Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 12/10/2023 In July 2023 I was contacted via the BUFOG website by a lady named Terri. She wanted to inform me about an impressive UFO sighting she had as a child back in 1979, an incident she had only spoken of with several people before. I got in touch and we discussed the sighting in depth over numerous conversations. Sighting Details Terri cannot be absolutely certain but she believes the incident took place in late August or early September 1979. She was 16 years old at the time and had left secondary school a number of months previously. At the time she was living at home with her parents on Parkeston Crescent in Kingstanding, Birmingham. Terri has a disability which led to her having self-confidence issues, and at the time she was feeling quite lonely and was struggling emotionally. Her mother was in denial about her situation, and her father worked long hours so wasn’t around much. She had not yet found a job, so spent most of her time in her bedroom. An ice-cream van would regularly do the rounds each evening, and it’s last stop would always be directly outside the house. The driver of the van was named Steve and he was quite friendly, so Terri began heading outside to chat with him each day after he had served the other children in the neighbourhood. It was around 8.30pm on the evening of the incident. The weather was very pleasant. The sun had started to set but was still shining brightly. It was warm and still, and the street lights had just started to come on. The houses on Parkeston Crescent are set down below the level of the pavement, with steps to climb up. Terri exited the house then waited patiently on the pavement for the other kids to be served. She happened to glance up into the sky. What she saw immediately stopped any other thoughts that were going through her mind. There, positioned over the roof of the house, roughly 30 feet above the roof top, was a disc-shaped object. It appeared to be approximately 40-45 feet across. It was dark grey in colour, not reflective. On the base of the object was a number of lines which separated it into distinct sections, almost like an orange slice. In the centre was a tightly concentrated grouping of small circles, and around the outer edge was a band and line of evenly spaced larger circles. There were no lights visible on it. Terri was standing roughly 16 feet in front of the house, so could only see the underside of the object. It was hovering completely still in the air and was not making any detectable sound. She was absolutely shocked at what she was looking at. Her mind went completely blank as she realised it was clearly not a normal aircraft of any kind. Terri thinks she stared up at the object for around 3 minutes. She did not have a camera on her, and was too awestruck by what she was looking at to try to draw anyone else’s attention to it. After this time she suddenly snapped out the shock she was in. She briefly looked down at the pavement and blinked hard several times. When she looked back up the object had completely vanished! This was even more of a shock to her than when she had first set eyes on it. She started turning around looking all over the sky but it had disappeared. At this point Steve called her name and snapped his fingers to get her attention. She looked at him, and then turned her attention back to the sky, asking “Did you see that?” In response to this Steve leaned out of the van and looked up. He asked her “See what…what was it?” For some reason Terri did not tell him what she had just seen, and simply replied “Oh, probably nothing.” They chatted for a few minutes about other things, and then Terri headed back inside. She felt really strange. When I asked her more about this feeling she informed me that it was similar to the feeling of waking up after a really realistic dream, although she is certain that this was no dream as she had of course been wide awake. She went and sat down in the kitchen alongside her parents and began staring at the TV, not really paying attention to what they were watching. She then loudly exclaimed “I think I just saw a UFO!” Her mother turned and smiled in a patronising way at her. Her dad suggested that it was probably just a helicopter. She responded to him saying “I know what helicopters look like and it definitely wasn’t that.” He then said “It could have been a military craft, they’re inventing new ones all the time that we know nothing about.” At their dismissal of the incident Terri decided to end the conversation on it with them. Soon afterwards she wrote some details down in her diary about what had happened, but unfortunately lost this before leaving home a couple of years later. The incident left a lasting impression on her and has led to a genuine interest in the UFO subject. She has looked online numerous times to see if she can find other similar sightings around the time, but so far has not found anything. She has learnt over the years that for most people it’s too big a leap of faith, and they will either dismiss the incident outright or not pay much attention to it. This is why she has shared it with so few. Sighting Analysis This is an extremely impressive daylight sighting of a disc-shaped UFO, and I am grateful that Terri has been brave enough to reach out to me to get it down on record. Firstly, although Terri was the only witness and we only have her testimony to go on, she comes across as very trustworthy indeed. She answered all my questions in detail, and the drawing of the object was actually done several years ago, not directly for this investigation. I do not believe her emotional state and loneliness at the time (which she voluntarily pointed out to me) could have been responsible for what was seen. She also confirmed that she did not drink or use other drugs, medical or otherwise, at the time. I feel that the incident took place as she reported it. It was clearly a solid structured object of some kind rather than a cloud or other atmospheric anomaly. Neither was it a normal aircraft of any kind. It hovered still for several minutes without moving so was not a plane, and looked nothing like a helicopter. It was also not making any sound, at the low height it was at the noise of the rotor blades or engines would have been audible. The incident happened decades before drones were commercially available. The size of the object combined with the lack of sound also puts a radio controlled model out of the question. It could not have been a hot air balloon or other large inflatable as it was a clear evening, and the object suddenly vanished in a matter of seconds after hovering still for several minutes. It would clearly still have been there when she looked back up, yet it had completely disappeared. Also even though an inflatable can float quite still in pleasant weather conditions, a small amount of drift or rotation would still be expected. To dismiss the sighting as a visual hallucination or “day dream” of some kind would also be illogical. If she had only briefly glimpsed it in passing then maybe this explanation would be valid, but she looked up at it in shock for up to three minutes, and it was close enough to see actual structural detail. Taking all of the above into consideration it seems very likely that this was a genuine sighting of an advanced disc-shaped craft. She did not see any occupants, so a secret military aircraft explanation cannot be entirely ruled out. However it would be completely illogical for the UK military to fly such a craft over densely populated areas in broad daylight. In addition to this, I find it unlikely it could vanish in such a brief space of time without making a sound. I have investigated many other cases of similar craft over the years, and are aware of many others on record. Often these craft suddenly vanish without trace, or shoot away at incredible speed from a stationary position. There are many cases where they have disappeared at precisely the moment the witness or witnesses have briefly lost sight of them, potentially indicating that they are aware they are being observed and use this opportunity to leave the area. There are also many cases linking craft of this type with non-human entities, including thousands of contact cases, cases where beings have been seen aboard through windows, landing cases with beings in close proximity and crash retrieval cases. This leads to a possible extra-terrestrial origin for what was observed. I would again like to thank Terri for sharing the details of this fascinating sighting. If you have any further information relating to it please get in touch via the BUFOG website. