom of what's going on.

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Speaker 1: When Ian and I finished visiting, I was connected to

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Speaker 1: Mickey Trost from the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and

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Speaker 1: Emergency Management to get perspective on the ongoing investigation.

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Speaker 5: There was an airplane that went up last night to investigate.

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Speaker 5: Can you tell me a little bit more about the

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Speaker 5: plane and what exactly happened.

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Speaker 3: So, the Colorado Department of Public Safety has several divisions.

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Speaker 3: All of these divisions are supporting the efforts to identify

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Speaker 3: what's happening with the drones in Northeast Colorado. So as

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Speaker 3: part of that, we have technology and experts that are

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Speaker 3: supporting the efforts. But because it's an investigation, I can't

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Speaker 3: go into any of the specifics from that technology or

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Speaker 3: what they're finding or how they're finding information.

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Speaker 1: To this point, Nicky works as the strategic communications director.

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Speaker 1: At first, she wouldn't share many specifics. I pushed harder,

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Speaker 1: is there anything.

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Speaker 5: That would suggest outside of the planes that these are

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Speaker 5: in fact drones?

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Speaker 3: You know, last night as part of joy In operations,

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Speaker 3: we were able to get all of those calls from

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Speaker 3: the local community, send folks out to identify them, and

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Speaker 3: we did not identify any verified drones last night during

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Speaker 3: any of the operations.

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Speaker 1: If Homeland Security couldn't verify these aircraft or drones, then

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Speaker 1: what was everyone seeing.

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Speaker 3: We have analysts who pull together information from local, state,

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Speaker 3: and federal partners and verify it, analyze it, and turn

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Speaker 3: it into actionable intelligence for local law enforcement.

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Speaker 10: To work offers.

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Speaker 5: There are all these agencies that are involved with this.

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Speaker 5: We're going on, I believe week four now. How can

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Speaker 5: those divisions in Colorado not be aware of something that

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Speaker 5: could potentially be picked up on radar?

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Speaker 3: I would say that we are aware that something is

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Speaker 3: happening that isn't part of the discussion. What we are

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Speaker 3: trying to do is work with all of the partners

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Speaker 3: in this joint operation to identify what is happening. Is

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Speaker 3: it truly drones? You know, we've had several of the

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Speaker 3: objects of the drones that have been reported that are

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Speaker 3: simply commercial aircraft. Really, we have to either find one

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Speaker 3: of the drone operators or be able to get something

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Speaker 3: to absolutely verify what is happening in Colorado.

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Speaker 1: It seemed like there was confusion in many unanswered questions.

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Speaker 1: I felt like these agencies should have a better handle

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Speaker 1: on what was happening.

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Speaker 5: Do you feel as though this could be some type

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Speaker 5: of government agency or foreign power controlling these drones?

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Speaker 3: I can't answer that. We haven't been able to identify

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Speaker 3: at this point who it is, and our partners have

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Speaker 3: shared that they are not involved in the activity, So

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Speaker 3: that is what we currently are operating from.

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Speaker 1: I started hearing rumblings of a meeting that was set

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Speaker 1: to take place in Brush, Colorado. Apparently there were going

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Speaker 1: to be representatives from at least seventy agencies, including the

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Speaker 1: Air Force, FAA, and FBI, to discuss one topic, drones.

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Speaker 1: I did everything I could to be there, but I

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Speaker 1: wasn't allowed inside. The first piece of information to come

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Speaker 1: out of the January sixth meeting was the following message

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Speaker 1: posted to the Phillips County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.

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Speaker 11: A strategy meeting was held today in Brush, Colorado, with federal, state,

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Speaker 11: and local law enforcement agencies regarding the drone issue. None

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Speaker 11: of the agencies can confirm that the drones are malicious.

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Speaker 11: A task force has been organized and we are asking

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Speaker 11: for your assistance. Specifically, we are looking for the command vehicle.

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Speaker 11: We are looking for a closed box trailer with antennas

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Speaker 11: or a large van that does not belong in the area.

