Last week, several Observer readers reported seeing strange lights above the town in the dead of night - but far from being little men from Mars, it turns out the glowing orange objects were Chinese wish lanterns.
Ben Millard, who is office manager at High Street solicitor Stanley Tee, says he and 13 friends from the town's rugby club released them at a 40th birthday party in Warwick Road with no idea of the excitement they would cause.
Shortly after midnight on March 28, each of the group lit a lantern and watched them float into the clear night skies. After a few minutes, they went back indoors to finish the celebrations.
But the lamps - which can reach a mile or more in height - left several of the town's residents baffled.
Jeff Beard, 62, was stunned when he spotted some in Start Hill near the M11 roundabout, while 22-year-old Queen's Crescent man Austin Almond chased several down Havers Lane and filmed them on his mobile phone. Both contacted the Observer and a video of Austin's 'close encounter' can be seen above.
Thorley resident Ben, 32, said: "We had dinner and gave a toast, then we stepped out into the garden to let the lanterns go. I'd never heard of them before - the birthday girl's husband had bought them to symbolise friends who couldn't be there.
"We actually wondered at the time how people would react when they saw them, but we didn't really think much of it until we read about the sightings in the paper."
Made of biodegradable, non-flammable material, Chinese wish lanterns work like hot air balloons - they are powered by a small flame which lifts them up by convection. They can stand a metre (3.3ft) or more tall and burn for more than 10 minutes.
Ben said: "On Thursday, one of the guests emailed us all a link to the article onwww.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk. From reading the eyewitness reports, the lights they saw in the sky were flying in the same way as the lanterns.
"I find it slightly amusing that we caused so much excitement with something that, at the time, seemed like quite a worthy gesture."
Source: Herts and Essex Observer