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 27/09/2023 Last Updated: 28/09/2023 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In September 2023 me and my wife spent a week with one of our friends, who I shall name “Rebecca”. During this time she informed me of a couple of fascinating incidents which had previously occurred. The most recent of these was a sighting of a triangular shaped UFO which she witnessed in the spring of 2015. Sighting Details Rebecca regularly enjoys star gazing using high magnification binoculars. At the time of the incident she was 39 years old and living on a caravan park in Dymchurch. Every year she had to vacate the park for a couple of weeks in the latter half of February as it would close for renovations. In 2015 she stayed at a B&B on Seabrook Road, Hythe, close to the junction with Bell Inn Road. She got on so well with the house owner that she decided to remain there for a little longer after the caravan park had re-opened instead of immediately returning to the caravan. There were very few streetlights in the nearby vicinity, which made the back garden of the B&B the perfect location for star gazing. Every night if the weather was clear she and her boyfriend at the time, "Steve", would step outside between 9-10pm and watch the stars through her Celeron Skymaster binoculars. Every night about the same time they would see three particular pieces of space junk in close proximity pass across the sky from left to right heading to the North. On the night in question she was standing alongside Steve and chatting with him while they waited for the familiar space junk to appear. They nipped inside the house a moment. While inside they briefly messed around with the focus of the binoculars. Once back outside, Rebecca fiddled with the focus to get the view clear again, then looked back up at an elevation of about 40 degrees. A brief moment later a dark object entered the viewing area from the right. It had the shape of an isosceles triangle facing to the left, with a low dome visible on the upper side. Along the lower edge was a line of dimly lit white coloured lights. She assumed that these lights also existed along the other edges but were not visible due to the angle she was looking at it. The object appeared to be quite large in size ad definitely within the atmosphere rather than out in orbit. It was blocking out the stars and jet black in colour, darker than the night sky visible beyond it. It moved slowly across her vision until roughly half way across before suddenly halting. Without looking away she grabbed Steve’s arm and tried to pull him towards her, planning to hand him the binoculars and point out the object. But before she could do so the object instantly vanished without trace. She did not see it leave the viewing frame, it had just inexplicably disappeared. In total she had watched it for about 7 seconds. Rebecca was stunned by what she had just seen. She turned to Steve and said “I think I’ve just seen a spaceship!” In response to this he merely asked “What?” Rebecca replied “When I just grabbed you I just saw something that wasn't a plane. You think I’m nuts don’t you?” But Steve fully believed her, as he was aware that Rebecca cannot stand people telling lies. Rebecca says that she spent ages thinking about the sighting afterwards, and it is still something she thinks about often. She is just disappointed that she was the only witness to it. Sighting Analysis This is a very interesting sighting with a variety of fascinating aspects. It was clearly a solid object as Rebecca saw it blocking out the stars as it moved across her view. It is first important to point out that this could not have been a misidentification of a Starlink satellites launch. Although Elon Musk's satellites do create a line of white lights that move across the sky on a straight course, the earliest test launches for Starlink took place in 2018, three years after this incident took place. It it also clear that this was a solid object blocking out the stars which had numerous white lights. Both the appearance and manoeuvres the object performed point away from it being a normal aircraft of any kind. It did not have standard navigation lights on it – there was no red or green lights, and no flashing strobes, just a line of dimly lit white lights. It looked very large in size, yet there was no wings or tail fin visible. Also if it was an aircraft it would not have been able to suddenly halt for several seconds. It looked much too large to be a drone, and the lighting was again wrong for this. It seems very unlikely a lit blimp or other large inflatable would have been in the area. Also if it was either of these it would not have been able to suddenly disappear in a clear sky. Rebecca says that there were no clouds on the night of the sighting, and as she was staring up at the stars through binoculars built for sky watching it would have been immediately obvious if there was as patches of stars which could not be seen. This is how she was aware that the object had been present but then had suddenly vanished. I have investigated many cases of dark coloured triangular shaped craft, commonly referred to as Flying Triangles. In some of these cases small lights have been seen along each of the sides exactly like Rebecca reported. The low dome which was visible on the upper side of the object is an unusual aspect, although this may have been present in some other cases but just not visible due to the viewing angle. I have also looked into numerous cases where Flying Triangles have suddenly appeared or disappeared in a clear sky. All of these facts point towards this potentially being a sighting of one of these craft. As it was after dark and the object was only visible for a short period of time Rebecca may have been the only witness to it. However if you have any information relating to what took place please get in touch. Rebecca previously experienced a very interesting incident potentially involving missing time back in 2008. Click here to check out the separate report on this. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

