Introduction On 29th September 2012 an article was published on Huffington Post written by UK UFO investigator Darren Perks. In the comments' section beneath the article I had provided Mr. Perks with some additional information about "flying triangles." My comment was not well-received and Perks answered suggesting that I write some articles of my own. Herewith, an article of my own! (Not my first - and certainly not my last. Many more are in the works.) Ironically, this article is about an "event" alleged to have occurred on that very same day as the Huffington Post article was published - 29th September 2012. and now to the "Sphere" On 30th December 2012, Darren Perks tweeted to draw attention to a report that had been submitted to MUFON. The tweet directed his loyal followers to the Examiner article by Roger Marsh which is referenced further down this page. Note the avatar being used by Perks at this time - a screenshot from the famous "Conpiracy Road Trip, UFOs" programme that was aired on BBC3 in October 2012. On 2nd January 2013 Mr. B.J. Booth put an article on his UFO Casebook website regarding the sighting that had been reported near Alamo, Nevada on 29th September 2012. UFO Sighting near Area 51: Bright Spherical Object Spotted, Photographed This article referred to a UFO report that had been submitted to MUFON on 30th December 2012:

The report read as follows: A contact of mine who is a local resident of Alamo, Nevada was walking near to the Windmill Ranch Hotel just outside Alamo when he spotted this sphere moving towards the west and the mountain range which you can see in the picture. Behind the mountains is Area 51 and on this particular day there had been no aircraft activity out of Nellis AFB or Groom Lake. The sun was behind the person who took this picture and you can clearly see this from the shadows on the ground in the picture. The contact had forgotten this image until he recently went through some old SD memory cards and came across it just before Christmas. He contacted me immediately and we cannot find any conventional explanation for this sphere. He does recall seeing flashes in the sky which were also witnessed by staff from the hotel, in total 3 other persons. He cannot find any conventional explantion for this sphere and satelites and astronomical objects have been ruled out. The contact has asked me to share this image and I will respect their wishes by not naming them. None the less this is certainly a decent image and one that should certianly be shared with the public. Darren Perks UFO Investigator - www.ufoshropshire.co.uk Here are some relevant comments posted on the UFO Casebook page under the article: 1/3/2013 4:34:34 PM Written by: bratton I just read the comments that appear under the MUFON submission regarding an event that occurred, we are told, on 29th September 2012 at 2.10 pm. Full Report on MUFON and also at: Long Description on MUFON CMS The original account on MUFON includes the following, written by the submitter, Darren Perks: "A contact of mine who is a local resident of Alamo, Nevada was walking near to the Windmill Ranch Hotel just outside Alamo when he spotted this sphere moving towards the west ..." However, when Darren Perks makes a comment at the bottom of that page under the submission he states: "So what he forgot about it, he did only see flashes that day, it's not as if the sphere was right in fornt of him waving at him." Going by the original story, the witness did see the sphere. But it would appear that the story has changed somewhat from the original account submitted to MUFON on 30th December 2012. Darren Perks now says that the witness only saw "flashes." According to the entry in MUFON, the event occurred at 2.10 pm on the 29th September 2012. As for what the sphere actually is, that's anyone's guess. The image submitted to MUFON has no useful information to tell us about the event such as date, time of day, 1/3/2013 5:36:09 PM Written by: bratton I just found the answer to all this on Above Top Secret forum. Screenshot of comment and link on AboveTopSecret Forum Apparently the image was on Darren Perks' Area 51 gallery on his UFO Shropshire website. Later, on 8th January 2013, I posted a reply to Randy Bragg thanking him for the "heads up" on the image and its source. Screenshot of XposeUFOtruth reply to Randy Bragg of ATS Back to UFO Casebook and comments. Here is the image with NO sphere: Image on UFO Shropshire gallery (Note: I am including below the actual image that was saved from the UFO Shropshire website gallery for reference - ed.) Click on image to see full-size original version However, if one goes to that Gallery on his site, all we can see now is a NO ENTRY sign. HOAX 1/3/2013 5:55:26 PM Written by: bratton I put the (UFO Shropshire - ed.) image URL into the Foto Forensics' site. Here is the result: Image originally on UFO Shropshire website Select the Metadata option to view the image details as best as we can obtain. Then, using the Jpeg % option, it shows that the image was last saved at 86%. Here is the image with the sphere included: Image submitted to MUFON Using the Jpeg % option, it shows that the image was last saved at 75%. 