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Speaker 11: If you see anything that resembles this description, please call

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Speaker 11: the Phillips County Sheriff's Office.

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Speaker 1: Two days later, on January eighth, a separate message was

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Speaker 1: shared on the same page.

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Speaker 11: The information in the Phillips County Sheriff's Office previously posted

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Speaker 11: requesting the public's assistance and locating command vehicles associated with

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Speaker 11: the drone issue is no longer pertinent or irrelevant. The

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Speaker 11: Phillips County Sheriff's Office is not the task force, and

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Speaker 11: our jurisdiction does not extend past Phillips County, Colorado. We

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Speaker 11: will no longer be making any statements or press releases

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Speaker 11: about the drone incidents. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: In the posted comments, many folks pose the same questions.

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Speaker 1: Had someone told the Sheriff's department to retract the post?

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Speaker 1: I was able to get Commander Smally to shed some

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Speaker 1: light on the situation.

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Speaker 5: Were you at that FAA task force meeting in Brush was?

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Speaker 5: What was your takeaway from that and how did the

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Speaker 5: whole task force help with the situation.

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Speaker 4: We had a big, big turnout. People were getting scared.

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Speaker 4: I mean, there was a guy from FAA there that

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Speaker 4: said that they had reports of shots fired at drones.

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Speaker 4: There was I guess the report that there was one

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Speaker 4: shot down in Nebraska. Somebody admitted to it but later

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Speaker 4: said he just wanted to attention on social media. That's right,

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Speaker 4: So that didn't pan out. Sheriff Elliott and Phillips County

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Speaker 4: had a report, you know, a couple of bands with

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Speaker 4: a report of drones located at a gas station up

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Speaker 4: there in Phillips County had a Nebraska license plate. They've

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Speaker 4: had reports of a van in you Ma County. The

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Speaker 4: driver didn't want to make any eye contact with the cops.

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Speaker 4: You know, Oh, if I don't look at him, you

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Speaker 4: won't see me.

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Speaker 1: This sounded like a scene straight out of the Jason

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Speaker 1: Bourne films. Only thing missing was the Treadstone logo branded

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Speaker 1: on the side of those vans.

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Speaker 4: Question came up, can they be controlled by his satellite?

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Speaker 4: It's possible. They also talked about could this be a

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Speaker 4: government agency that's doing this. Well, obviously everybody's denying that.

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Speaker 4: I mean, we had guys from the FBI there, FAA,

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Speaker 4: Homeland Security. The FBI says they have no information that

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Speaker 4: this is occurring.

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Speaker 1: With everyone at the meeting. Something had to have been

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Speaker 1: said about that special plane used to search for drums.

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Speaker 4: Colorado has what they call a multi mission aircraft, they

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Speaker 4: call it an MMA, and it's utilized a lot for wildfires,

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Speaker 4: so they can go out and map that by air.

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Speaker 4: We thought, oh, this is this would be a good

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Speaker 4: use for it. So they went out and flew this,

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Speaker 4: I think for two nights and come up with nothing.

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Speaker 4: They can pinpoint of a stray cap in the middle

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Speaker 4: of a wildfire somewhere. Oddly enough, as our Air Force

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Speaker 4: representative this meeting didn't seem to be a bit concerned

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Speaker 4: about them, So that's odd. So we have more questions

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Speaker 4: than answer here.

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Speaker 5: Have you had any follow up from that task force meeting?

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Speaker 4: Did the FAA.

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Speaker 5: Follow up or did that kind of fizzle out.

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Speaker 4: This thought, I mean fizzled out, and we haven't heard

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Speaker 4: another peak pen.

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Speaker 1: Following the meeting in Brush, the Colorado Department of Public

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Speaker 1: Safety released a report breaking down the mysterious drone sightings.

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Speaker 1: It was presented in two main parts. The first focused

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Speaker 1: on all the reports received in Colorado, and the second

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Speaker 1: analyzed data gathered during a field investigation. The information was

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Speaker 1: a bit confusing. I did my best to break it down.

