DARKE & MERCER COUNTIES — A sudden rush of large drone sightings is impacting communities in the northern Miami Valley counties.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, people in Darke and Mercer counties have reported the sightings.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Trump administration offering all federal workers a buyout to resign
- Man banned from every single Walmart arrested again at Ohio Walmart
- Police chief comments on reported ICE raid in Greene County
Deputies at both county sheriff’s offices are working to figure out what’s going on.
Mercer County Sheriff Doug Timmerman said aside from his deputies spotting some of the drones, they’ve gotten dozens of calls reports, mostly at night, since Friday.
John Ellis lives in Celina. He said he hadn’t seen any drones flying over his area.
“I have not heard of them here and here in town yet,” Ellis said.
But plenty of other people have.
We got these videos from the sheriff’s office showing some of the dozens of recent sightings around the county.
“Anywhere from being out over the rural area and the agricultural area. Last night, they were seen over three of our villages for sure: Ft. Recovery, St. Henry, Coldwater,” Timmerman said.
Timmerman’s office is handling the investigation.
“I was on the phone today with some federal agencies. They’re calling it ‘swarming,’ with the drones, they’re all kind of swarming together, kind of like they’re packed up a little bit. So, we’ve seen some of that several at a particular location at any given time,” Timmerman said.
Darke County Sheriff Mark Whittaker is also investigating two reported drone sightings from Monday night.
“Some could be buying into a lot of the hype that they’re seeing with all the other drones,” Ellis said.
Ellis said he wonders what’s behind the drone activity.
“I’ve seen things where people are attaching lights to them and just flying around just to freak people out and get people all stirred up. It very well could be that. Who knows what else could be going on,” he said.
Timmerman said whatever is going on here might not be criminal, but he said he wants to get to the bottom of it.
“It is certainly causing some concerns to our citizens. And I feel like it’s my job to make sure I try to get them some answers,” Timmerman said.
Timmerman told News Center 7 that he has been in contact with members of Congress from Ohio and the FAA.
He added that the FBI told him they are concerned that this may be related to the drone activity near and over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base last month.
“I don’t know what our concerns are because of the infrastructure we have here in Mercer County is not that of what Wright-Patterson Air Force Base would be. So, I don’t know how we can draw that conclusion, but certainly, they have more information than I do at this point… They’re working at the national level with passing this information on as well,” Timmerman said.
News Center 7 has reached out to the FBI about this investigation but has not heard back.
[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