1/3/2013 5:59:34 PM Written by: bratton The full url of the "original" image without the sphere has truncated somewhat in my posting above. Here is the Tiny Url version 1/3/2013 6:10:40 PM Written by: bratton I now have the original showing clearly in Perks' USA UFO Trip 2012 - Locations and Area 51 gallery. One can then look at other images in his gallery using the forward and back buttons. Complete Gallery The trip occurred in May 2012, and the show was broadcast on BBC3 on 15th October 2012. 1/3/2013 6:26:15 PM Written by: bratton NOTE: One MUST be signed in to GOOGLE to view the above gallery/images. 1/4/2013 0:03:34 PM Written by: bratton It seems that the images referenced yesterday are no longer visible as the "gallery" appears to have been removed. However, the foto-forensics images that I posted are still available for comparison. 1/6/2013 1:12:26 AM Written by: bratton I have attempted to post on the MUFON Case page on Stalker and on Stalker's Facebook page but none of my postings have shown up. It would seem that there is some sort of filtering/censoring going on regarding this case. The MUFON status on the case still sits at Unresolved but some of us have already figured out that this was a hoax. As one can see from the hyperlinks that were included with the above postings, as the day wore on, the image without the bright sphere disappeared without trace from the internet. The only remaining evidence of the image's existence was in one of the two links provided to show the image comparison executed using the Foto Forensics website online tool. Here are screenshots to show the image with the sphere and the image without the sphere as displayed on the Foto Forensics website. Click on the links to see the results on Foto Forensics' site. The images below are screenshots of the results. The image that was submitted to MUFON The original image in UFO Shropshire's photo gallery During the early stages of the investigation on the 2nd January 2013 we did take a screenshot of the gallery thumbnail images on UFO Shropshire's website. Click on image for full-size version This is the detail from the top right section of the above screenshot indicating that the gallery comprised 40 photos with a reference date of May 26, 2012. It would seem that the image without the "bright sphere" had been taken some time before 26th May 2012. The image was then altered to include the "sphere" and was submitted to MUFON on 30th December 2012 with an accompanying written report. Under the report on MUFON, the local MUFON Field Investigator had posted a comment to the submitter: "Darren, I have recieved your latest e-mail with contact info and will be conducting canvessing and interviews in the area soon. Thanks for the heads up. Will advise of any additions to this incident. As for comments by Mr.Harvey, if he lives in the area, I'd like to speak with him as well. Ross Baxter MUFON Field Investigator (Nevada)" Here is a screenshot of the Field Investigator's posting: Click on image to see full-size version The local MUFON Field Investigator was apparently going to be following up on this submission (Case #44854.) What is somewhat disturbing is that if this was not a genuine report and attached image then the field investigator would likely be wasting his time with interviewing people in the area. Note: A "Mr Harvey" had also posted a comment to the submitter and, as we see from the above Field Investigator's comment, would likely be interviewed as well. This screenshot shows Mr. Harvey's comment: Click on image to see full-size version Darren Perks, the submitter, then responded to Mr. Harvey and his response may be seen in this screenshot: Click on image to see full-size version Mr. Harvey then responded to Darren Perks but the posting did not appear. Fortunately a screenshot of the posting was made and provided to Xpose UFO Truth: Click on image to see full-size version Xpose UFO Truth subsequently posted a detailed explanation of their findings in the same comments' section under the MUFON submission. The posting went for moderation and we thought that it was being held briefly because it did include hyperlinks which sometimes cause problems for webmasters. However, as of the time of writing, there has been no sign of said posting under that submission. Fortunately we did take a screenshot of the posting which appears below: Click on image to see full-size version Xpose UFO Truth also made a posting on the MUFON Stalker Facebook page. Although the posting showed up at our end, it was not visible to others. We took a screenshot of the posting when we were logged in to Facebook: Click on image to see full-size version We then took a screenshot when not logged into Facebook: Click on image to see full-size version We are not sure as to what is preventing this information from being put up on MUFON. All we did was to