👽 THE FAMOUS “HAMBURGER UFO” WAS A HOAX? The 1967 Mystery That Fooled the Public

On January 9, 1967, two teenage brothers, Dan and Grant Jaroslaw, reported seeing a strange disc-shaped object over Lake St. Clair near Mount Clemens, Michigan.

According to their story, the object appeared to be gray, slightly domed, and had what looked like a small tower or antenna on one side. They said it remained visible for roughly 10 minutes, allowing them to take several Polaroid pH๏τographs from their backyard, located about a mile from Selfridge Air Force Base.

The pH๏τographs quickly attracted attention. They were distributed through the ᴀssociated Press, and one of the images became known as the “Hamburger UFO” because of its unusual flattened shape. Wikimedia Commons identifies the image as an AP WirepH๏τo dated January 10, 1967, credited to Grant Jaroslaw.

The case became even more interesting when astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who was ᴀssociated with the U.S. Air Force’s UFO investigation program, examined copies of the pH๏τographs. At the time, he reported that the images did not show an obvious hoax and wanted further pH๏τographic analysis.

However, doubts about the pH๏τographs remained. Investigators noted inconsistencies in the brothers’ account, including the sequence of the pH๏τographs and the fact that the original prints were not readily available for examination. An investigation published by APRO in 1967 concluded that the sighting might not be genuine.

Then came the biggest revelation.

In 1976, the Jaroslaw brothers admitted that the pH๏τographs were a prank. Later accounts describe how they constructed a small model and suspended it using thread and paper tape before pH๏τographing it. A helicopter happened to be in the area, and they pH๏τographed that as well, helping make the story appear more convincing.

So, despite becoming one of the memorable UFO pH๏τographs of the 1960s, the Jaroslaw “Hamburger” UFO is now regarded as a famous UFO hoax rather than evidence of an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

It remains an interesting example of how a convincing pH๏τograph, newspaper coverage, and expert attention can turn an unexplained image into a major UFO story even when the truth eventually turns out to be very different.