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Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 13/09/2023 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In September 2023 I spoke with one of mine and my wife’s friends, “Rebecca” about a couple of incidents while discussing the subject of UFOs. The first of these involved a potential period of missing time which was experienced by herself and her mother back in 2008. Incident Details Rebecca is unaware of the precise date when the incident took place, but feels that it was early summertime. She was 32 years old at the time, and lived with her children in a house at Dymchurch, Kent. Her mother “Natalie” lived nearby. On the day in question, she and Natalie had driven East along the coast to Dover to pick up a TV cabinet. It was between 1-2pm and they were on their return trip, with a view to be home by 3pm so Rebecca could pick up her children from school. This was a route they were very familiar with and had driven many times before. The route led West from Dover along the A20 until they reached Folkestone. They would then join the M20 until they reached Hythe. After this they would leave the road and take country roads South West through various villages until they reached Dymchurch. The weather was pleasant and sunny but not particularly hot. They were on the A20 and about two thirds of the way towards Folkestone. There were lots of other vehicles on the road heading in both directions. Rebecca was chatting with her mother about cooking Spaghetti Bolognese. All of a sudden she felt strange, a tingling sensation like static electricity. At the same time she looked out of the passenger side of the windscreen and realised she did not recognise the surroundings. They were no longer on the A20 motorway! They appeared to be travelling along a much narrower country road barely wide enough to pass other vehicles on, with trees and fields either side of it. As she thought to herself “Where are we?” Natalie pulled over and stopped the car. It was at this moment that she knew that her mother had also realised what had happened, at precisely the same moment as herself. They both sat there in silence staring out of the windows. Rebecca broke the silence by asking “What’s going on?” Natalie replied “I don’t know!” She asked “Where are we?” Again her mother replied “I don’t know!” They sat there in the parked car for about five minutes, after which her mother said “We’ve got to find out where we are.” She started driving the car along the road again until she saw some signs which pointed back to Folkestone junction. It took quite a while to reach the junction and get back on track with their journey. From this length of time this took they estimated that they had ended up about 15 miles North of the A20, with no explanation at all as to how they got there. Even though they would usually join the M20 at this point, they felt uneasy about doing so after what had taken place, and decided instead to avoid the motorway for the rest of the route home and travelled along quieter lanes until arriving home. As they continued their drive Rebecca began to get a very strong headache. She mentioned this to Natalie, and she too confirmed that she too also had the same. Once back at her mother’s house, Rebecca checked the clock and found that it was not yet 3pm so they had got back roughly the time they’d expected to, taking into account the additional drive time to get back to Folkestone. She helped her mum unload the TV cabinet and then went to pick up her kids from school. She and her mother’s headaches lasted for the remainder of the day and only subsided after they had both gone off to sleep and woken the following morning. Incident Analysis This is a truly fascinating and mysterious event, and one which cannot be easily explained away. If Natalie was driving an unfamiliar route involving numerous turns then this could have been put down to her accidentally taking a wrong turn somewhere and ending up where she didn’t expect. However both Natalie and Rebecca had driven this route many times before, it was their trusted way of driving back from Dover. In addition to this they were on a main road. In order for them to have ended up where they did they would have had to have purposely left the A20 at some point via a junction, yet neither of them has any memory of doing so. There is the mental state known as “Highway Hypnosis” (sometimes referred to as White Line Fever). This is something most drivers have experienced at one point or another, and is where it is possible to “zone out” and drive along a road or roads without remembering doing so. However in this situation the individual would instinctively drive the way they were intending to drive and not deviate from this route. Other factors which point away from either of these two explanations are the fact that Rebecca and Natalie appeared to realise they were no longer on the A20 at exactly the same moment, the tingling sensation which Rebecca felt at the same time as this realisation, and the strong headaches they both developed afterwards. I have investigated numerous cases involving abductions from vehicles. In these incidents the driver will often come round to find themselves either driving or parked up on a different road to which they were on previously. The implication is that in some instances the vehicle is also taken, and there are cases on record where this very much seems to have been what happened. Perhaps this is what occurred here. If so this might explain the sudden feeling of static electricity that Rebecca felt. Perhaps this feeling was from a nearby craft or whatever energy was used to return them to the ground. Headaches are also a common after effect of contact, again suggesting that they may have been taken. If so then this could not have been for very long, as they were still back home in time for Rebecca to pick up her children. If we assume that this is what happened here, then there is the issue that the incident took place on a sunny afternoon in a busy location. You may ask how this would be possible without other drivers on the road being aware of it. Surely if this was observed by anyone else nearby they would have reported it to someone? But there are often unusual elements of time distortion with contact. Perhaps other nearby drivers did see it occur but had their memories wiped. Or perhaps time itself was halted and they were unaware of the sudden disappearance of the car. One thing that is certain is that the incident left a lasting impression on both Rebecca and her mother. She informed me that Natalie is quite sceptical of the world of UFOs and the paranormal, however she is clearly troubled by what took place even to this day. She says that sometimes her mother brings it up in conversation, asking “Remember that time when we were abducted?” depsite being largely sceptical of the subject as a whole. I absolutely trust Rebecca’s testimony of what took place, but the mystery of what happened remains. I am awaiting a testimonial statement from Natalie which should be added to this report in the near future. If you have any information which may shed some light on this please contact me via the BUFOG website. Rebecca also had a (probably unrelated) sighting of a Flying Triangle in 2015. Details on this will be released soon. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

