Three of us saw a large object with a searchlight darting and traveling over fields in northern Maine.

Early August, 1984  My daughter and her classmate and I were headed home by car, southwest out of Caribou, Maine (Aroostook County), at about 9 p.m. The early evening summer sky was already quite dark, and I observed to my right a large, bright object in the sky very close to the horizon and moving slowly east. I kept a keen eye on the light, and at one point it stopped, and then it moved very quickly east at a more rapid speed than it had been traveling, almost like it had been shot out of a cannon. Then it reversed direction and traveled back to where it had been before. This erratic movement made me curious as to what I was watching.
 As I moved along the road through woods and farmland, up and down and around curves, I tried to keep up with the object, and as I rounded a turn and made for the straightaway ahead, the object approached us on the right in a slow and deliberate manner. I crossed through an intersection and came to a complete stop to watch the object in the sky cross over us from right to left about thirty to fifty feet above my car. Our car windows were rolled down, and there was no sound at all.
 The aircraft appeared to be egg-shaped or round with an unorganized array of lights, mostly amber-orange, red, and white covering the outside. It appeared to be from fifty to 100 feet high.  A large beam of light was directed down from the bottom of the craft like a search light, and it was whipping back and forth as if it was searching the stand of trees as it flew over.
 The craft disappeared into the woods east of us, and we did not see it again. Needless to say, we were all VERY shook up and were not really sure what we had actually seen. I did not report this sighting to anyone, but I have witnesses in my daughter and her classmate to corroborate this amazing event.
Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate.  PD