Unexplained light above Gateway Arch in St. Louis has people buzzing

Chase Rhoads was taking a break from his job at Casino Queen around 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday when a flashing light in the sky, about 200 feet over St. Louis’ Gateway Arch, caught his eye.

He whipped out his cell phone and filmed it.

Then he sent it to St. Louis TV station KTVI — and now everyone else is just as stumped as he is about what he saw.

Is it a plane? A drone?

Visitors from another planet?

Cue the creepy “X-Files” music.

“I’ve been out there for little over a month now, and I’ve never seen anything above that arch, and I’m out there every night on break,” Rhoads told the TV station.

“The strobe light appeared ... it didn’t fly over, it didn’t do any of that. It just appeared.”

On Wednesday the TV station reported that more video had surfaced of the strange light. It came from a surveillance camera at Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park.

The park posted the video to its Facebook page with this ominous message: “Unexplained Lights over St. Louis — We guarantee you will be perplexed if you watch all 5 minutes of this surveillance footage!”

Most people who commented on the park’s Facebook page think it’s a drone.

“Just some dude getting some dope footage of the storm from his drone,” wrote one man.

“Since there are over 3000 people that watch the live cam from Earthcam on here, why did no one snap a pic of it?” wondered one woman. “I know several people on there up all night watching this cam that would have. But I did see someone flying a drone from the park that night.”

“I really want to believe this is a drone, but the evidence can't prove this 100%,” wrote a more skeptical man.

“I counted definitely 2, possibly 3 different objects. At that distance, and with a storm taking place, the objects moved much quicker than they should have, and keeping a drone stable with moderate gusts of wind, would make the lights/drone wobble.

“As for the unidirectional light, you can clearly see that the light is directional. The light gets brighter and then fades out, indicating rotation of the object. Most drones come equipped with 4 flashing lights, especially now with FAA regulations.

“All of this is coming from a skeptic/drone enthusiast.”

The TV station called the National Park Service. Nope, it hadn’t received any reports of strange flights, or lights.

The station called Scott Air Force Base. Nope, it had nothing to report, either.

“I’m not a big UFO person,” said Rhoads. “Do I believe that there’s other stuff out there? I think we’re a tiny rock in a big, big layer.

“But it’s definitely odd to be dead center over a national monument like that. I mean, if that was the White House, people would be all over that.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2016 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Unexplained light above Gateway Arch in St. Louis has people buzzing."