This time last year, the more conspiracy-minded amongst us were probably focused on the alleged appearance of a 10-foot tall alien in a Vegas family’s backyard that was caught on security camera. While some argued about its authenticity, others dared to ask: Does the alien have a cock?


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While we don’t know the answer to that pressing question, a crime scene reconstruction expert believes he can speak to the video’s legitimacy. During an appearance on NewsNation’s Banfield, Scott Roder said of the video, “There’s no editing. That is an original video,” and furthermore, that there’s not just one, but two extraterrestrial beings in the videos.



Obviously, despite the testimony of such an esteemed expert, it’s worth taking all of this with the biggest heap of salt possible; aliens aren’t exactly within Roder’s wheelhouse, and the entire thing leans closer to “Bigfoot sighting” than “crime scene in need of a reconstruction expert’s knowledge,” but according to the interview, Roder approached his analysis of the footage with the same methodology he uses in his work.


Or as he explained, “We took the vector motion — points in space … and then we attach that to a figure in the background to show that the movement of the shadow reflects the movement of a body that is attached to the head.”



“We don’t believe it’s a floating head,” he continued. “We believe it’s attached to a body. And the motion of that head from right to left is consistent with the motion that we see between the slats of the fence.”


Others are less convinced, including Ben Hansen, the host of UFO Witness on Discovery+, who agrees with a digital expert he interviewed that argued that the “creature” is a shadow cast by one of the family member’s flashlights.



This is the kind of thing where people will be inclined to believe whichever argument confirms their preexisting beliefs. UFO truthers will undoubtedly regurgitate Roder’s argument across the internet with relish, while skeptics will cite Hansen’s counter-argument. Unfortunately, I’m so skeptical that nothing short of my being personally abducted by aliens will be enough to convince me of not only their existence but of their desire to come to earth and run around suburban Las Vegas terrifying the locals.