The Traffic Camera Caught It And The Council Called It A Reflection
48% BELIEVED
CASE FILE #309
FILED: Mar 16, 2026
CLASSIFICATION: UFO Stories
WITNESS ON RECORD: akavak
JURY OF 170 READERS HEARD THIS CASE: 82 believed it, 37 had doubts, 51 weren't buying it.
I am the sort of person who files Freedom of Information requests for fun, and I accept that this makes me insufferable at parties.
On 19 September, twelve drivers rang the local radio station within forty minutes to report lights over the bypass. The presenter made a joke about it and moved on to the traffic.
I requested the camera footage. There are two cameras on that stretch, and they are pointed at the road, not the sky, but the road is wet in September and a wet road is a mirror, and that was my entire theory: I wanted the reflection.
The council took the full statutory period, which is fine, and then sent me the footage, which is where it gets interesting.
Camera one: continuous, uninteresting, a road.
Camera two: continuous, uninteresting, a road — with a gap of nine minutes. The timestamps jump from 23:41 to 23:50. No frames. The covering email said the camera "experiences occasional dropouts due to a known fault".
So I requested the maintenance log for the known fault.
There is no known fault. There are three logged dropouts for that camera in four years, and all three of them are in the same nine-minute band on nights when people called the radio station.
On 19 September, twelve drivers rang the local radio station within forty minutes to report lights over the bypass. The presenter made a joke about it and moved on to the traffic.
I requested the camera footage. There are two cameras on that stretch, and they are pointed at the road, not the sky, but the road is wet in September and a wet road is a mirror, and that was my entire theory: I wanted the reflection.
The council took the full statutory period, which is fine, and then sent me the footage, which is where it gets interesting.
Camera one: continuous, uninteresting, a road.
Camera two: continuous, uninteresting, a road — with a gap of nine minutes. The timestamps jump from 23:41 to 23:50. No frames. The covering email said the camera "experiences occasional dropouts due to a known fault".
So I requested the maintenance log for the known fault.
There is no known fault. There are three logged dropouts for that camera in four years, and all three of them are in the same nine-minute band on nights when people called the radio station.
THIS EXCERPT ENDS HERE. The remaining 145 words of the testimony — and the reader jury — are on file at:
Read the full case & cast your verdict
https://www.swearithappened.com/ufo-stories/the-traffic-camera-caught-it-and-the-council-called-it-a-reflection-309/
Votes on record: 82 believed · 37 unsure · 51 didn't · 48% of readers believe this story