DENVER – As more and more drone sightings light up the skies in northeastern Colorado, an unlikely crew is teaming up to help solve the mystery.
“We’re the only two people on a planet of eight billion people stupid enough to do this,” Robert Gilstrap and Hunter Arrington jokingly told FOX31.
Gilstrap is a storm chaser with SLV Media.
“Our main job, main focus is to create lead time for large damaging storms, tornadoes, anything like that and also to aid verification for the National Weather Service,” Gilstrap said. “So if there’s a severe warning, a flood warning, we go and verify that to make sure that is what is actually happening.”
Now, he’s trying to apply the same concept to the mysterious drones.
“We’re just trying to create verification that people say, oh we saw this drone, oh we saw that drone. We’re trying to verify that,” he said.
The process is easier said than done. Unlike with storms, there is no radar to help them predict where drones may show up. They have to rely on unverified eyewitness accounts from the public.
“You’re always behind the eight ball the entire time” Gilstrap said.
Over the past several weeks, there have been dozens of reported sightings spanning the northeastern part of the state from Weld County to Yuma County and stretching beyond Colorado’s border.
As word has spread of the drones, more sightings are being reported daily but it is unclear if everyone is reporting accurately. Some of the reported sightings may be airplanes.
The sightings also occur primarily at night, which makes detailing and photographing the drones difficult.
“I set my camera and I make the picture for 30 seconds so you can see the blink as it goes across the screen and we follow the light pattern and that light pattern is letting us know is it a plane, is it not a plane,” Gilstrap said.
So far, the mystery has yet to be solved. Police, politicians, Homeland Security and the FBI have launched investigations. No one has come forward.
As long as the lights remain a mystery, Gilstrap says he will continue to chase them.
“It’s just a silly fun thing to do,” he said. “It kind of takes pieces from all the other things we normally do and puts it together in this one strange, quirky little puzzle.”