Ruben Uriarte was 9 years old when he had what he believes was his first UFO sighting. Playing at a park in Oakland, Uriarte spotted a round object hovering in the sky. At first glance he thought it was a balloon, but he couldn’t figure out why the object was staying perfectly still. He stood and stared at the object for a long time, but it never moved.

The next day, Uriarte returned to the same park with his friends. As he was jumping off of a giant cement tube in the playground, one of Uriarte’s friends exclaimed, “Hey! Look! A flying saucer!” But by the time Uriate looked up at the sky, it had already zoomed away.

Though he didn’t see the object, Uriarte had a gut feeling that what his friend saw was exactly what he had seen the day before. Although Uriarte still doesn’t know what was floating in the sky that day, the single experience triggered a life-long obsession with UFOs, a hobby that has since turned into a job.

Now, 50 years later, Uriarte, a Union City resident who works in security full-time, moonlights as the deputy director of international investigations for the Mutual UFO Network, a national non-profit organization that examines sightings. He spends his off-time studying UFO reports, traveling to other countries for research and speaking at events like The UFO X Fest's Quest for Truth Conference, to be held Feb. 26 and 27 in San Leandro.  

Patch geeked out with Uriarte as he told us about life as a UFO investigator.

Do you believe in aliens?

I certainly believe something is going on. We have t0o many credible sources for there not to be ... In our galaxy alone there is evidence that we have close to 50 billion planets. I think mathematically the numbers are there that there is a possiblility that other beings are there and have the means of travel to visit, and have been here.

How do people respond when you tell them you're a UFO researcher?

For some invidiuals, it's hard for them to understand because the subject matter challeges their belief system. I’m not in the business to convert people to become believers, it’s more that the facts are out there and I just gather the facts and present them.

Tell us more about your job.

I'm primarily involved in UFO cross retrievals along the southwest border of the US and Mexico ... Basically, these are objects, UFOs, that have crashed for reasons unknown ...We’ve had over 20,000 cases reported to [MUFON]. Out of those 20,000, at least 35 percent have been determined as unknown, while 5 percent were hoaxes and 60 percent are IFOs, or identitfied flying objects.

Have you learned anything particularly interesting through your work?

I am most fascinated by people's experiences with the unknown. What I find most interesting is that the experiences and descriptions are basically the same around the world.

I know you've appeared on TV a few times. What TV show was your favorite to be featured on?

The History Channel's UFO Hunters on UFO crash retrievals. We went to Mexico with the production staff and had an interesting time meeting UFO witnesses and people from various agencies.

Is there any truth to Roswell and Area 51?

The Roswell event is real, as we have spoken to several key witnesses that were involved in the 1947 event in Roswell, New Mexico. We have also worked closely with a number of investigators that have worked on this case. There are a number of military installations that have been reported to have UFOs on base from crash retrievals. There is an Area 51 located in Nevada that is restricted property from the general public. There have been a number of people that have claimed to have worked there.

Can you give us a preview of what you will be talking about at the conference?
 
I will be speaking about Mexico's Roswell case (on which Uriarte wrote a book, Mexico’s Roswell, with co-author Noe Torres), the Zone of Silence and the reported sightings of strange flying humanoids seen around Northern Mexico.