Tesco shopper ‘captures UFO’ by mistake while taking pic of sunset outside store

Cat Thompson, 49, couldn’t believe her eyes when she took a closer look at her photo of the sunset that she’d taken outside a branch of Tesco in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire

A shopper who paused after a trip to the supermarket so she could snap a picture of a pretty sunset captured what appeared to be a UFO on camera.

Cat Thompson took a break from unloading her shopping in the car park of her local Tesco when she stopped to snap the beautiful blue, pink and purple sky. It wasn’t until later, when Cat had put the picture on her family WhatsApp group that her loved ones pointed out a ring-like structure hovering amid the clouds.

Cat, 49, couldn’t believe her eyes when she took a closer look at the image, taken in a branch of Tesco in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. Her sister, Julia Williamson, said: «Cat took the picture because she loved the colour of the sky. We noticed the ‘UFO’ a few minutes afterwards. Cat was on a completely normal grocery shop. Her husband Neil noticed it first and made some joke on our WhatsApp group about ‘aliens not included.»

And Julia added: «While we all agree there are unidentified flying objects, or whatever the most up to date phrase is, none of us believes in little green men visiting Uttoxeter I’m afraid. However one can see how such pictures would appeal to believers and it certainly sparked a bit of a debate. I am pretty surprised how even modern cameras can bounce light around to trick the eye.»

Facebookers debated what the blur in the sky could be. One said: «My (uneducated) guess would be… Saturn.» Another said: «I’d say lens flare, but if you zoom in it looks a bit like a sliver of the moon through a hole in the clouds.» And another added: «It’s definitely interesting. Many comments here say it’s a lens flare but those are usually greenish to blueish so I don’t know if I agree. If she didn’t see it at the time, it’s probably a lens flare…but still…?» One commented: «Glitch in the matrix.»