Ravenna

Portage County and the Cruiser Chase

Early on 17 April 1966 two Portage County deputies stopped beside an abandoned car on the shoulder and watched a brightly lit object rise from behind the trees. It hung over them, then moved off east — and they followed. The chase ran eighty-six miles, across the state line into Pennsylvania, at speeds up to a hundred and thirty; other departments joined it over the radio, and at least two more officers saw the object themselves. The Air Force announced that the officers had chased a satellite and then Venus. The police chief of one of the towns, who had also seen it, replied publicly that he knew what Venus looked like.