A man who called the police to report he was being attacked by ghosts was among five incidents of strange activity Tayside Police have been called to investigate.
Figures released under freedom of information revealed the sightings officers have probed in the last three years, with at least two remaining unexplained.
Although officers did not receive any reports of zombies, witches or vampires, several people raised the alarm with police about an “alien spacecraft”.
A search of the incident recording system identified five reports, three of which have a legitimate explanation recorded.
In January 2009, a person in Dundee claimed they were being attacked by ghosts within the house. Attending police decided he was hallucinating.
In February 2010, a witness reported UFOs over Crieff, described as orange lights in the sky. These were identified as Chinese lanterns.
The following month, a witness reported a sighting of a UFO in Fife and was told the item in question was a transmitter.
Nevertheless, police were able to provide details of the two “unexplained” sightings.
On May 13, 2009, at 11.11pm, a witness reported a UFO sighting in Glen Lyon, Perthshire, described as a triangular bright white light.
On April 27, 2010, around 2am, a witness reported a sighting of lights in the sky over Dundee, believed by the caller to be either UFOs or day break. No police attendance was requested or required.
The response to the request explained it “may not reflect an accurate picture of the number of reports of this type” made to the force as these were the paranormal activity reports containing keywords.
To look for more would involve a manual search of all police incident reports, and this would not be feasible.
Tayside Police could not provide details of how much money and manpower had been spent on investigations into paranormal incidents.
Scotland has had its share of reports, photos and videos of strange lights in the night sky, daytime metallic objects and even stories of alleged UFO abductions.
A famous close encounter took place in 1992. Referred to locally as the A70 Abduction, the incident is the inspiration for a film in production.
Two men, travelling on the A70 en route to the village of Tarbrax, Lanarkshire, spotted a large disc-shaped UFO hovering over the road ahead of them.
As they tried to pass under the unknown object, they reported their car was bathed in light and the next memory they had was of being in total darkness.
More importantly, they discovered that what should have been a 30-minute trip had taken nearly three hours.
Subsequent hypnosis sessions revealed a story of the men being abducted out of their car by small grey-coloured beings, taken somewhere to be examined and then released.
Photo by Flickr user Marcin Wichary.