Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent Contact Case – Glowing Humanoid, Ring UFO Video, Light Flashes
- Chairman Dave
- Jul 21
- 8 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 23/07/2026
In July 2022 I came across a Facebook post by Shaun Kirkland discussing an incident involving a glowing being. I reached out to him via Messenger to find out some further details about what happened. He got back to me with some recorded audio clips that covered the incident at a high level. He also discussed a previous incident involving some flashes of light.
The following month he sent me video footage of a UFO he had recently managed to capture. After this our correspondence ceased for a number of years.
In July 2026 after coming across the case details I decided to get back in touch to see if he could provide any further information. He responded and we arranged a video call to discuss everything in more depth as well as a recent additional sighting which had taken place. I am now pleased to finally get his experiences down on official record.
Flashes of Light
In 1980 when Shaun was 10 years old he lived with his parents and younger brother Darren in a house on Ford Avenue, Burslem, Stoke-On-Trent.
In the distance to the North East was the closed Chatterley Whitfield Mining Site. The site still exists today and has been re-opened as a heritage museum. South of the mine was a slag heap and some gradually sloping hills (now covered in trees). These hills could be seen from their road.
One late evening Shaun and Darren were chatting with a neighbour over his fence. It was a pleasant and still, though there was a bank of low lying cloud over the hills in the distance.
Suddenly they saw white flashes coming from inside the bank of cloud. Shaun says that there were around four flashes in total, spaced out at different locations within the cloud. There was no sound of any thunder. Considering the nice weather they were mystified by what had just occurred.
Looking at what took place, I do wonder if what the witnesses observed was sheet lightning. This is completely silent but lights up the clouds in the manner that Shaun described. This seems to be the most likely explanation for what was seen. When I suggested this to Shaun on our video call he did not disagree with this possibility.
Glowing Figure
Back in the 1980s there were a number of open fields between the town and the mine site (A number of paths have since been built). Shaun, Darren and their friends would regularly walk across these fields and play inside the derelict buildings closed mine site. These days it is fenced off but at the time it was completely open to freely explore.
One late evening in 1981 Shaun, Darren and two of their friends decided to go and play at the mine. The sun was low in the sky but there was still enough light to see. As they entered the site at the South West corner, they had the familiar view of the mine buildings ahead of them.
About the length of a football pitch (300 feet) away from them was a tightly spaced number of buildings close to the tall chimney. One of the buildings used to be used to load up trucks with coal. There was an open area near the base of it where the trucks used to park.
They were shocked to see what appeared to be a glowing figure standing there. It looked humanoid, with a head, arms and torso clearly visible. It was glowing a light yellow colour and standing completely still. Shaun estimates that the figure was about 4.5 to 5 feet in height. Due to the distance it was at there were no facial features visible.
It did not appear to be clothed, as it was the same brightness all over. The glow was not bright enough to reflect off any of the surroundings.
The boys stopped walking and stood there staring at it, not knowing what to do. Shaun asked “What’s that over there?” Darren responded saying “I don’t know what that is.” It wasn’t long before they all turned around and ran up the hill to the East of their location as fast as possible!
Once they were up on the hill the figure was no longer visible and they felt safer. They sat down and discussed what they’d just all witnessed. They did not go back to the mine site that day, but the next time they went back there was no sign of the figure.
He does not recall discussing it much with his brother or parents on later dates. About 6 months ago he brought up the incident with his brother in conversation, and apparently his brother has no recollection of what took place. Shaun finds this odd as his brother was 9 years old at the time and just like himself was frightened of the figure.
I asked Shaun if he felt it could have been pareadolia caused by an object brightly reflecting the setting sun. However, he feels this is unlikely for a number of reasons. He says that he, his brother and friends knew the layout of the site extremely well. They were certain there was nothing present in that location which would have been reflecting light. This was the only time they ever saw the figure, logically if this was the cause they would have seen the same thing on other occasions. Also, Shaun says that if it was the sunlight shining on something, then the same sunlight would have been shining on the building wall above it, yet it was not. I agree with his arguments.
Shaun thinks he put the figure down to a ghostly apparition at the time, but is now not so sure. It seemed too short for a normal adult, and did not appear to be clothed. I have investigated a number of contact cases involving glowing entities, and other cases involving beings seen inside derelict buildings. There is no reason at all to dismiss the idea that this could have been such an incident, although if it was the being does not appear to have been there for them. It was quite far away when they spotted it, and it did not approach or try to communicate in any way.
