Woman was trying to contact aliens when she blinded police helicopter pilots with laser

A judge in Haarlem convicted a Beverwijk woman accused of temporarily blinding the pilots of a police helicopter when she aimed a laser pointer at them. The woman told the court she believed she was trying to communicate with an alien spacecraft at the time. The judge presiding over the case for the District Court of Noord-Holland sentenced the woman to 150 hours of community service and a suspended prison sentence of one month, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said on Wednesday.

The incident happened on the evening of March 17. The police helicopter was circling above Beverwijk around 7:15 p.m. when they were suddenly blinded by a laser. The air support was dispatched to the scene to assist in the hunt for suspects involved in a reported home invasion on Graaf Florislaan.

The police arrested three suspected burglars and the 54-year-old local woman that same evening. A police spokesperson told news outlets that the helicopter crew quickly identified the location of the laser pointer. Police dispatched on the ground to that location were able to apprehend the Beverwijk woman.

The woman told the court that she saw lights in the sky and thought they were aliens. She wanted to make contact with them and did not consider the possibility that the lights originated from something other than aliens in an unidentified flying object. It did not occur to her that the flashing lights over Beverwijk were generated by a helicopter, airplane, or other identifiable aircraft.

The prosecutor said the woman’s defense was no excuse for the danger she caused. “The file shows that the suspect shined the lights at the helicopter several times for seven minutes. That is extremely dangerous,” the prosecutor said. “The pilots in the helicopter had to turn their heads away and could not view the flight instruments. That is dangerous in the complete darkness. Pilots can become blinded and disoriented and can suffer eye damage.”

The OM recommended 180 hours of community service and a suspended prison sentence of three months for intentionally endangering air traffic. The court convicted the woman but imposed the lower sentence of 150 hours of community service with a conditionally suspended prison sentence of one month.