Morecambe Contact Case - UFOs, Missing Time, Psychic Abilities, Shadow Beings, Paranormal Activity
Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 07/11/2021
On 9th October 2021 I gave a talk at Mini-con in Preston. One of the attendees of the conference, Jon Gibirdi, got in touch soon afterwards to discuss a number of experiences which had happened throughout his life. We arranged numerous video calls to go over everything in depth. This report covers these incidents, which may be directly or in-directly related to contact.
Iron-Shaped UFO
In May 2008 when Jon was 34 years old he had what he believed at the time to be his first sighting of a UFO (This later on turned out not to be the case as you shall see). At the time he lived in Preston on Wildman Street with his partner at the time Julie, and daughters Calista and Claudia.
One evening Jon took Calista out driving along the country lanes on the outskirts of Preston. She enjoyed it so much that a few days later she asked to go for a return trip. It was a cold but clear and still evening. The light had faded in the sky and the stars were fully visible.
They drove out a couple of miles to Boys Lane, which became Walker Lane. As they drove along this with open fields either side of the road, Jon became aware of a bright star-like light in the sky to the North West at an elevation of about 40 degrees. As he continued to look at it, he realised it seemed a little too bright for a star. He pulled up in a lay-by to continue looking at it. Both he and Calista got out of the car.
As they watched it became even brighter, with a glowing haze around it, they soon became aware that it was slowly coming in their direction. Wondering whether it was a helicopter or plane with a light facing towards them, Jon turned the engine of the car off to listen for the sound of rotor blades or jet engines but there was silence. Nor could he see any other navigation lights on the object.
They continued to watch for up to 7 minutes as the object slowly approached. Unfortunately Jon did not have a smartphone or camera on him so could not try to photograph or video it. Eventually it passed almost overhead, just off to their right. As it did the light emitting from it seemed to die right down and they could see its true shape. The base of the object was an elongated curved triangle, similar to an iron. The colour appeared to be a slightly luminescent copper, although it was possible it was metallic and reflecting lights on the ground.
It appeared to be about 1000 feet up, although this was quite hard to judge. If it was at this height it would have been about 40 feet in length. It had a completely smooth surface with no lines or markings visible. It was moving at quite a slow speed, perhaps 20 mph.
Jon watched in amazement for another 7 or so minutes as it continued to fly slowly on a level course to the South East. It was eventually lost from sight in the distance. He stood outside the car for several more minutes, thinking about what he had just seen. He then noticed that a helicopter was approaching from the North West. It started circling the area, and he wondered if it had been sent out to intercept the object. After a number of minutes it flew away. By this point Calista had started to get bored, so they got back in the car and continued their drive around the lanes.
When they got home Jon told Julie what had happened. She believed he’d seen something but overall was quite dismissive of the sighting. He also told his work colleagues who were quite sceptical and took the mick out of him about it.
A number of days after the incident, he saw an advert in the Lancashire Evening Post appealing for people who had experienced UFOs to get in touch. He decided to ring up and tell them his story. They contacted him several times to ask questions, and he got the feeling they were trying to pigeon hole him as a UFO nut. In early June they published the article, which can be read online here:
https://www.sott.net/article/158483-UK-Dad-and-daughter-spot-UFO-above-Preston-Lancashire
Note: The paper accidentally mentioned Claudia instead of Calista in the article, and named Jon John. They also stated the incident had happened on Boys Lane, not Walker Lane, although Jon says he probably referred to it as this when he spoke with them.
This is an interesting and extensive UFO sighting. Jon watched the object for many minutes so was able to get a very good look at it. 360 radar confirms that the area does lie within an airway:
It also confirms that it lies outside of controlled airspace, meaning that private untracked flights would be possible:
However, the object was moving too slowly to be an aeroplane, at the speed it was going it would have dropped out of the sky. Also there were no navigation lights. As it passed overhead these would have been visible, although sometimes the military does fly aircraft dark while on training exercises. If it was a helicopter of some kind then the sound of rotor blades would no doubt have been heard. A hand-glider seems also unlikely. It was the wrong shape for this and there appeared to be nothing hanging beneath it.
Could it have been an unusual inflatable of some kind drifting on an air current? It seems too large to have been a novelty balloon, and was the wrong shape for a blimp. Also it does appear to have been giving off some light, or else it would not have appeared as a glowing orb of white light when in the distance.
