Chief Inspector Ted Antill said there were calls where
officers did attend the scene of "ghost sightings". He confirmed the
UFO sightings were "exclusively" Chinese lanterns.
Paul Stevenson, from Haunted Magazine based in
Sutton-in-Ashfield, submitted the Freedom of Information request to the police
which led to the disclosure of the figures. He said he was "very
surprised" by the amount the police had received.
Chief Inspector Antill said there are calls which at first
appear to be "serious incidents", like intruders in the property, but
turn out "to be of the ghost nature". "When we have started
interviewing people they talked about relatives that had just died and it could have been the ghosts of these
people."
The Freedom of Information Act allows a right of access to recorded information held by public authorities.