explain the process by which we compared the two images. We were hoping that MUFON would appreciate some assistance in solving just one of the many cases that are submitted to them daily. However, that does not appear to be the situation with MUFON Case #44854. At the time of writing the disposition of this case is Unresolved. See also: The Case of the Orange Sphere UFO (same submitter) Xpose UFO Truth 6th January 2013 Now, whilst all this had been transpiring, other things had been hatching on Twitter. On 4th January 2013 it seemed that Perks had realised that things were falling apart at the seams regarding his Alamo Sphere report to MUFON. He started Tweeting and Facebooking that there were some "issues" with his site so would not be updating, plus he was "going dark for a bit." I would imagine that, having been rumbled, he was getting into a bit of a panic mode! This was the period during which Perks was removing all the damning evidence of the image that had no sphere in it. At this stage he had not thought up the hacking story that would soon be used to explain the whole Alamo fiasco. A friend then asks what the problem was: Perks responded by saying that he was getting "Wordpress errors" with his site. He referred to 123.reg which is the company with which "UFO SHROPSHIRE" is registered, and was going to get them to sort the problem out. Then his friend offered "better hosting" - but, as we now know, the hosting was not the issue here! Perks thanked his friend and said that he needed "more bandwidth etc." And then he got an offer of a year's free hosting as a reward for his hoaxing, but, of course, his friend probably did not know about the hoaxing as yet, and probably still does not know. On 10th January 2013 Perks tweeted and 'blogged explaining how this confusion had come about regarding the "Alamo." The story is ridiculous as he is blaming some imaginary "colleague in ufology" ("Mark Roberts" no doubt) for the hoax. Had he forgotten that he claimed that a military friend of his (Perks) had allegedly sent him the image taken over Alamo, Nevada? On the MUFON report page Perks had written to "Mr Harvey" on 3rd January 2013: "My contact is ex USAF and flew in both Gulf wars therefore he has the ability as an ex fast jet pilot to be able to distinguish between the sun, stars, planets and other astronomical objects." Now he's claiming that someone hacked into his photograph gallery, stole the picture taken by himself (Perks) over Alamo, Nevada in May 2012 (while on his free holiday with the BBC,) added the glowing sphere and sent it to him. Perks then put his own blue text copyright on the image and submitted it to MUFON on 30th December 2012. The trouble with telling lies is that Perks seems to forget his story and gets all tangled up in the web that he's woven. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS The Situation as of 28th January 2013 On 9th January 2013 the "story" took another turn. We were interested to see in how many locations this alleged sighting had been submitted or re-posted on the Internet. We found link after link, many of the web pages making reference to where the report had been highlighted on The Examiner. Screenshot of first section of Examiner article: Note that the date of the Examiner article was 30th December 2012, the same day that the submission was made to MUFON (Case #44854.) This was a quick publishing on Examiner, obviously without the author checking the veracity of the submission to MUFON. From the Examiner the Alamo "sphere" travelled quickly and seemed to be visible at every turn. After finding many dozens of entries we came upon the report located on Latest UFO Sightings. The report was submitted to LUFOS on 2nd January 2013 by Darren Perks. This was the same person who had submitted the report to MUFON on 30th December 2012 - MUFON Case #44854 Under the main report submitted on 2nd January 2013 by Darren Perks there was a comments' section and, at the top of that section, there was a posting by a "Kerry Lee" later the same day. We had already determined by this stage that the "bright sphere" event over Alamo, Nevada, that allegedly occurred on 29th September 2012 was likely a hoax created by enhancing an image that had been taken in May 2012. On the Latest UFO Sightings website we posted the following two comments, the first on 6th January 2013 and the second on 9th January 2013: Why would someone working in the Lincoln County "sheriffs[sic] department" be posting to say that officers had seen spheres on that day if the event had not occurred? We looked up the name "Kerry Lee" and "Lincoln County, Nevada" and a person with that name did indeed work at the Lincoln County Sheriff's "department." In fact that person IS the Sheriff. We recalled the name "Kerry Lee" from an incident that had occurred back on 14th May 2012 when one section of a BBC3 "documentary" - Conspiracy Road Trip - UFOs - was recorded at the gate of so-called "Area 51." Lincoln County, Nevada, Sheriff Kerry Lee had dispatched officers