I have dealt with other cases involving craft of this shape, and in at least one of these the base was a glowing orange colour. Could this have been a similar object?
We have no way of knowing whether the helicopter which appeared was anything to do with the sighting. It was a good 7 minutes later before it arrived and it did not fly on the same path as the object as if giving chase. Perhaps it was merely coincidence it was in the area.
Premonitions & The Spiral
Several weeks after the sighting Jon had a strange dream. He was walking along Adelphi Street near to his home. As he walked past a pub named The Wellfield, the landlord came out and said to him “Come inside, I want to show you something.” When Jon asked him what he informed him he had seen a UFO over Preston.
When Jon woke up in the morning he wondered what the strange dream could mean, and why he would dream of that particular person, who he did not know. A couple of days later in the newspaper he came across an article. It was the same individual he had seen in his dream, and to Jon’s amazement it was about some strange lights in the sky that he had recently witnessed! The chances of him dreaming about an invidual with the same appearance, same job role, at the same location and discussing the same incident seemed impossibly small. It appeared that he had somehow had a premonition about this man's sighting which had manifested in this way.
Later in the same year Jon took Calista to Preston Guild Hall for a musical event. As they were going up the escalator a thought suddenly came to his mind. He thought to himself “I wonder if I’ll see David North.” He immediately wondered why he would have such a thought. David was one of his friends from primary school, but one he hadn’t seen in many years.
As they reached the top of the escalator Jon could barely believe his eyes. Standing there amongst other attendees was David! He approached Jon and greeted him. Jon did not tell him about the fact he had seemingly just predicted the meeting.
David mentioned he’d seen the article in the paper about his UFO sighing. Jon said that he was a bit fed up about talking about it due to the way in which many had spoken to him. However David then said something strange. He said “I believe you. We saw something together as kids didn’t we?” Jon was certain that he had not seen anything prior to the iron-shaped object so replied “I didn’t see anything with you!” But David insisted saying “We were playing hide and seek down the side of that house and we saw that metallic thing go overhead.”
Instantly the memories of the incident flooded back into Jon’s mind clear as day. He saw himself as 9 or 10 years old. At the time he lived on Lulworth Road. In the memory it was a hot summer’s day with bright sunny weather. They were playing hide and seek with someone else, and he and David had decided to hide behind the tall hedgerow of a house on the corner of Kennington Road, a couple of roads away. Above them between the house and the hedge was a thin strip of blue sky.
David suddenly exclaimed “What the fuck is that?” Looking up at where he was now staring, Jon saw a strange metallic object. It was a flattened silver-coloured object. But as opposed to a disc, it appeared to be a tighly curled spiral shape like a pin wheel. It was rotating continuously giving the appearance of water draining down a plug hole. The object did not look particularly large, perhaps 8 feet across. It seemed to be about 60 feet above them.
Jon was not frightened of the object, he had no frame of reference to compare it to. However David then said to him “We need to get out of here.” He followed David and together they ran from behind the hedgerow out onto the pavement. This was the last thing he could remember in this vivid flashback.
He was amazed at how this memory had seemingly been lost from his mind, and how it was now back in such clear detail. He immediately associated this memory loss with the object, why else would such an unusual incident have been forgotten about?
In early November 2021 I spoke with David about the incident on the phone. Below is his testimonial statement about the incident.
“I can remember it clear as a bell. We were about 13 or 14. Me John and our friend Paul were playing just off Kennington Road, messing around and hiding behind the hedge. I spotted this thing spinning through the sky. It was like a disc but had a repeating shape which reminded me of a flying swastika. It was dark silver coloured and was continuously rotating. It was quite high up but clear enough to see. There were no lights on it, it was so weird.
As soon as we'd seen it, it just went, and carried on out of sight. It was flying on a straight course spinning through the sky. It seemed quite big. It didn’t look massive, but from how high it was it seemed about the same size as a medium sized aircraft. It was too high and too big for a remote controlled toy and occurred way before drones existed.”
It is clear from David’s statement that they both saw the same object. There are minor differences such as the exact shape of the object and its apparent size, but it is common for small differences to exist in testimonies by multiple witnesses, this is nothing to be suspicious of at all.
