"It trailed with a huge bell shaped cloud, then as it continued across the sky it took different paths," he added.

"My friend Ian and I just saw this in the sky above east LA," she wrote on Instagram. "Can anyone explain it? . ... Was I abducted?"

The good news: Nobody was actually abducted by aliens. The light came from an unarmed Trident II missile test-fired by the U.S. Navy off the southern California coast, the Union-Tribune reports.

"The tests were part of a scheduled, ongoing system evaluation test," Navy Cmdr. Ryan Perry told NBC News.

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Carleigh Knight (left) and her sister, Natalie Rogovin, look at Christmas ornaments while shopping at Kudzu Antiques + Modern in Decatur on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (Natrice Miller/AJC)

Credit: Natrice Miller