Gulf Breeze UFO Incident Still Divides the Public 30 Years Later

Three decades ago, a building contractor in Gulf Breeze released strange pictures of circular UFOs to local media. Days later, those photos set off a year-long sky watching phenomenon. The reported incident then became the so-called “Gulf Breeze Sightings,” and turned into part of American lore.
Ed Walters claimed he snapped the pictures from his yard on November 11, 1987. Even after three decades, people are still divided on what took place in late 1987 through 1988 in Gulf Breeze.
The Gulf Breeze event was featured in the 1990s hit series “X Files.” UFOlogist, fictional FBI Special agent Fox Mulder weighed in on the strange incident. Mulder said in a classic 1994 episode “E.B.E.” that he knew the photos were a hoax the first time he saw them.
Mulder is not alone in concluding the photographs that Walters presented were a hoax, an opinion that became even more widespread when Walters decided to move from his home, and the new owner found a model of a flying saucer wrapped in old drafting paper in the attic in 1990.
Walters claimed the model did not belong to him and someone planted it. However, most thought Walter’s pictures were a hoax, and some witnesses came forward claiming to know about the staged UFO.
However, Walters has always maintained the photos he snapped were authentic. He even wrote a book about it titled “Gulf Breeze Sightings.”
While many did not believe Walters’ claim, few others think otherwise, including UFO researcher and physicist Bruce Maccabee, who believes that the photos were real and the model was a hoax squared.
Maccabee said that there were too many other witnesses, including politicians, who claimed to have seen UFOs in the area and not all of them can be ignored.