The UFO that the boys observed is truly bizarre. Due to its odd shape, it seems unlikely that it would have contained occupants. Yet the fact that it had been completely wiped from Jon’s memory certainly implies that it was something far more anomalous than a balloon, kite or radio controlled model. I have investigated a number of other cases where people have had memories of experiences completely blocked out, and in these cases the memories have later been triggered by something specific, often someone else talking about the incident. This is certainly an indicator that it may have been an advanced craft of some kind. However it also seems clear that David did not experience this loss of memory, and it does not look like any direct interaction took place.
It is also interesting that the conversation regarding this incident immediately followed a potential premonition, and that the previous precognitive dream that Jon had was also related to UFOs. It is very common for contactees to report having one or more psychic ability, and one of the most commonly reported are premonitions of future events.
Saved From Harm
Later in 2008 Jon moved from Preston to an upstairs flat on Hampsfell Drive, Morcambe. However for a number of months after moving in he still commuted to work at Preston.
One morning he had just left the house when he suddenly heard a voice say “Hey!” He looked around expecting to see someone behind him on the drive but there was nobody there. Thinking someone must be hiding from him he asked “Who is it?” The voice said to him “It’s me.” He couldn’t tell if it was coming from outside or inside of his head. It sounded raspy and reminded him of his mother, who had only recently passed away. Jon asked “Where are you?” The voice responded “I’m here, where else would I be?” Then it said “You’re going to need to see something today.”
Jon was puzzled by what the voice had said, but did not ask any more questions. He just got in his car and began his normal drive to work. As he drove along he wondered if that really had been his mother talking to him.
He headed along the A683 with a plan to join the M6 motorway at Junction 34. As he made his way towards the junction all of a sudden he once again heard the voice. “Keep your eyes open you need to see this thing!” Concerned by what it meant he cautiously joined the motorway. As he did so a long flatbed lorry pulled out right in front of him, narrowly missing the front of his car! He slammed the brakes on just in time.
“Have you seen it?” enquired the voice. Still in shock he did not respond. This was the last he heard of it. Could this have been Jon’s deceased mother trying to protect her son from harm? If so was this yet another sign of his possible sixth sense abilities?
Dopplegangers
Jon says that there were a few minor incidents of a paranormal nature which occurred at his house in Preston, but there has been much stronger activity at his current flat in Morecambe. This activity has been witnessed by both him and his girlfriend Lisa.
One day not long after they’d moved in Jon was in the living room when Lisa walked in from the adjoining kitchen with a concerned look on her face. She asked him “Have you just been stood in the kitchen doorway looking at me?” Jon told her he had been on the sofa the whole time. She was adamant that she had seen him standing there behind her.
This was not the first time this had happened. When he used to live in Preston with Julie, she had described a similar incident. At the time Jon used to practice Taekwondo and would sometimes come home in his white suit. He was upstairs and went down to get a drink. Julie suddenly looked frightened and asked where he’d been. Jn informed her he’d been upstairs since arriving home. She told him that she had seen him walk behind her in his suit.
If something like this had happened only once it would be easy to dismiss, but as it’s happened multiple times perhaps there is a paranormal explanation.
Glow Stick
The move to Morecambe coincided with the birth of Jon’s son Joey. One evening in mid-2010 the family had just returned from a trip to Blackpool to see the lights. They had purchased a glow stick which Joey was really drawn towards.
At the time Joey used to sleep in a room adjacent to the living room. As they settled him down for bed in his cot Jon gave him the glow stick to play with. Lisa took it back off him as she was worried he would bite it. However she still wanted him to be able to see it. She got some string and tied it at both ends to the outside of the cot so that he could see it between the bars as he settled down. Then she and Jon went back into the living room.
Several hours later Jon went to check on Joey. When he entered the room his blood immediately ran cold. There was a bunk bed on the far side of the room. And there, perched on the edge of the 4.5 foot high top bunk, was the glow stick! Jon could barely believe his eyes. He walked over to the cot. Joey was fast asleep. And the knots in the strings the glow stick had been inside were still intact. Even if his son had managed to somehow pull out the glow stick, it would have simply fallen to the floor. There is no way that he would have had the strength to grab it, pull it out from the knots and then throw it right across the room.
