A strange object emitting green-and-white light was seen hovering early Sunday evening over southeastern Warrick County.

At least one person called the Warrick police dispatch center after seeing the object around 6:30 p.m. over the Yankeetown and Red Bush areas.

But Warrick County officials believe it most likely was not out of this world at all.

Warrick County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Brett Kruse, who also saw it, said it probably was just an airplane.

Kruse was driving when a call came over the scanner about the object, so he looked up and saw what appeared to be a distant airplane.

And that, he said, easily could be mistaken for what people traditionally think of when they talk of UFOs or alien spacecrafts. An airplane circling through a small area might appear to be hovering from a distance.

"If it's moving in a holding pattern, it's going to look like it's sitting still," Kruse said.

Deputies went to a house in the area after a woman called dispatch. But Kruse said by the time they arrived about 10 minutes later, whatever it was had gone.

"There was nothing to see," Kruse said. "And there were no cows missing out of the field or anything like that."

Kruse watched the object for about 15 minutes until it started moving to the north end of the county.

He said he is fairly confident it was just a plane, but he stopped short of saying he was absolutely certain.

"All I know is what I saw, and I saw what looked like a plane," he said. "Now, I'm not sure it was a plane. But that's what I would think it would be from my experience and 45 years of watching stuff in the sky. I haven't ever seen any flying saucers."