A 25-year-old Gloversville patrolman, who as area field investigator for Aerial Phenomena Research Organization probes more than traffic infractions and crime, claims "people are beginning to accept the fact that UFO reports exist even if they don't actually believe in them."

Dan L. Lowenski, who resides at Fultonville RD 1, told The Leader-Herald "people are now looking to the skies more and pondering the possibility that they (UFOs) truly do exist."

His international nonprofit group (APRO) is dedicated to the UFO problem. All reports handled and studied by Lowenski are from this area. He has been on the job about two years.

The Unidentified Flying Object phenomena has been on the minds of Americans for a long time. Awareness of them has been intensified in the past half-century by such things as Orson Welles' famous radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" in 1938 that spread panic to its listeners in the East, and publicized reports of sightings.

Now Lowenski feels that the current movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," has renewed interest and will result in more alleged sightings of UFOs. Many times persons are mistaken in what they see, he said, and it is his job to determine if they are mistaken, falsified or valid.

APRO is based in Tucson, Ariz., and has specialized consultants throughout the world, most of them with Ph.D degrees in some field of science. These specialists are on call to investigate especially important cases, Lowenski said, but investigators like himself generally initiate their own investigations and carry them out by themselves.

The group was started in 1952 by Coral and James Lorenzen, co-authors of four books on the topic, and is recognized as the best informed organization on UFO activity in the country, according to Lowenski.