The years-late-kinda-sorta-semi-debunking of the California CARET "Dragonfly" Drones...

[LanaiGuy]

A bit of background: I live in San Jose, California and the CARET/"Dragonfly" Drones always fascinated me. I always thought they were a hoax. Even my brother, an amateur 3D artist and graphic designer said they were fake and that the renders, while cool, weren't completely "real" looking to him.

Anyhow, this may be coming far too late...but I've actually spoken with Margaret Gel, the person who claims to have created the "alien language" seen on the drones. She tells all on her personal website but I contacted her to get some clarification on some of the things I've been curious about for years.

https://margaretgel.com/the-isaac-caret-hoax/

Around the turn of the century I made some art. This art was stolen by someone I thought I could trust. They put it in a hoax, called the Isaac Caret hoax. They also stole 3D rendering mockups from many different artists online, of UFOs.

That was nearly a quarter of a century ago.

For the longest, I did nothing. When the artwork was first stolen nearly 25 years ago, I consulted a lawyer, who told me that nothing could be done. The art was out there; and that was that. The bell could not be unrung. I also feared being sued by the person who stole my artwork, because they threatened to sue me if I ever told anyone. No idea how that would've worked: but I'm taking my chances, now. (At the time, I was told that the fact that my full legal (deadname now) name was encoded in the chart essentially meant nothing when it came to copyright lawsuits: 'just because you put your name on it, doesn't mean you own it.' No idea how true that is but that's 90% of why I didn't say shit about it until now.)

Before I continue, please take this as you will. Her admission on the website is understandably hard to swallow. But I thought I'd tell it because, honestly, it's fairly new information and needs to be told.

She gave me the following:

• Gel was part of an online forum dedicated to creating 3D art. She was in a sub-group who did artwork about aliens and UFOs. The group members eventually wanted to create an online UFO e-zine as most of them saw themselves as "experiencers" and thought there might be other people who would want to read it and not feel alone.
• "Stephen" (who would later release the 4th and 5th sets of photos taken off Big Basin Highway 9 in the Saratoga Mountains near the winery) was the man behind the first group of photos ever released (dubbed the "Chad" photos) that eventually made their way to Coast to Coast. THAT, however, was not Stephen's intention.
• There was a man on the forum by the name of "Isaac" whose real name was Chad. Chad saw money to be made on the e-zine and proposed charging people money to read it. When the forum basically told him to screw off with that idea, this enraged him and Chad made off with a bunch of their renders (including the "alien tech" seen in the "Isaac documents") and bolted for Coast to Coast, releasing Stephen's photos.
• When Stephen found out that Chad had done this (idiot used his real name), Stephen went after Chad, threatening to tell everyone that it was a hoax but Chad countered with legal action. When that never materialized, Stephen sent Chad a C&D and that scared Chad enough that he stopped his roll.
• This didn't stop a friend of Chad's from releasing more renders. Another user named "Raj" (yes, another real name) released more photos, claiming to have seen these things in the sky. When people found out Raj had done this, he was kicked off the group for stealing renders and claiming them as his own.
• Rather than attempting to beat them, Stephen attempted to get in on the act and tossed his in a Listserv to see if he could fool people. These were the "Stephen" and "Ty" photos. When he was called out for it being a hoax (the "drones" began looking ridiculous with extra multiple parts and just looked goofy), he got upset and the ordeal tarnished his reputation with the photography group he was in. Gel says that Stephen died in 2013. He was in his 60's and had huge health issues.
• Then, of course, we got the Isaac documents with "alien tech". Gel says she made the assembly diagrams for the pieces, but that not everything in those docs were renders and were actually man-made by one of their artists in Canada. She says the guy who put the pieces together didn't even do it correctly. She says the guy probably still has them or destroyed them. Says that guy's name was Chris.
• She said there was a group effort to nail Chad for what he did -- but then she said that the Terminator series used their stuff and they backed off because they thought that Fox would simply call it their own or claim it was part of their IP now.

Anyhow, Gel got sick and tired of it and the final straw was when she was watching UFO stuff on YouTube in the early 2020's and came across the 2008 episode featuring the CARET drones. She had no idea it had gotten that "known". That's when she decided to tell her story.

Again, hope this all helps.