A Port Moody resident walking his dog on Christmas night spotted something strange in the sky — and it wasn't Santa on his sleigh.
It was shortly after 8 p.m. when Derek Wilson strolled with his dog, Roxy, along Culzean Drive in Glenayre when he saw what appeared to be four "orange globes" ascending in the sky to the southeast, possibly coming from Port Moody secondary and rising to about 3,000 feet.
"At first, my mind couldn't grasp what they might be, but then after I watched them for a minute or two, I realized they must be balloons because they were gradually drifting up in the sky," Wilson said.
He continued along Balbirnie Boulevard and talked with another couple walking their dog about the mystery balloons, which had vanished by that point.
"The fuel must have run out but, then, another four started rising up from behind the trees on the horizon, and they went up for a few minutes before… they sort-of blinked out and were gone," Wilson said.
When he eventually started to head for home via Glenayre Drive, Roxy started pulling Wilson across the street to inspect something.
"It sparked my curiosity and, lo and behold, it was one of these balloons," Wilson said. He picked it up and a short time later, on Ailsa Avenue, he spotted another balloon on the front lawn of a house.
Wilson said the red balloon appeared to have been heart-shaped and guessed somebody was sending them up as part of a celebration, but he worries they could pose a safety hazard.
"We're pretty close to the flight path for passenger planes approaching YVR," Wilson said, adding small, light airplanes often fly overhead — and much lower — as they go to and from the Langley and Boundary Bay areas.
He also expressed concern about how the balloons are powered, noting the fuel could cause a rooftop fire.
Const. Jamie Phillipson said Coquitlam RCMP received a call about a parachute flare about 1,000 feet up, possibly coming from the northern point of Pipeline Road. Officers patrolled the upper Coquitlam River Park area and along Pipeline Road but nobody was located.
"If it was, in fact, a flare, they should only be used in case of emergency and not for entertainment purposes," Phillipson said, since they could be a fire hazard.
