UFO Messages Prompt Yawns (and a Cleanup)

In front of City Hall, the eyes of Father Serra bugged as an alien’s. Freeway overpasses proclaimed in huge letters the existence of extraterrestrials. Across Ventura on Sunday morning, schools and public buildings were the canvas for a message about UFOs.

Was it the end of the world as we know it?

Police fielding calls from curious citizens said they didn’t think so. And they weren’t about to investigate. The only official response from city leaders to the flurry of scrawled messages on butcher paper was to tear them down.

And the public didn’t seem much more receptive to perhaps a dozen banners hung from--among other places--City Hall, Buena High School, a newspaper office and a Main Street stationery store.

“Can you believe that? Talk about no respect,” said Kern County visitor Judy Salvamoser, gaping at the papier-mache alien’s mask taped to the face of Father Juniper Serra’s landmark statue at City Hall.

Some locals played it as a lark.

“It’s just a bunch of kids screwing around,” said resident Greg Jones, who stopped to photograph the statue before city work crews restored the father’s own stern visage Sunday afternoon. “I think it’s hilarious, personally. They didn’t knock his head off or anything.”

Such responses may not have been exactly what the true believers were looking for when they went about spreading their message Saturday night.

“DEMAND UFO TRUTH” one banner insisted. “UFOs ‘R’ REAL” said another. “THE GOV=UFO LIES” said a third.

In one-page, single-spaced manifestoes taped to statues and buildings, they declared that government had taken it upon itself to conceal the truth about UFOs.

“Many citizens are led to believe unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel,” said the document.

Whether all this was just an elaborate gag or a publicity stunt by those who really think the Earth is visited regularly by beings from outer space was not clear Sunday.

But Scott Sackmann of Ventura, pausing in front of the stationery store at Chestnut and Main streets said: “I just think its some drama queens or some hackers, just wanting to create a stir.”