Nanaimo UFO lights up the sky again

Perhaps it was the full moon, or maybe the return of the X-Files to the province has upped B.C.'s sense of the paranormal, but whatever the reason, something spooked the residents of Nanaimo on Wednesday night.

Numerous concerned citizens called the RCMP with reports of strange, bright lights floating in the sky over Dover Road in the city. So many, in fact, the police decided there was reason to investigate.

But alas, our friends from galaxies far, far away had not picked the plucky Vancouver Island city to make contact.

Just as they hadn't in January, nor December, nor countless other instances of apparent extra-terrestrial activity reported in Nanaimo over the past few years.

The truth, sadly, is far more mundane: the lights were connected to a box kite that a local man was flying in the wee hours of the morning.

"Normally this would not be odd behaviour, but at 1.30 in the morning it seemed out of place," Cpl. Jon Stuart said in a statement.

"This kite had been flying extremely high (possibly around 10,000 feet), when the line broke, and he lost the kite."

After pointing out the potential dangers posed to aircraft by a kite flying at altitude, the police do not plan on taking the matter further.

This is not the first time a Nanaimo flying saucer has been proven to be a kite.

Police didn't name Wednesday's perpetrator of mass panic, but in the past, local enthusiast Neil Parman has been found to be at the end of the tether.

Just last year, a group of intrepid ghostbusters headed out to track down the source of an eerie November glow, careening bravely around Nanaimo, recording their efforts and posting them to YouTube.

What they found was Parman.

"This is why I say I'm pretty fly for a white guy," Parman says on the video, laughing.

He also explains that the LED lights are connected to the line, so he can see how much lift he's getting on the kite.

Despite having been interviewed about his nocturnal aeronautical activities on local television two years before, Parman says people still show up in significant numbers to find out what's going on.

"I'm surprised this many people track me down."

He says he's trying to break the world record for flying kites,and he'd eventually like to do that for charity.