Folks who grabbed their cameras near Moses Lake say they knew it was something strange hovering high in this sky. It was something peculiar that they say just didn't belong.
Dozens of folks in Texas City saw an arrangement of strange red dots high in the sky late Saturday night.
Eyewitness Debbie James said, "I just went in and grabbed my camera."
James is one of several people who got video of the peculiar red lights and posted it online.
"It was like in a Z pattern," she recalled. "It was like a perfect Z."
James and other worried eyewitnesses say those strange lights circled the sky for at least 20 minutes, slowly moving about in geometric shapes.
"It was a straight line, then it went to like a figure 8, and then it made this half moon and kept changing shapes."
At first some thought the lights were from tower antennas near Moses Lake. But when neighbors remembered lights on the tall towers don't move, that's when all the speculation and jokes began.
Eyewitness Matthew James said, "Oh yeah, everybody, alien this... alien that. It was just pretty funny."
The bottom line -- neighbors say they want some answers about this strange sighting. So we talked to Texas City's Homeland Security Director Bruce Clawson.
He said, "No, no aliens that we know of."
Clawson's been reviewing video and looking into reports of the strange sighting. He says investigators have already ruled out alien activity.
"You know the hidden agenda here is UFO," Clawson explained. "The lights weren't what normally gets reported. They didn't move in concert, they didn't move fast. They moved very slow and drifted."
Clawson says the lights appear to be nothing more than a big prank. And curious neighbors are laughing it off.
James said, "Just a little excitement."
The homeland security director says someone was playing a practical joke.
When we asked if that person would face any punishment or criminal charges, Clawson said no, not at this time.
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Watch YouTube videos of the mysterious red lights for yourself:
