Lights in the sky: Wendy Piatek's experiences with UFOs

For Wendy Piatek, the sky above Santa Monica is alive in ways we can scarcely begin to imagine. For about three years now, she has been convinced that a presence from beyond our world has chosen her and others for a purpose. What that purpose is remains undefined and uncertain, but for Piatek there is little doubt in her mind, that we are not alone. Sitting in her apartment, looking out a window at the sea with the Santa Monica Pier in the distance, Piatek tells a story that many will find hard to believe, but that to her is as real as the evening news. Piatek is convinced she is a witness to the appearance of alien craft in the sky, usually in the form of lights and shapes that flash, speed by or hover in various locations. She also believes that the occupants of these craft have even entered her home.

"It started about five years ago. I was not into ufology, I didn't want to know about UFOs," says Piatek. It was in her home state of Indiana that Piatek experienced her first encounters. One night after finishing some work at her family farm, Piatek was chatting with her then 24-year-old daughter in a back parking lot when she noticed something strange in the night sky. At first it seemed like a planet, like another, typical nocturnal appearance by Venus.

"It was a big, bright thing. It had to be a planet because it was brighter than the other stars," she recalls. "It was 2 a.m. and I said 'hey that planet has moved from one side of the electrical pole to the other pretty quickly. We both looked up and that 'planet' dropped for what had to be thousands of feet and it came to eye level. It crisscrossed the back parking twice, it came to eye level again, and I could see it waffling. I remember trying to calm myself down while taking it all in. My daughter's first words were 'that's not right.'"

Piatek claims that this first experience was just the beginning. Soon afterwards strange occurrences began taking place in her house. "The house became 'haunted.' This was outrageous to me. We started having flashes of lighting in the house, not like a storm but like quick flashes of light" she claims. A mover of stocks, and married to a successful doctor, Piatek's rational world was thrown upside down. One evening her dog woke her up, barking at the edge of the bed. When Piatek opened her eyes a strange, shadowy being was hovering over her bed. "It glided straight up into the ceiling. It has these little black stubs, I know this sounds absolutely crazy."

Soon afterwards her son invited a friend to sleep over and he too witnessed the same being appear in his bedroom. "I'm sorry that kid had to go through that, but it's verification," says Piatek. "I went online and found that other people have seen this thing and were disturbed that it would glide, not walk."

Piatek also reports seeing laser beams suddenly touch down in her yard. She recalls how the recurring, unexplained phenomenon eventually produced stress among other family members. "My daughter started crying one time saying 'I can't take this anymore, I can't take this anymore,'" she says.

Piatek has taken numerous photographs, some ghostly and foggy, of the shapes she has seen. Some look like beams of light down Olympic Blvd., others like ragged triangles. After several more sightings Piatek immersed herself in the world of UFO research.

"I remember the night when I felt hunted and I became the hunter," recalls Piatek, "I walked outside my porch said 'bring it on.'" Now she has made a home here in Santa Monica, driven by the quest to find answers.

"Santa Monica is now a hotbed of sightings. I decided to approach this like a scientist, I needed to do research and find evidence," she says. Piatek claims she has crisscrossed the country to speak with experts in the field, including an astronaut and renowned UFO scholars such as physicist Stanton Friedman and author Whitley Strieber.

One of these experts, Mexico's Jaime Maussan, a popular TV host who dabbles in the paranormal, helped initiate Piatek's move to California. Piatek reports sighting a blue, diamond-shaped UFO that regularly appeared near her in Indianapolis and anywhere she travelled. When Maussan showed her photos of the object making regular appearances in California, she decided to come here herself and probe around.

"I wasn't alone out here," she says. "Here in Santa Monica, it's not like I can call them down, but I know when they're in town. This is a whole new adventure out here."

"Los Angeles has a rich history of UFOs," explains Piatek, citing the famous 1942 'Battle of Los Angeles' incident when the city's anti-aircraft artillery began firing at the night sky. While historians agree the barrage was provoked by fears of Japanese bombers in the air, UFO-ologists are convinced it was a case of the army firing at alien intruders.

"I believe I was led to Santa Monica," she says while describing a blue, diamond-shaped UFO she has sighted above the beach which makes the stars themselves seem to move. Another evening Piatek viewed a ball-shaped UFO fly over Olympic Boulevard and beams of light reminiscent of the battle of Los Angeles photos. Piatek has taken photos which she lays out on her dining room table. The photos are grainy, but fascinating. She also talks about rumors among the UFO community of a secret, underwater base near the Santa Monica pier, near the mountains, from where the UFOs might emerge from or return to.

"I think they want to be an area where there a lot of shakers and movers who can change the world in order to influence them. I don't think I'm wrong but they will be here someday," says Piatek.

Fear is something Piatek always feels when she senses they are around. "With every sighting, I get scared," she says, "it's never normal. I think I was brought to Santa Monica to write a book, maybe to leave it as a legacy for my grandchildren so they can see what happened. I don't know." Piatek hopes she can soon find someone who has had more contact with the perceived beings in the UFOs, and in this way she can receive answers as to why she was chosen.

Tears swell in her eyes as Piatek ponders what she would say to the craft's inhabitants if she were able to meet them. "Why me? Why me? What can I do," she says, "then I would totally freak out. You want them to be these beautiful angelic beings, but you hear these horrible stories. I hope they are kind. We might even have DNA of them."

Piatek wonders if the instability and ferocity of the human race keeps them from wanting to make full onctact.

She is aware there are doubters and says, "I love skeptics. I love them. Do your own research. Look at the facts, talk to the experts."

Despite the tension of believing she has been chosen by a force which has not fully identified itself, Piatek feels that eventually, we will all make contact. "I tell my children, if you wake up one morning and they are everywhere, don't be afraid, don't be afraid."