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Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 28/07/2023 In late 2022 I got in touch with a lady named Janet Ames after reading a message from her on Facebook eluding to an abduction experience she had back in 1989. I got in touch with her via Messenger, and over the following months chatted about what had happened, eventually having a detailed telephone call in July 2023 to go over things in depth. This report documents the experience, as well as other events which took place in the weeks leading up to it. Something Watching Late in the spring of 1989 Janet lived in a house on Peel Street, Middlesbrough with her then husband, young daughter and son. She is unaware of exactly when it started, but she began to get anxious and frightened about going to bed at night, even with her husband right there in the room with her. This was accompanied by a feeling that she was being watched by an unseen presence in the room after dark. Janet did not tell him about how she was feeling, she could not understand where these emotions were coming from. Within days she started waking up at roughly 3 am night after night. She says that she felt that there was one or more small figures standing in the room alongside the bed, but never saw these figures when she opened her eyes. It began happening so regularly that she would instinctively know what time it was even before checking the clock. She would never put the light on in the room as she did not want to wake her sleeping husband. She would just lie in the bed restless for a time, then drop back off to sleep. During the daytime she began to feel tired and weak, possibly as a result of the disturbed nights she was having. Many experiencers talk of a sense of being watched by something, especially in the run up to or at the start of contact experiences. It is interesting that Janet sensed the presence of one or more short figures in the room alongside the bed. These could potentially have been unseen Greys, which are usually around 4 feet in height, similar to how she described. Glowing Orbs Around the same time Janet began to occasionally see small glowing orbs of light in the room. On the first occasion it was also witnessed by her husband. They were both lying awake in bed with the light off. Suddenly Janet noticed a small white circle of light hovering over near the far wall of the room and about a foot below the ceiling. It seemed to be about the size of ten pence piece and was not moving at all. She pointed it out to her husband exclaiming “Oh what is that? Look at that!” Her husband looked and briefly saw the orb too before it blinked out in front of them. She saw a similar orb on two other occasions, not always in the exact spot, but on these other occasions she did not point it out to her husband. However she was puzzled by what it was. She was convinced that it was not caused by something reflecting light onto the wall within the room. Glowing white orbs are commonly reported by experiencers and are usually observed hovering or drifting around their home. The fact that her husband also saw the orb the first time it was seen shows it was something genuinely there, but exactly what it was cannot be confirmed. There are numerous theories on orbs ranging from ghostly phenomenon to the manifestation of energy linked with ETs, and there are possibly multiple explanations for them in different situations. Janet confirmed to me that on the nights she saw them the weather was fine, so they are unlikely to have been ball lightning. Figure In The Bathroom About a week after she started feeling anxious at night, Janet woke to hear the sound of male voices calling her name. The voices seemed to be directly inside her mind rather than coming from a particular location within the property. For an unknown reason she sensed that whoever was calling out wanted her to get out of bed, walk downstairs and open the back door of the house. It was still fully dark but she was intrigued by the voices and went along with the feeling of what she was supposed to do. She quietly got out of bed in her nightgown and leaving her husband fast asleep crept downstairs. She went to the back door of the house and opened it. Alongside the back door was a downstairs bathroom. The light was off but the door was open and she could see into it. Standing in the bath tub and leaning against the far corner she could see a man. He appeared to be wearing a rimmed hat and long brown coat, and he was smoking a cigarette. She could see him clearly enough to notice that he was looking right at her and smiling. His face looked strange as his cheeks seemed to be covered in pock marks. This was the last thing she remembered from the night. Her next recollection was of waking up in the morning. She felt certain that it had not been a dream and that she had got up out of bed in the night and seen the figure. She was so convinced that it happened that after she was up she went downstairs and checked for footprints inside the bath tub. None were found but she was still certain it had taken place. Like the orbs Janet was seeing, this bizarre incident may have multiple explanations. It is possible that Janet witnessed a ghostly apparition, and that for whatever reason this spirit wanted to make its presence known so called out to her. Another possibility is that this was directly related to contact, and that this was in fact an ET utilising a screen memory to mask its true appearance, although it does seem a very peculiar form for it to take. An Examination On another night soon afterwards Janet remembered seeing several people looking down at her. There was a woman in the middle with a man on either side. She only remembered seeing their faces and shoulders staring down at her. The lady drew most of her attention. She looked like she was in her late 40s. She had dark hair and was wearing a white coat. Instead of speaking directly to her, the lady seemed to be discussing her with the men. At the time of the incident Janet says that she had dry skin on the base of her feet. The lady seemed to be upset by this and was mentioning how disgusting they looked. This vision of the three people, which came to her mind like a dream while she slept, seemed to last between 5-10 minutes before ceasing. Janet does not recall any direct interaction during this time or exactly how it ended. As this incident happened while she was asleep and Janet does not recall getting up out of bed at all there is of course the possibility it was just a dream. However the proximity of this incident to everything else that took place does make me wonder if it was another contact experience, and that the people she saw was another screen memory to mask what was really going on. As with many experiences of this nature it is hard to say for certain. The Abduction After everything that had been going on over the last few weeks Janet was quite anxious and upset. However she still decided to keep what had happened to herself. On the day of the incident, for an unknown reason, Janet felt the need to move the position of the bed across to the other side of the room alongside the window. That night she and her husband went to bed as normal. At an unknown time she awoke during the night to find herself standing in the middle of the room facing the window. She was wearing her night gown. It was still fully dark, but the door was ajar and there was enough light coming in from the hall to see her surroundings. She was surprised to find that the curtains and the window were both open, and that outside it was very bad weather, with heavy rain and a strong gale blowing. She thought to herself “Oh no, the window is wide open and it’s raining hard and fast!” She was convinced that the window had been closed and curtains drawn when she went off to sleep. Janet wanted to get back into bed but when she tried to move she found she could not. The extreme weather conditions outside frightened her and caused her to panic. But then she heard voices again calling her name, coaxing her towards the window. She began to move across the room towards the window, almost like she was under direct control. As she neared it she could see some flashing lights outside. As she reached the window her vision was obscured by and extremely bright white light. She could see a large object of some kind off to her right. Then all of a sudden she was no longer standing in her bedroom. She now found herself standing in a dimly lit oval-shaped room, about 12 feet across. On the far side of this room was an elongated window. There was nothing visible through this. Seated in front of her was a tall humanoid male being. He had long curled red coloured hair which was particularly striking. He wore a knee-length tunic, a brown coloured