to the gate of the military installation after guards had contacted the Sheriff's office due to an ongoing disturbance. We placed a 'phone call to Sheriff Lee's office to ask whether Sheriff Lee had posted the comment on the Latest UFO Sightings website. Sheriff Lee was not in the office at that time but we were asked to call back. During the lengthy 'phone conversation with Sheriff Lee on 9th January 2013 he read the comment on the Latest UFO Sightings website and laughed. Sheriff Lee wanted to know who owns the Latest UFO Sightings website as he considered this comment to be "impersonation." Sheriff Lee categorically stated that he did not post the comment on the Latest UFO Sightings website. He also said that he and his officers refer to their facility as the Sheriff's "Office" not "Department" - despite what is published in the Lincoln County, Nevada, directory. Screenshot from the Lincoln County, NV, website A puzzling situation So, who was the "Kerry Lee" commenting on the "sphere" that had allegedly been seen and recorded over Alamo, Nevada, on 29th September 2012 by a "contact" of Darren Perks? (Recall that in a later comment on MUFON Stalker by Darren Perks, the "contact" had not actually seen the sphere, only flashes.) We tried to visualise Sheriff Lee sitting at his office computer on 2nd January 2013, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to comment on the "sphere" report that might be submitted by Darren Perks. We know for a fact that this was not Sheriff Kerry Lee posting on the Latest UFO Sightings website. So, who was impersonating Sheriff Kerry Lee in order to add credence to the report submitted to the Latest UFO Sightings website by UK UFO investigator Darren Perks? A puzzling situation indeed. On that same day, 9th January 2013, someone using the handle/ID "xutlady had posted on the Above Top Secret forum regarding the hacking of Darren Perks' account. Note that the handle/ID "xutlady" is actually that of one of the directors of our website, Xpose UFO Truth. Was this intended to give the impression that Xpose UFO Truth really believed the ridiculous tale of hacking? As there was/is no doubt in our minds that this whole incident was a deliberate intent to deceive on the part of the submitter to MUFON, we would hardly be supporting the tale of hacking! WHO created that account "xutlady" on the Above Top Secret forum? We have a pretty good idea who did! I had registered as a "member" of Perks' UFO SHROPSHIRE website on 16th May 2012 using my "xutlady" email address. Coincidence? UPDATE - 30th January 2013 Earlier today (30th January 2013) an additional comment appeared on MUFON Stalker regarding the aforementioned "sphere." A "Steve Thomas" commented as follows: This is all quite unfortunate if you ask me. The guy got hacked by a member of his own group and apparently it was going on for a while before he realised. I'm not suprised Darren got really angry and gave him a thick lip. There was a big argument within the group between members and I know from speaking to some of them that Darren had enough and kicked them out. This led to one of them getting revenge by doing this as it turns out, which is quite childish to be fair. That saying Darren has now tightened up his group and there are now only 5 members. He won't let anyone in and is restricting information being realised to the public. He is a nice bloke and wouldn't dream of hoaxing anything because it's not in his nature. I have done quite a lot of investigation stuff with him in the last two years and he is a genuine guy and quietly does his own thing which is good to see. Members of his group it seems were jealous of what he was doing, and so what if he does the odd bit of TV work good for him. I think now the persons who are admament in dragging this on need to let it lie. It was a clear hoax but no fault of Darren's. To see the actual posting on MUFON Stalker click on thumbnail below NOTE: We have a sneaking suspicion that this "Steve Thomas" is actually Darren Perks using an alias. But, of course, we could be wrong! This little tale regarding the hacking of images was related to us on 9th January 2013 in an amusing email message received via our online report form from a one "Terry Spencer." My friend Phil Hoyle has shared a number of amusing missives with me that he received from a "Terry Spencer" starting in May 2012 so I am familiar with this "Spencer" character. Even better, this individual submitted an animal mutilation report to Richard D. Hall, David Cayton and Gary Heseltine (active serving police officer/PRUFOS) on 18th December 2012. This Meifod farmer ("Terry Spencer") seems to be a versatile soul - a world traveller and frequenter of "web cafes" in California as well as looking after his animals in Powys. Here is "Farmer Spencer's" offering to us at Xpose UFO Truth: name: terryspencer55@aol.com email: terry spencer comment: Hi I had to laugh when I read your website about the Alamo orb sighting. This is a set up, myself and my friend Bob set the english