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Speaker 1: From November twenty third to January thirteenth, twenty twenty, there

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Speaker 1: were ninety drone reports. Of those, fourteen were confirmed to

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Speaker 1: be hobbyist drones and none fit the description of large

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Speaker 1: wingspan drones traveling in groups in eastern Colorado. When the

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Speaker 1: Colorado Department of Public Safety conducted its field investigation from

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Speaker 1: January sixth to January thirteenth, there were twenty three drone reports.

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Speaker 1: Thirteen of those were determined to be planets, stars, or

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Speaker 1: small hobbyist drones, six were ruled as atmosphereic conditions or airplanes,

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Speaker 1: and four four were confirmed to be sightings of something,

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Speaker 1: but officials weren't able to figure out what witnesses saw.

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Speaker 1: Stan Hioke, the executive director, of the CDPs was quoted

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Speaker 1: as saying, despite all of the reported activity, we're still

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Speaker 1: unaware of any crime being committed. Well, I can't conclusively

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Speaker 1: say that we've solved the mystery. We have been able

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Speaker 1: to rule out a lot of the activity that was

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Speaker 1: causing concern. Math may not have been my strongest subject

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Speaker 1: in school, but I could tell there were still a

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Speaker 1: large number of reports from before the CDPs field operation

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Speaker 1: that didn't appear to be analyzed, and that was just

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Speaker 1: in Colorado. Groups of mysterious aircraft continued to be seen

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Speaker 1: nightly by hundreds, if not thousands of people through January fifteenth,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty. While sightings decreased after that, many folks continued

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Speaker 1: to see weird objects in the night sky. I wasn't

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Speaker 1: able to assess what I didn't know, but going forward,

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Speaker 1: I couldn't rely on government agencies I'd connected with to

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Speaker 1: share transparent information related to the sidings. Whether I wanted

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Speaker 1: to admit it or not, it was time for me

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Speaker 1: to stop covering this mystery and begin actively investigating it.

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Speaker 1: I owed it to my hometown to get answers, and

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Speaker 1: I wasn't stopping until I had them coming up on

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Speaker 1: obscure invasion of the drums.

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Speaker 6: Is that gunshots are He was saying, there were the

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Speaker 6: ones you know that we're doing this stuff.

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Speaker 2: Now something found out more from it, and they just

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Speaker 2: kind of.

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Speaker 1: Disappear, he wrote, rather than going out at night to

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Speaker 1: look up at the lights, look at the ground to

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Speaker 1: see what these drums are hunting. We want to hear

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Speaker 1: from you if you have any information surrounding the events

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Speaker 1: detailed in this podcast or other obscure stories in rural

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Speaker 1: America we should look into. Please visit our website at

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Speaker 1: obscurumseries.com and send us an email. To connect with us.

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Speaker 1: On social media, you can follow @obscurum_series and @gabelenners on

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Speaker 1: all social platforms. OBSCURUM is produced by Imagine and Lenners

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Speaker 1: Entertainment for iHeartMedia. This series is written, hosted, and produced

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Speaker 1: by Me Gabe Lenners. It's executive produced by Ron Howard,

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Speaker 1: Brian Grazer, Carl Welker, Nathan Kloke, Nicki Etour and Me.

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00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 1: Additional production by Jacob Plough. Music and sound effects courtesy

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Speaker 1: of Epidemic Sound. Brand management and digital design by Labyrinth

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Speaker 1: Brand Co. Video editing by Alex Semi Kopenko. This project

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Speaker 1: was mixed and mastered by Jacob Plough. Special thanks to

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Speaker 1: Dan Bodanski, Josh Hiller, Keeton Storts, Bryson Keyes, Ailey Birchfield,

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Speaker 1: David Wasserman, Katrina Norvel and my family. OBSCURUM: Invasion of

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Speaker 1: the Drones is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Follow now.