Is Century II a performance center or an alien spaceship? Wichita demands answers

What if the Century II isn't really just an aging performing arts center, but an alien spacecraft cleverly camouflaged to look like an aging performing arts center?

That's a question that's intrigued — some might say obsessed — a growing number of Wichitans for the past couple of days.

A Facebook discussion group about this has 1,600 members and counting.

It's gotten hundreds of posts and comments like these:

"Trump was at C-II and then, against all conceivable odds, he got elected. Coincidence?"

"And what about 'Music Theatre of Wichita'? How can we be sure they aren't hiding subliminal messages in the shows? It happened in South Park after all."

"Well in Close Encounters of the Third Kind they had those big lights with music playing. Maybe that's guiding them in with their music."

"Can we find out if the water of the fountains are diverted to the cooling systems in case of emergency launch and that's why all the fountains are empty during Riverfest???"

"Nah, they're not hiding aliens in there. But after a youth well misspent in the bowels of CII, I can tell you what they are hiding: asbestos. Tons and tons of asbestos."

Unlike most urban legends and internet conspiracy theories, this one traces to a specific time and a specific originator.

It started at 12:23 a.m. Wednesday, when Mike Shatz kicked it off with this gem:

"Maybe in 1969 an alien space craft landed here and WPD covered it up, and that's why we can't tear down Century II. #UFO"

Shatz is a local photographer, political activist and frequent critic of police and City Hall. The Eagle interviewed him via Facebook Messenger from an undisclosed location.

"I got the idea sifting through old pictures I took looking for something, and ran across an aerial view of Century II that I took at Riverfest a few years ago," Shatz said. "So I turned it into that meme."

Nine hours after his original post, he created the Facebook group: Discussion: Century II is an alien spacecraft. and things took off from there.

He's flying his theory under the banner of the "Wichita Transparency Foundation," which he founded, and whose acronym, not coincidentally, is W.T.F.

For the record, the photo that makes Century II look like a parked spaceship was shot from a balcony on the top floor of the Garvey Center, which looks as much or more like a spaceship itself.

"At this point, all of the structures in the Waterwalk/downtown vicinity rest under a veil of suspicion," Shatz said. "There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding how the city spends money and our police department certainly seems to have a history of covering something up, and it all just clicked. All this time I thought they were funneling our money into slush funds and concealing officer misconduct, but now I see that the most likely scenario is that they are hiding aliens."

He said he knew it would get people's attention.

"People are suckers for the truth," he said. "We may hold a protest and try to get the History Channel to launch an independent investigation."

This story was originally published March 22, 2018 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Is Century II a performance center or an alien spaceship? Wichita demands answers."