Before you scoff at the alien evidence brought out by Jeff Peckman at a press conference yesterday, shown on TV last night, and in the Denver Post today, I have one thing to say. Stan Romanek is the real deal. He doesn't hunt aliens. They hunt Stan and I'm not kidding. Why are they hunting him? You'll have to catch one of the aliens and ask him or her why.

I've been in rooms with Stan Romanek around a dozen times but have never spoken to him. One of the last time I saw him was in a five second clip of a two hour flying saucer show. Stan wizzed by but didn't say a word. Before I go further, here are some things you should know about Stan (sometimes call by his nickname "Tiger").

Mark Stahl, who grew up with Stan and has known him virtually all his life, has said on several occasions that Stan was never interested in flying saucers, aliens, and all the lore that go along with the UFO cult. Stan is not good at math and never dabbled in equations. Stan appears shy and is not a public speaker. He is not interested in computers and video cameras. As far as I know, he has never spoken in front of one of the gazillion UFO group. Since his connection with aliens began, he appears paranoid but still shows up from time to time at a local UFO group. He has also moved a lot and, those closest to him, make it a point not to mention where he is current residing. I'm not surprised he was not at the press conference.

Stan appears to me to be the character out of the medieval play "Everyman." It is rumored that he worked for several years at a bicycle shop, now out of business, located at Alameda and Kipling. I knew Brian who worked next door at the video store during approximately the same time period. Brian said that, as far as he knew, he never met Stan. I can picture Stan coming and going, adjusting bicycles, and never meeting Brian. To be truthful, I have never seen the neighbor who has lived next door to me over a year even though we share the same wall.

I saw the first video Stan shot of a flying saucer. For some reason that I've forgotten, he was heading toward Red Rocks to do some filming. It appeared to be midday. Stan said the reflection from something in front of his car caught his eye. It was about the size of a small car, hovering about 30 feet above the power lines running along the side of the road, and was enough to make Stan pull off the road, grab his camera, and get out of his car.

Even though he saw the object for a much longer period of time, the actual video of it was under a minute. The problem Stan had was the object was not entirely stationary and, when he looked into the view finder, he had a hard time locating the object let alone keeping it centered in the lens of the camera. Also, it didn't help that other cars slowed down and some also stopped, even through Stan seems to be the only person to have taken this first video.

By a month or two later, Stan had gotten the tape to a person with enough knowledge, time, and patience to steady the object in the middle of the frame. I've seen hundreds of photos and videos of so-called flying saucers, but nothing like the one Stan took once it had been steadied in the center of the screen.

When Stan realized that he was being followed by these crafts, he took Mark for a ride in his car where Mark got to see one circling the car. By now Stan Romanek had become a believer. As for me, I've had a short experience with some type of hybrid but don't know if it was alien. I've never seen a flying saucer.

For the real information about what's going on in the Lakewood area, call Mark Stahl at 303-422-7606. A free UFO video show is given on the first Thursday of each month at the El Jalisciense Restaurant, 4105 Wadsworth Blvd. Show starts at 7:00 p.m. I won't be there. It's doubtful that Stan Romanek will be there. But hopefully, the truth will be there.

Note: If notified, I will gladly correct any errors in the above story and am sorry for any misstatements I may have made.