belt, tights with a criss-cross pattern on them and black boots. He had a number of firearms around his waist, and a knife stored down the edge of each of his boots. He had human-like facial features, but appeared to be quite tall, strong and muscular. For an unknown reason she felt comfortable with this being and trusted him, despite not knowing what was going on. The being began speaking to her, although looking back at the experience Janet cannot remember much of what said. All she can recall is that at one point she was informed that he “came from under the earth.” She then experienced a period of missing time. Her next recollection is of being in a lift of some kind. The being she had been with was standing on her right. There was another tall humanoid on her left. Both of them were holding onto her arms. They were both about 7 feet in height and towered over her. Unlike the initial being, the one on her left had a metallic helmet on which covered a lot of his head, but she could see dark hair protruding from it. Aside from this the uniform was identical. Janet is unsure whether the lift ascended or descended, there was no real sense of movement. She thought to herself “Is this a dream? It all seems real. It is really happening. I feel my senses. I hear noises. I can smell. I see colours. I feel fear.” When the lift doors opened she was led out onto a long corridor which headed off to the left and right. It had numerous doors coming off it. There were two other guards wearing identical uniforms standing either side of the open elevator doors. Down the corridor to her right she suddenly noticed a drowsy looking man wearing pyjamas. He was being escorted across the corridor by two other tall humanoids who were holding him up. She then realised that she recognised the man! He lived on her street, about four doors down from her! She did not really know him, but it was still good to see a familiar face. Before she had a chance to shout out, he was taken into a doorway on the far side. Suddenly Janet heard shouting coming from a room just to the right of her on the far side of the corridor. She was led across the corridor into this room. At this point the being who had initially spoke to her walked off down the corridor, leaving her with the other male. Inside the room there was a lady wearing a long black cloak who appeared to be shouting orders at other figures in the room. She was very slender and tall with long blonde hair. Janet remembers thinking how beautiful she looked. Janet does not think she communicated directly with her or even acknowledged her presence. After a short while the being alongside her led her back out of the room. At this moment she seemed to experience another gap in her memory. She was now in another room lying down on a table. The room was very brightly lit, with white walls and ceiling. It was square in shape, approximately 22 feet across. It looked very clean and clinical. The table was centre left of one of the sides. It appeared to be black in colour, but had a thin white sheet draped over it, through which the underlying colour could be seen. It was raised about three feet off the floor. Janet thinks that she was now unclothed but cannot be certain. She found that she could not move from the neck downwards, she could only turn her head to look around the room. Her body felt extremely heavy and weighed down. Opposite her on the far side of the room was a wide open doorway through which nothing in particular could be seen. To her right she could see a small window and an open doorway. Again nothing specific could be seen through them. When she turned her head and looked to her left she was surprised to see a number of worktops, cupboards and what looked like sink taps. Between these and the edge of the table stood another tall male being. He was wearing a white coat, and looked very strong and powerful. His head and hands were large, but his features were human-like. Janet though to herself “He is the doctor”, perhaps because of the clothing he was wearing and the clinical environment she was in. Even though she had already been interacting with numerous other similar beings for an unknown reason she was extremely frightened of this one in particular, and as a result she actively tried not to look directly at him. This could have been because of the anticipation of what he may do and the fact that she was unable to run away. She sensed the presence of another couple of beings behind her head, but was unable to arc her head enough to see them clearly. She then heard the words “Relax, you must relax now, relax!” inside her mind. She started to feel very hot and slightly drowsy, and found it difficult to breathe, which caused her to get angry about the situation. In reaction to this she shouted out “Don’t! Please don’t! You can’t do this! Stop!” However the being alongside her appeared not to react to this in any way. He then began to examine her using a number of different instruments. She felt objects touching her, but actively tried to look away from what was happening. This seemed to go on for quite a period of time, at least 30 minutes she thinks. At one point in proceedings she was rolled onto her right side by the being, who was quite forceful. After a while she watched as the being beside her handed what appeared to be a large syringe with a long needle to one of the unseen figures behind her head. She was then lifted and forced into a sitting up position. She then felt a sharp stab of pain in the back of her head, which she assumed was the point of the needle. At the shock of this she jumped, and suddenly found herself back home in her own bed. She was pouring with sweat, short of breath and shaking. What she had just gone through felt much more vivid and real than a normal nightmare. It felt like it had just taken place and that she had then been returned to the house. In shock at what had happened she began to quietly cry as her husband continued to sleep alongside her. She does not recall getting up out of the bed. Instead she began to feel extremely drowsy, and assumes that she then dropped off to sleep. In the morning when she awoke she felt extremely weak and tired. Her head ached, especially around the back where she had felt the stabbing pain. She felt the location but could not feel any lumps under her hair. Janet did not tell her husband what had happened as she thought he would not understand or would just put it down to a bad dream. Soon afterwards she decided to write down everything that happened so that she would not forget any of the details. Janet kindly sent me photographs of these notes, which have been referenced to aid in the writing of this report. Although she did not know much about the contact phenomenon at this point, she had heard of alien abduction, and wondered if this is what had taken place. She decided to get in touch with the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) and send them the details of the incident. A lady got back in touch with her, and they began to make plans to meet and discuss what had happened in more depth. However this never happened in the end as the lady sadly passed away, and Janet did not get back in touch to make alternative arrangements. Aside from this, Janet kept the incident entirely to herself right up until 2021, during which she spoke of the incident with her daughter. To her knowledge she has not had any further contact experiences, but as a result of what happened now has a fascination with the subject. This is an extremely detailed experience, and one which has clearly affected Janet deeply on an enduring basis. Although there are some unusual aspects to it, such as the appearance of the beings and the way in which she was led round different