Former British Detective Claims 1,100 Police Officers Reported UFOs, Some 'Cried in Fear,' But Were Ignored and Silenced

A former British police detective has reignited debate around UFOs after revealing that more than 1,100 police officers have allegedly reported sightings of unexplained aerial objects over the past century, with some officers so disturbed by what they witnessed that they later 'cried down the phone' while recounting their experiences.

Gary Heseltine, a retired British Transport Police detective and founder of the PRUFOS police UFO database, claims the reports came from serving and retired officers across the UK. According to Heseltine, many never told their families what they saw because they feared ridicule, damage to their careers, or being branded unstable.

Massive Silent Craft

Speaking on a UFO podcast, Heseltine described one of the most striking cases in the database. Several police officers reportedly witnessed a giant object measuring around 300 to 400 feet wide hovering silently near a television mast in Yorkshire during the 1970s.

According to the testimony, six smaller cylindrical craft circled the object while beams of light scanned the ground below before the objects suddenly vanished without a sound.

Heseltine said the case stood out because officers from different locations all described the same event independently.

'If you've got six different police officers from six different patrol cars in six geographical areas all describing the same thing, that becomes compelling evidence,' he explained.

The former detective believes police officers make highly credible witnesses because they are professionally trained to observe incidents carefully, document events accurately, and identify inconsistencies in statements.

Some Officers Allegedly Broke Down

One of the most startling parts of Heseltine's claims involves the emotional impact these sightings allegedly had on officers.

He said some former police personnel contacted him privately years after retiring because they were finally ready to discuss what they witnessed.

'Some people have been crying down the phone to me,' Heseltine revealed. 'They've never told their wives, girlfriends or family because of the stigma.'

According to him, many officers initially approached conversations nervously and apologetically, often beginning with phrases such as, 'You're going to think I'm crazy.'

Heseltine argues that fear of mockery kept many sightings buried for decades, even within police culture itself.

He also believes the wider public still dismisses UFO accounts because the subject has long been treated as entertainment rather than serious investigation.

'If a pilot reports an aircraft crash, their testimony becomes expert evidence,' he said. 'But if the same pilot reports a UFO, suddenly nobody wants to listen.'

Heseltine Believes Evidence Should Be Taken Seriously

The retired detective insists the UFO phenomenon should be analysed using the same standards applied in criminal investigations. Drawing from nearly 30 years in policing, Heseltine says evidence generally falls into three categories: oral testimony, documentary evidence, and physical evidence.

He argues that many UFO incidents already meet those standards. Heseltine pointed to cases involving military pilots, commercial airline crews, radar operators and police officers who independently described the same unexplained objects while radar systems simultaneously detected them.

According to him, that combination creates what investigators would consider 'strong corroboration.'

He also warned that modern artificial intelligence technology now makes genuine footage harder to separate from hoaxes, meaning older eyewitness accounts collected before the digital age may actually hold greater value.

'Researchers spent decades gathering testimony before AI and advanced editing software existed,' he said. 'That evidence should not simply be ignored.'

UFO Sightings Changing Lives

Heseltine's interest in UFOs reportedly began after his own sighting at age 16, long before he joined the police force.

Years later, while working as a detective, he decided to create a dedicated archive specifically focused on police sightings. That project eventually became PRUFOS, now one of the largest collections of police UFO reports in Britain.

He launched the database publicly in 2002 after publishing an article in UFO Magazine, which quickly attracted responses from retired officers sharing their own unexplained encounters.

Over time, the archive reportedly expanded into more than 1,100 police-related cases. Now aged 66, Heseltine believes public attitudes are slowly shifting and claims some form of official UFO disclosure may eventually happen.