T.K. Davis, who served more than 30 years as a deputy sheriff, and Frankie Dixon, a former police officer, were hired by an anonymous member of the Open Minds Forum, an Internet UFO research group, to find the photographer who took the pictures and anyone else who may have spotted the mysterious object, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The pictures, which were posted by someone using the name Raji on Craigslist, depict an object that appears to be too small to be manned flying above a utility pole. Raji told the Open Minds Forum in an e-mail that the pictures were taken Capitola near the home of his fiancee's parents, but his e-mail account disappeared and the forum was unable to get contact them.

The detectives said they are working to identify the utility pole in the photograph to help them find the home of Raji's parents and others in the area who reported sightings of the object.

Davis said the case isn't about finding extraterrestrials.

"We were working for people who didn't want to be identified," Davis told the Times, "looking for people who didn't want to be found."