Remembering Sidney Zipkin, the security guard who swore he saw a UFO in a Churchville park
Official Washington recently gave UFOs, aka, unexplained aerial phenomenon, the blessing of a congressional hearing. They’re up there, and the world needs to be told, whistleblowers testified.
Were he still alive, Sidney Zipkin of Rochester might have demanded a seat at the witness table.
After all, on Monday, July 31, 1967, at 10:15 p.m., Zipkin chanced upon a flying saucer and two small aliens in Churchville Park, just outside of Rochester. Not your ordinary night on the job.
Zipkin’s alleged close encounter with extraterrestrials 56 years ago soon made the “Coffee Cup Reading” column in the Democrat and Chronicle. The snarky opening paragraph suggested some skepticism.
“A flying saucer landing in Churchville is about as likely as an oil strike in Rush or a Democrat getting elected in Chagrin Falls, Ohio,” wrote the Democrat’s Rick Thomas. (Chagrin Falls? Beats me.)
So, what happened? Recently hired as a guard at the Churchville Park, Zipkin was making his rounds when he came upon a “mysterious craft.” It was 50-feet long and round in the center.
As Zipkin sat stunned in his truck, two “midget-like men” dressed in black ran by him, boarded the craft, which then flew away.
Zipkin drove to park headquarters and alerted his boss. They went back to the scene of the sighting, but found no evidence that the saucer, or the men, had been there.
“You can laugh at what I’m telling you — in fact I used to laugh myself when people said they saw these things,” Zipkin told Thomas. “But I saw this with my own eyes, and I swear to God as a witness that I saw what I saw.”
Zipkin insisted he hadn’t been drinking. And the country parks director vouched for him, saying he was a “reliable employee” and that his “terrified condition” when he reported the incident meant he must have seen something.
No one else reported seeing the aliens Zipkin saw, but there were other sightings of unexplained phenomenon in the area on the same evening. It was far from a sleepy summer night.
Fourteen people in nearby Brockport saw something streak across the sky around 2 a.m. Aug. 1, just 3 ½ hours after Zipkin’s sighting in Churchville.
Len Filppu, 16, a soon-to-be junior at Brockport High School was among the witnesses. Now living in California, he has written about what he saw on the “Remembering Brockport” Facebook page. And he reports that the Brockport incident will be discussed by Diana Walsh Pasulka in her upcoming book, “Encounters.”
There were other sightings that night. Just after that in Brockport, seven employees at the night shift at a plant outside of Geneseo, Livingston County, saw a huge object giving off an orange glow move across the sky.
Government investigators quickly evaluated Zipkin’s report and the reports from Brockport, Geneseo and points in between. They concluded that Zipkin’s account lacked sufficient supporting evidence (no one else saw aliens). The Brockport/Geneseo sightings were deemed to be credible, though the object, or objects, remained unidentified.
Zipkin’s life, which hadn’t always gone well, took a downturn after the story of his sighting became public. A few days after he was described as a reliable employee, he was fired from his parks department job. The dismissal had nothing to do with UFOS, an official said. Rather, Zipkin lost his job because he had a criminal record. (He had done time on a bad-check charge.)
In 1981, he was again convicted of cashing bad checks, but that conviction was set aside. Then, in May 1983, he robbed a bank in Pittsford, claiming he had a gun (he didn’t) and walking out with about $2,000. He was arrested quickly and pleaded guilty, telling the judge, “Why I did this, I’ll never know.”
Out on bail pending sentencing, Zipkin voluntarily returned to jail, as he had no place to sleep. Later, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
Zipkin died in 1997. He was 80 years old, and, as near as I can determine, his death passed with little public notice.
In 2017, Ron Belczak, the village of Churchville historian, reported on a conversation with an individual who claimed to know what Zipkin actually saw. By this account, Zipkin mistook vehicle headlights shining on the fog for a spaceship. And he mistook a man running in the fog for an alien.
I’m not sure Zipkin, or, for that matter, Congress, would like that explanation. Sidney Zipkin saw what he saw. A spaceship. Two small men in black. In Churchville. Really. Why not?
From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: A security guard claimed he saw a UFO in Churchville NY in 1967