guy up for fun. He left his photo account open in a web cafe in LA just before Christmas. We recognised him straight away. He got called away on his cell phone so we jumped at the chance and got his images,and we hacked his stuff. We meant no harm but I do see that he has now changed his passwords etc so we cannot get anything now. We could not resist it to be honest. Sorry if we have wasted everyones time but we had to come clean. Poor bloke :-) If anyone wants to read the aforementioned animal mutilation report please email us for details :) Do I detect some similarity betwixt the Terry Spencer (friend of "Bob,") message and the MUFON comment made by "Steve Thomas?" Just as an aside, I have received a number of similar missives via our online report form, all with similar entertaining writing style. Xpose UFO Truth has also uncovered another case where the same person submitted a hoax report. On this particular occasion the report was submitted to the UK UFO Sightings website owned and operated by Andy Mannion. Please refer to: The Case of the Orange Sphere UFO Update 31st January 2013 "I think now the persons who are admament[sic] in dragging this on need to let it lie" (credit "Steve Thomas" - comment on MUFON Stalker) No "DAMM" (as in "frap" iPhone keyboard) WAY! Tonight the XUT team was reviewing the various missives received via our online contact form on Xpose UFO Truth. This particular message, ostensibly from colleague and friend Phil Hoyle, was especially amusing. 10th January 2013 email: Phil Hoyle comment: Hi Please be advised that I am formally requesting that you remove all information and data regarding myself off your website with immediate effect. I am currently progressing with a legal claim and requite[sic] this information to removed[sic] including any links to myself, name and any organizations I maybe linked to. I am sorry that I have to request this and I hope you understand. Best wishes. Phil Hoyle We have also received a missive from an individual who claims that Darren Perks "actually works closely with Bigelow Airspace[sic]" 2nd February 2013 After glancing quickly over our track logs we established from whence the "Shane" email message regarding Perks and Bigelow emanated. Herewith the missive: Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 2:41 AM name: Shane.game62@ymail.com email: Shane Game comment: Good morning. I have been following the report about the sphere image in Nevada that you has on your website. I don't know if you are aware but Darren Perks the investigator, actually works closely with Bigelow Airspace hence him using MUFON. How do I know this? Well he frequently visits the US and meets with Bigelow management and has been seen numerous times at their office in Las Vegas. He was apparently approached by them in 2011, and since has worked closely with them. I think t would be wise to remember this info, not many know this but he did come clean in January 2012 when a group he infiltrated UFOIRU collapsed. However I think the image is fake but apparently he was hacked and has been set up which is quite possible if someone found out he worked with Bigelow and didn't like it. He is an interesting guy with some certain darker sides to him. Hope his helps. The timings of the visit to our Report page and the actual online contact form submission match exactly and it would seem that the same IP address was also responsible for sending numerous suspect (and entertaining) messages from a "frap" "damm iPhone keyboard." The submitters include "Timothy Beckley," "E.J. Thomas/xutlady," "Phil Hoyle," and "Terry Spencer." ADDENDUM Xpose UFO Truth is pleased to note that MUFON has finally, after a month, published our comments and findings on the Alamo sphere Stalker page Please click on the images below to see screenshots of the comments. We still wonder why the findings were not posted when we originally submitted them a month ago. 2nd February 2013 screenshot of Tweet apparently confirming intel provided by "Shane Game" Tweet later disappeared and the farce continues... A recent prank missive to Xpose UFO Truth was an "anonymous" message via our online reporting form from a one "Steve Bratton." (The real Mr. Steve Bratton is owner of Bratton Scenery in Toronto.) This fake "Mr. Bratton" was asking us if we were interested in his UFO and orb images :) Then another "anonymous" missive appeared on 14th February 2013. The familiar inversion of "name" and "email address" fields was evident again. name: slapper69@cnet.com email: Mel Trind comment: High I wondered if you would like some fresh veg delivering to Loma Drive Stoney Creek? The name "Mel Trind" appears to be a short form of the UK researcher Melanie Trinder's name. This lady's name and my Hotmail address were used in a fake "cow attack" report submitted to Phil Hoyle and APFU on 12th June 2012. Another tweet from Mr. Perks. How appropriate! And where did all his "tweets" and "followers" go? Note the drop in numbers from the previous screenshot of 2nd February 2013!