The Colombian metallic sphere UFO!!

They watched it fly around and land — and now they have it in their laboratory. Or something.

It’s no secret that I hold those in higher esteem who do not follow UFO news, but as this one my have been thrust in your face, I offer you today the bullshit-free version of the story.

This story first dropped in early April, but it’s been getting a huge amount of media traction in just the past day (Fox News, Newsweek, The Hill, People.com). A video, said to be from Buga, Colombia, showed a metallic sphere flying around:

It fell rapidly from the sky, and landed in this field, where some guys (faces blurred out because reasons) recovered it, and found it to be decorated:

Just as it was found in the field! What beautiful alien markings.

The story goes on that it was taken to a “laboratory” for “scientists” to “analyze”:

X-raying the sphere, to explore its mysteries

When a story sounds too good to be true, it probably is. It all started when a guy on Reddit (u/Dangerous_Author7426) started posting images and video clips (here and here, etc.), saying that it was all completely real, and more info would be forthcoming.

It did not take long for the real experts — the good people on the Metabunk forums — to crack the case. Here is the whole thread on Metabunk if you want to read the whole story, but I’ll summarize.

Metabunk user Starflint tracked down all the videos and suffered through them. You might notice one of the first things that he noticed: All of the videos come from the YouTube channel for Germany Company. They are a manufacturer of common metal detectors, and also a very fancy dousing rod. And you’ll see in all of the “laboratory analysis” images that all this examination of the sphere is all being done in their facility (probably where they assemble their products) — their logo is on posters on every wall, and people are wearing T-shirts with their logo with the word laboratory appended: “Germany Company Laboratory.”

It’s a viral marketing campaign produced by Germany Company to promote their gizmos.

Germany Company is not admitting anything yet, in fact they’re doubling down on their analysis of the magical sphere. In their most recent YouTube video, they even recruited long-time convicted alien hoaxer Jaime Maussan to lend their campaign… ummm… credibility?

For shiggles, enjoy some of these things that the people on Reddit and Metabunk observed about their “scientific analysis” of the sphere:

• The “scientists” are wearing cheap and inappropriate protective gear.

• They’re poking at the sphere with a soldering iron, as if it’s some kind of probe.

• They are resting the sphere on a 4-jaw chuck for an industrial lathe, into which they have randomly jammed some wires to make it look like a piece of expensive equipment.

• Closeups of the design on the ball show it to have been sloppily etched chemically, not laser engraved, like, you know, real aliens would do.

• There is a random 10V DC power supply on the work bench, a cheap Chinese type used in zero labs.

So, I hate to disappoint, but the Colombian sphere is not proof of alien visitation. But it was good for a bit of fun.