Spotted Overhead: the National UFO Reporting Center (Paranormal Insider: Unexplained Phenomena, Paranormal Activities & Encounters)

If you call your local police department to report a UFO sighting, it is likely you'll be referred elsewhere after your report is taken. It's not that they won't believe you (although they might not) — it's just that you'll be taken much more seriously by this other place. Plus your report will be added to an accessible database of UFO sightings based on factors like date, state and shape of object. Originally based in Seattle, Washington, The National UFO Reporting Center, now located in Davenport, Washington is run by a man of the same name, Peter Davenport since 1994.

Davenport's interest in UFO phenomenon was prompted at a young age by a personal sighting over St. Louis municipal airport during the summer of 1954. He investigated his first case in 1965. Recent, well-known cases investigated by NUFORC include the Pheonix UFO Incident of 1997 and the O'Hare International Airport UFO Incident of 2006.

NUFORC is manned 24 hours a day, and takes all calls, e-mails and letters very seriously — unless of course, you're blatantly lying, attempting a hoax or misusing the hotline for your own entertainment. NUFORC is currently implementing strategies to ensure that you'll never call back again.

The hotline accepts by phone reports that are less than a week old. For older sightings, you can use the online report form or write directly to the center.

Useful Reports Include:
- exact date
- time
- location
- description of the object(s)
- description of object's behavior
- number of objects observed
- shape and color
- length of sighting
- number of observers and a short description of their backgrounds

"Upwards of 90 percent of the time when people call into our center... it's in fact not a UFO at all... that's the job of an experienced investigator — trying to separate out those cases from the genuine cases."
— Peter Davenport, CNN, 2005

According to NUFORC, a photograph or video of the witnessed object(s) typically proves to be the most helpful evidence. Second best is a drawing or computer representation.