The first time Terrell Copeland saw a UFO was in 1997, when he was 15 years old.

Since then, he’s seen them all over Suffolk and Isle of Wight — especially around the city’s lakes and landfills.

“They use large waterways to hide in, around the landfill – all over,” he said. “Most of the sightings are in my apartment – up close. One was just sitting over my apartment.”

The objects he has seen flying in the air, he said, range from balls of light to elliptical objects and triangular objects.

“I am not alone in the universe, and I’m not at the top of the chain of existence,” he said. “Someone above me took notice of little old me, and the question arises – why me?”

Copeland said he knows not everyone will take him seriously, but the 27-year-old former Marine is adamant about his beliefs. He has been told on national television that he is an alien-human hybrid being prepared to meet his alien relatives, which he believes are responsible for all of mankind.

His story has been told by ABC’s Prime Time and the History Channel’s UFO Hunters.

Copeland does not believe the objects he has seen are military aircraft, but he is sure he has seen jets and other aircraft interacting with the UFOs.

Like on October 24, 2005.

“The first time I saw a jet maneuvering around a massive ball of light was on E. Washington Street — close to the Dismal Swamp,” he said. “I was facing downtown. The light was probably about two miles away, and the jets were probably 15,000 feet up.”

Three nights later, he said, he saw the same thing.

“I was driving in front of the Fresh Pride grocery center and saw it up close,” he said. “The light was hovering over the center. I pulled up to the parking lot and was not prepared for what I saw. There was an object inside the light. The light had been an illusion. At first, I thought it was just a stealth bomber, but I realized a stealth wasn’t that big.”

He described the vehicle as moving very slowly, taking about seven minutes to get to the other side of the parking lot.

Since then, Copeland said, he’s seen the object “time and time again,” and the beings have begun to take a personal interest in him.

He is not sure why or even how they take him, he said, but they place him under paralysis, “like when scientists observe a wild animal.”

“The first time was during the last Saturday in February of 2008,” he said. “I went to sleep on my couch and woke up in a massive dining hall. There were lots of tables. Everything was white. People were eating. They all looked like human beings.”

Copeland said he was still in his bed clothes and, at first, he thought he was just having a crazy dream. He took it as a real experience when he realized later that the speakers he kept on his window had been moved.

“They were tucked away in a position that made no sense,” he said. “It’s not something I would do. The only conclusion for me was that they brought me in and out through the window and placed the speakers back there.”

He believes further evidence of his abductions is an “unknown, rare blood disorder” that was discovered when UFO hunters took him to a doctor who told him he shared the disorder with other people who’d had similar experiences.

“A head researcher and author told me he believes I am an alien hybrid,” he said. “At that point, I thought this was past the point of lunacy.”

But, the more he researched and studied UFO reporting and extra-terrestrials, the more weight he gave to the theories.

“Every culture from the Aztecs to the Egyptians talks about someone coming from the sky,” he said.

He believes that many of the instances in the Bible — specifically in Ezekiel, Genesis and Exodus — that speak of beings descending from the sky are actually literal descriptions of aliens. The beings, he said, planted humans here on earth and have been monitoring us.

“The information is there for us,” he said. “Unfortunately, we don’t look at things with a logical mindset. … As humans with modern civilization, we’ve been blessed and think we’re at the top of the proverbial food chain. But that isn’t the case.”

Copeland warns that “they will reveal themselves and intervene in human affairs,” he said. “We need to get off our high horses. People will not take the integration lightly. … They’re going to show themselves. Get ready. You want change? Change is coming.”