rooms, there are many elements which have similarities with other contact experiences I have investigated directly or are aware of. Could this just have been a very unusual, unpleasant and vivid dream? While this cannot be entirely ruled out due to the fact that it did occur during the night while she was in bed, there are numerous aspects which point away from this explanation. Firstly Janet says that it felt a lot more vivid and real than any dream she has had before or since. Her senses were on high alert, she could hear, smell and feel things just like being wide awake. This alone could be explained by lucid dreaming. But she also endured numerous after effects – her head ached, especially around the location where she feels she was stabbed with a needle. She felt very weak and tired. These are commonly reported after effects of abduction experiences. Then there is the fact that many of the aspects of the incident coincide with other abduction experiences on record. The bright white light she saw followed by finding herself in another location. The gaps in her memory while travelling to/from this other location and sometimes moving from place to place within the location itself. The flattened table in a clinical environment bare of furnishings. The fact that she was largely paralyzed at this point, yet had been able to walk around prior to this. The examination procedure she endured. The beings themselves were rather strange. Although abductees regularly encounter humanoids, often referred to as Nordics, the beings Janet met with did not appear to be these. They were all extremely tall, large, strong and muscular. This of course makes it very unlikely that they were human, despite having human-like facial features. I have dealt with numerous cases involving humanoid looking beings, but none which match this description exactly. It is possible that there are other cases of these on record which I have not yet come across. It is of course possible that the appearance of these beings was again a screen memory, but if this were the case why would the beings appear in this manner? Surely it would make more sense for them to just appear as normal humans? If Janet was abducted, then it is certainly possible that the initial location she found herself in was aboard a craft, although she never saw this from the outside. She did see flashing lights outside the bedroom window, which suggests that there may have been a craft waiting for her. Perhaps she was then taken to another larger craft, or even a building somewhere. Many people have described very similar surroundings while being taken. What could the initial being have meant when he informed Janet that he came from “under the earth”? Was he implying that he (and potentially his race) live underground here on the planet? Or could he instead have meant that he lived underground on another planet? This is something which dwells on Janet’s mind. At one point during the experience Janet saw one of her neighbours wearing pyjamas and in a drowsy state. This suggests that they had abducted him at the same time, and potentially others too, out of sight in the numerous rooms Janet saw coming off the corridor. I have investigated numerous cases where abductees have seen others aboard craft in a drowsy or even completely “switched off” state. The extensive examination procedure which Janet was forced to endure against her will is extremely commonly reported, and in these situations individuals are often paralyzed from the neck downward, probably to prevent them from fighting back against what is happening. Many have reported having cold and sometimes painful metallic instruments used on them, or having injections just like the one which Janet described. It is improbable that she was instantly transported back home the moment she had this injection in the back of her head. However her memories could have been removed from this point, so this was the last clear and very upsetting moment she could remember when she came round. Due to the many similarities of Janet's experience with other abduction accounts on record, and the after effects she experienced, I cannot simply dismiss this incident as a vivid dream, and I feel there is the genuine possibility it took place. Conclusions Janet comes across as a very trustworthy witness. It is clear that the experience affected her deeply, enough to get in touch with BUFORA soon after it happened. The details provided are very specific, and do not come across as a made up story. If she was going to fabricate an abduction experience, why not just go with Greys, the most commonly described type of being, instead of these unusual large humanoids? The series of events which Janet (and her ex-husband) experienced within several weeks of one another are fascinating and have many aspects which fit with other contact cases I have investigated over the years. Although the abduction experience is an odd one, with the unusual appearance of the beings, and the fact Janet was taken from room to room for an unknown purpose before being examined, I feel it is certainly possible that it did take place as she remembers. Janet seems very well adjusted to what has happened. She informed me that these days she is more inquisitive about the experience than frightened, although obviously at the time she was terrified. I would like to thank her for allowing me to share the details to aid in our understanding of this on-going phenomenon. If you have any information relating to what took place, or know of any other experiences involving this particular type/species please get in touch. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Last Updated: 20/04/2023 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used Sighting Details On the evening of 10th October 2012, "Simon" was on his way to the village of Fradley near Lichfield to give a talk on his artwork. It was a clear evening, quite cold but with very little cloud cover. He was travelling North East along the A38 and approaching the turn on the left which leads to Fradley. Unfortunately he missed the turning so had to carry on and turn round at the next junction. On the way back down on the other side of the A38 he could not access the turning directly but there was an alternative route accessible from Fine Lane. As he approached Fine Lane he noticed something in the sky over the fields to his left. It looked like a delta-shaped craft, triangular in shape but with squared off points to the rear. On the base of the object he could see some three yellow-white lights in a row towards the centre. There appeared to be no other lights on the object. It was around 7pm, and the object was silhouetted against the darkening sky. He could not tell for definite what colour it was but it appeared to be black. The object was at a height of between 500-1000 feet, and appeared to be roughly ¼ mile from his location. Simon estimates that it was a little bigger than a light aircraft, perhaps 40 feet across. Photograph from the A38 in the direction the UFO was first observed: Simon's drawing of the UFO and surroundings: The object was moving in a Southerly direction roughly parallel to the road. Turning into Fine Lane, Simon parked up at the edge of the road. He got out of the car. Nearby was a man with a steamroller but Simon did not point out the object to him, he was too busy watching it himself. By this time the object was at an angle of about 30 degrees in the sky, and had begun to turn towards the South East. As it did so it banked and he was able to get a better look at the underside of the object. He saw a straight line of three white round dimly-lit lights in the centre of the base. He also noted that the object was completely silent. He observed