This was just the beginning of what would become regular activity in the property. One day soon after that incident everyone was sitting in the living room when Joey’s baby bouncer that was strung up in the open doorway started to move by itself. Then one of his shoes rolled over of its own accord in front of them!
Pop The Cork
In the years that followed many more incidents took place. One evening Jon cracked open a bottle of beer which had a cork in it. He put it down and walked through from the living room to the adjoining kitchen, leaving Joey in there watching cartoons. Suddenly the cork landed on the kitchen floor behind him and rolled across it. Jon walked back into the living room and asked “Did you throw this cork?” His son just looked at him puzzled. Not fully trusting that his son had nothing to do with it, he put the cork on top of the TV, way out of reach. He then went back into the kitchen. When he returned a minute later the cork had moved from the top of the TV to the mantelpiece below it.
A few nights later Jon and Lisa were relaxing on the sofa watching telly. Their pet cat was sitting down by the TV. Jon had put the incidents with the cork out of his mind, and had no idea of where it had even been put. Suddenly the cork propelled across the living room and hit the cat. Jon chucked and asked “What did you do that for? That wasn’t very nice!” Lisa denied having thrown the cork. It had seemingly come from their side of the room, but from an unknown source.
Shadow Beings
On a number of occasions Jon has seen shadowy figures moving around inside the flat, sometimes in the corner of his eye, sometimes more clearly. The doors of the flat have square panels of frosted glass in them. One evening while sitting in the living room Jon saw a dark shadowy figure appear walk into view behind the door. It was about 6.4 feet in height and had no distinguishable features. It merely stood there a moment behind the door then walked off to the right out of sight.
In early 2020 in one of the first months of the Covid-19 lockdown Jon was sitting in bed at around 8.30am. Lisa had already got up and was working from home. Suddenly, just like what had happened before, Jon saw a shadowy figure walk past the other side of the bedroom door. Startled he jumped up out of bed shouting out “Who the heck was that?!” He got no answer. He headed into the living room and as expected found Lisa with headphones on sitting at her computer.
The following morning Jon wondered if the same thing would occur. He had his smartphone ready, hoping to catch some footage of one of these entities. 8.30am came and went with no activity. By 8.45am he had lost hope of anything taking place and had put his phone down. And now of course it appeared again, almost as if it was playing with him. It walked across the far side of the door, turned back on itself, stood for a moment like it was looking in at him and then immediately faded away.
The flat downstairs to Jon’s has a female police officer living in it. One day he decided to try and find out if she had been experiencing activity too. He spoke with her and asked “Have you ever seen anything odd in your flat?” She asked “What sort of things are we talking about?” Jon said “Shadows going past doors, voices, things moving…” At this the expression on her face dropped. She then told Jon that she had seen a shadow-like figure behind one of the doors off her living room (which had the same frosted glass), exactly where Jon had seen it.
Sounds & Voices
Quite regularly Jon and Lisa have both heard a strange rustling sound coming from the kitchen. Sometimes it can continue for a number of seconds, but as soon as Jon gets up to go and check what it is, it immediately ceases. Jon is certain that the noise is coming from inside the flat rather than echoes from outside.
One night Jon went down the stairs to lock the front door. As he walked back up he suddenly heard a muffled voice ask him “Why are you running away?” He felt sure the voice had come from near to him, not from next door.
A couple of nights later he switched the landing light off and the bulb blew. The glass bulb fell out of the socket, rolled along the landing and bounced down the stairs. Jon walked down in the dark to pick it up, creeping slowly so as not to tread on the glass. Suddenly he heard a loud sighing noise right in his ear. It was so close to him that for a moment all he wanted to do was run down and out of the flat. But he plucked up courage and refused to leave his own property. He locked the door and headed back upstairs to bed.
Conclusion
Jon has had some fascinating and varied experiences, which in most cases have been witnessed by others too. Usually I would not classify a case which does not involve direct interaction with alien beings as a contact case. However I feel that there is definitely a possibility that Jon has experienced contact but had the memories removed. The incident with the silver spiral UFO was clearly blanked from his memory until it was brought back by a conversation with his friend. And some of the other things which Jon has experienced, including his premonitions and paranormal incidents, may also be indirectly linked with contact.
As the activity in his home appears to be on-going I have advised Jon to purchase some cameras to put up in the hopes of capturing some footage. If he keeps in touch this report will be kept up-to-date with any further developments
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2021