One night, my daughter came running to us, yelling that there was a UFO right outside her bedroom window "over the woods over there!" She was about 10 years old.
At the time, we lived near the Missouri River in a small farm suburb, still not too far from McDonnell Douglas. To reassure her, we said that if it were a UFO (as opposed to helicopter, small plane, etc) the jets would scramble after it.
10 seconds later, they did. Four of them. Never heard a word about it.
I had all sorts of starts to reply to you, but held back. Let's see how the thread works out.