it for a short while longer before it got lost behind some nearby trees. In total he had watched it for about a minute. Photograph from Fine Lane where the witness parked and continued to observe the object: Aerial map showing the location of the missed turn off to Fradley (A), where the UFO was first spotted (B), and where the witness parked (C): After it had gone Simon got back in his car and continued his journey to Fradley. He was intrigued by what he had seen due to the unusual shape and lighting, and the fact that it appeared to be silent. Sighting Analysis It seems quite clear that what was observed was a craft of some kind performing controlled manoeuvres, rather than a randomly drifting object. Some of the aspects of this particular sighting tend to suggest that what was seen was some kind of military-owned aircraft. The object was not of excessive size. It did not perform any manoeuvres which a human-made aircraft would not be able to make. When it changed direction it banked and turned rather than just altering direction. However the appearance of the object was not like any known military aircraft. Both the shape of the object and the lighting seen on its underside do not match any aircraft which I am currently aware of. Also the witness mentioned that it appeared to be completely silent. He was within ¼ mile of the object so surely it would have been possible to hear sound coming from it if there was any? It is not possible to say at present whether or not this object was some kind of secret military aircraft or a genuine Flying Triangle of extra-terrestrial origin. The squared off corners at the rear of the craft do not fit with many triangle cases I have looked into, and the lighting seen on it again is highly unusual and not a configuration I have heard of before off anyone else. The area of Fradley is quite rural so the possibility of a military aircraft cannot be ruled out. If you feel you can shed more light on what this craft may have been please get in touch. This is not the first or last time that Simon has witnessed a UFO. In 1978 he and his wife at the time had an impressive sighting of a disc-shaped UFO close to Great Bridgeford. You can have a read of the case report on this incident here. And in 2014 he had a sighting of a bizarre aerial object and some black helicopters which were possibly related. To have a read of this fascinating incident click here. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 26/06/2023 Note: For reasons of anonymity a pseudonym has been used for second witness and precise location details have been omitted In late June 2023 I was contacted by a lady named Charlotte B. by telephone. She wished to report a sighting of numerous unidentified objects she had seen over Great Barr in Birmingham back in July 2021. At the time of the sighting she did not really know who to report the incident to, but after recently discovering the existence of Birmingham UFO Group she decided to get in touch. Sighting Details On Saturday 24th July 2021 Charlotte had gone round to visit a friend who I shall call “Steve”. He lives in a second floor apartment with a South East facing balcony. It was between 5-7pm and Steve was out on the balcony while Charlotte and her two sons were inside watching TV. It was a very pleasant and clear evening, with only light cloud. Due to the time of year it was still fully light outside. Charlotte was half dozing off on the couch when Steve suddenly called her to quickly come and take a look at something outside. She got up off the couch and popped her head out to see what he was looking at. Looking up at around 45 degrees elevation to the South East she could see a V shaped formation of 7 objects. They appeared to be around the height of the cloud layer, approximately 10000 feet. They were slowly moving right across the sky to the South West. Initially they looked black and she assumed they were a flock of birds. However as she looked more closely she realised that the objects were silver in colour and appeared to be diamond shaped. Charlotte estimates that if they were at the height they seemed to be they would each have been at least 20 feet across. They appeared to be completely silent, but were of course quite high up. After a number of seconds the formation seemed to separate. Four continued to the right while three at the left seemed to briefly halt. The four on the right approached a singular large cloud. As they did they suddenly started to rotate. At this point she realised they were quite flat in shape, as when they were viewed side on they looked thin and more disc-like. She also noted that on one side of them only was a circular shape. This looked clear, almost like a hole right through them, with clear sky visible behind. However they were only visible on the one side. After rotating completely several times the four objects on the right then seemed to blink out one by one and completely disappear! One of the three remaining objects seemed to move back to the left a short distance, then reversed and all three started moving to the right. Once again as they neared the same cloud they started to rotate and then vanished, just as the previous four objects had done! In total the sighting lasted for about 30 seconds, although Steve had clearly watched the objects for longer. Charlotte had her smart phone with her, but was so transfixed on what was going on she did not think to attempt to record the objects. After they had gone she was annoyed she had not managed to capture them on camera. While observing the objects she also called out to her sons to come and see too, but they did not react fast enough and by the time they’d got up and walked over to the window the objects had all disappeared from view. Soon after the sighting Charlotte drew a sketch of what she’d seen with brief accompanying notes. You have already seen the sketch of one of the objects, but here is the complete diary page for reference (with name of second witness removed): A couple of days later she informed her father about what she had seen. She looked online to see if anyone else had reported seeing the objects but found nothing. Sighting Analysis Although this is quite a distant sighting, it is still an intriguing one for a number of reasons. It seems very unlikely that the objects were a formation of civilian or military aircraft due to their appearance, the manoeuvres they performed and way in which they suddenly seemed to vanish one by one. 360 Radar confirms that the area does not fall within any airways, again lowering the possibility that the objects were normal aircraft: Although birds can sometimes brightly reflect sunlight making them appear like silverish orbs of light, it seems unlikely that the objects were birds as Charlotte could see them clearly enough to make out their diamond shape and the circular shape on one side. Charlotte stated that this circular shape appeared like a round hole through which sky and cloud could be seen. I suggested that it may have been highly reflective and instead of being an actual hole just clearly reflecting the sky within it. Charlotte agreed that this was certainly plausible, and this would also explain why it could only be seen on one side of the objects. The shape of the objects and way in which they suddenly started to rotate I feel also rules out a formation of drones. However a mundane explanation which cannot be fully ruled out is that the objects were a launch of multiple novelty balloons from a nearby celebration or event. The shape of them does seem unusual, however balloons can of course start to roll over when caught in air currents. The way in which the objects all seemed to vanish close to a particular cloud is an interesting aspect of the