Ring UFO Video
On 9th August 2022 Shaun was standing outside. It was late evening and due to the time of year the sun was just starting to set. It was a still evening with a mostly clear sky. He suddenly noticed what appeared to be a black coloured object moving across the sky at an elevation of about 60 degrees.
He got out his smartphone and managed to take the below video footage as it travelled overhead:
Below is a zoomed still of the UFO taken at 17 seconds into the video:
From the footage the object appears to be ring shaped, and not particularly large in size. The background sound is likely to be from a passing aircraft not the object. Due to the tumbling rotation as it moves I feel there is a high likelihood that what Shaun has filmed here is a black coloured novelty balloon drifting on air currents.
When I discussed the sighting with him on video call he had no recollection of sending me the video back in 2022. I don’t feel this is down to anything mysterious like missing time, I just feel that it did not make that much of an impact on him at the time. Like me he agrees that it looks like a novelty balloon.
High Altitude UFO
Shaun now lives on Bycars Road. At 7:23pm on Sunday 19th July 2026 he and his friend “Po” were sitting outside relaxing in the back garden. It was a pleasant evening with a clear blue sky and no wind.
Shaun suddenly noticed a glint of light reflecting in the sky almost overhead. He looked up and tried focusing on it to see what it was. He initially assumed it must be a silver coloured balloon reflecting the sunlight. However, he soon realised it was stationary in the sky at quite a high altitude.
The object appeared to be a white cigar-shape brightly reflecting at each end, about the size of a small aircraft. A darker grey coloured area then seemed to appear directly above it, blurred due to the distance. The object seemed to keep vanishing and re-appearing as he watched, and was potentially tipping back and forth as the darker grey above it also kept appearing and disappearing.
He pointed the object out to Po. His friend suggested it might be a drifting bin bag. But Shaun said to him “Bin bags don’t flash like that!” Both witnesses got out their smartphone and tried recording the UFO, but it was too distant and didn’t show up on the footage.
After about 10 minutes they noticed a light aircraft heading in the direction of the object. It appeared to be roughly the same altitude as it, although this was hard to accurately judge. As the plane approached suddenly the object disappeared without trace! The plane flew past where it had previously been and continued on its flight path.
A couple of minutes later a larger plane with sharply angled wings, potentially military, came into view from a different direction and again flew by. Shaun and Po continued to stare up at the sky for a further 15 minutes, but the object did not reappear.
When discussing the incident with Shaun on video call he could not recollect the precise date and time. But later on he messaged me to say he had spoken with Po and they confirmed that the incident happened on 19th July at 7:23pm.
I checked on Flight Radar 24 to see if I could see either of the two aircraft which Shaun claimed to have seen around the time the object disappeared. However, I was surprised to find that no aircraft showed up around the provided date and time:
This very likely means that they did not have their transponders on. Military aircraft often don’t fly with transponders on, and there is no legal requirement for any aircraft to do so.
The most unusual aspect of this incident is the length of time that the object appeared to remain motionless (other than the apparent tipping motion). If it was a distant balloon of some kind a degree of natural drift would be expected over 10 minutes even in still air conditions. Shaun was certain that it had not moved as he could see its position in relation to some trees on the ground.
Shaun is convinced that it was not a distant helicopter (I would agree based on his description of it), and at the distance it was at a drone would likely have not been visible at all. When the object vanished this was probably just it moving away out of sight range, although it does seem a little coincidental that it did this just as another aircraft was heading towards it.
Solar airships are cylindrical in shape, but are usually black. It is likely that this would have been more obvious even at distance. t sounds like it was too high altitude to have been tethered in place. That said, a cylindrical balloon gradually drifting on air currents cannot be entirely ruled out.
Conclusions
While some of Shaun’s experiences, such as the flashes of light and UFO sightings, likely have mundane explanations, the glowing humanoid which he, his brother and friends witnessed is far harder to explain. While it is possible that it was sunlight reflecting off something, this does seem unlikely due to the reasons previously discussed.
I would like to thank Shaun for getting back in touch and providing enough details and drawings for this case report to finally be released. If you have any information relating to any of these experiences please get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026
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