incident. I asked Charlotte whether the objects could simply have entered the cloud and been lost from sight, but she says they disappeared before they reached it. Also she and Steve continued to watch the sky for a period of time afterwards and none of the objects made a reappearance. Charlotte even wonders if there was a craft of some kind hiding within the cloud, and the objects were smaller craft which were docking with it. While this possibility cannot be entirely ruled out, sometimes distant reflective objects can seem to suddenly vanish simply because they move to a position in the sky where they are no longer brightly reflecting the sunlight. It is also possible for objects to move out of visual range, again making it look like they have disappeared. Unfortunately Charlotte has lost contact with Steve, so I am unable to reach out to him for a testimonial statement about the incident. After speaking with her about this I have no issue with this. Also she comes across as extremely trustworthy and I am certain that the incident took place as reported. As the sighting took place on a clear and sunny evening, she wonders if there are other witnesses out there who have yet to come forward. Due to the fact that none of the objects performed any extreme manoeuvres, I feel that despite their unusual shape it is still possible that the objects seen were novelty balloons drifting across the sky. However I cannot categorically confirm this at present, so technically they remain unidentified unless any further information comes to light. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 03/05/2023 Last Updated: 03/06/2023 In early April 2023 79 year old witness Trevor got in touch with BUFOG via our website’s sighting report form to inform us about an incident which occurred on 19th February. He described both observing and photographing a spherical shaped UFO. I got in touch with him via phone to go over the experience in depth. This report covers the incident and provides a detailed analysis of the photographs which were taken. Sighting Details From his house on Stone Bridge in Newport, Trevor has a clear view to the South West and the range of hills known as The Wreckin can easily be seen in the distance. Trevor enjoys this view and regularly enjoys taking photographs of it. At 11.20am on 19th February 2023 he was standing at the first floor back window of his house and doing precisely this. It was a cloudy day, but was quite still and dry. There was a low mist around The Wrekin which gave the impression of islands emerging from the sea. Glancing upward he noticed that there were several holes in the cloud layer through which light was pouring. Here’s a direct statement from Trevor’s testimony regarding what happened next. “One of the holes was becoming a sort of vortex delineated by the cloud which appeared to be moving around the hole. At this point an indistinct round mass formed within the hole and appeared to fall out of it.” This mass looked very similar to the colour of the cloud around it, but appeared artificial and spherical in shape. Trevor estimates that the hole was roughly half way between his location and The Wrekin, which would have made it approximately 4 miles away. The sky was covered in cloud, and the usual height for low lying cloud is 6500 feet. The spherical “object” appeared to descend downwards, appearing to be independent from the cloud around it. It impressed Trevor enough to get him to attempt to take a photograph of it on his iPhone 6s Plus mobile phone camera. However when he checked the image he found that the sphere was almost off the top of the photo: By now it had stopped moving roughly 150 feet below the cloud layer. He once again raised his smartphone and took four images of the sphere (just right of the middle): He then decided it would be good to attempt to zoom in on it to get a closer view. For about 30 seconds he lost sight of the sphere as he attempted to locate it on his zoomed in phone camera. Unfortunately he was unable to find it. When he looked back up the sphere, and the hole it had seemingly come from had both completely vanished. Post Sighting Actions Trevor was fascinated by what he had just witnessed. He felt sure that the sphere had been something physical rather than just a strange patch of cloud. He says that later in the day he contacted a nearby military establishment. Virgin sometimes fly balloons in the area and he wanted to confirm that this was not what he had seen. According to him they confirmed the presence of the object and told him that they had detected it on their digital radar system. They stated that it was between 40-60 feet in diameter. They also confirmed that there were no logged balloon flights in the area. However they did not comment on what they object may or may not have been. They apparently asked him not to disclose to anyone their name. Over the following days he informed numerous people about the incident including his wife, daughter and friends. He also kept an eye on the news to see if anyone else had reported seeing it, but did not find any articles relating to it. Photographic Analysis It is great that Trevor managed to capture the sphere on camera over numerous photographs. Here is the initial photo that he took, with the potential object ringed: Here is the first photograph in the sequence that Trevor took following the initial one, with the sphere once again ringed: Zoomed view of the sphere: Zoomed negative and enhanced view of the sphere making its shape clearer to see: Assessing the photographs on their own they do not appear particularly impressive. As Trevor stated, it is clear that the sphere is the same colour as the cloud around it, although this does not necessarily mean that it was cloud, which will be discussed later in this report. The hole it apparently dropped down out of is not very visible in the images. While I have no reason to doubt that the photos are genuine, and Trevor certainly came across as trustworthy, it is important to rule this possibility out. One of the best ways of doing so is to examine the metadata. This is a large amount of hidden information stored when the photograph is taken. It varies by camera make, and needs to be extracted from an original image, but it can be used to determine whether or not it has been tampered with after being taken. When a photograph is manipulated on computer, some of the metadata changes. While it is possible to manually manipulate the metadata to hide this fact, it requires a large amount of expertise to do so, and there are particular pieces of metadata which are extremely hard to fix once they have changed. In order to perform metadata analysis, I asked Trevor (without prior warning) to E-Mail me a previous picture he had taken on his smartphone. Below is the image he decided to immediately send me: This can be used as a control image to show how the metadata on his phone camera looks prior to any manipulation. I then purposely modified this image to compare against and see differences which appear: While differences can vary a little depending on the software used to perform the manipulation, the pattern is generally the same. For this analysis I modified the image on Paintshop Pro, one of the more commonly pieces of software which can be used to modify images. With the control image and a purposely modified image, it is possible to compare the metadata from these against the metadata from one of the original images. I have chosen to do this with the first from the sequence of images which was taken. Below is the metadata comparison between the control image (left), modified image (centre) and sphere image (right). I have highlighted a number of specific details which relate to the differences discovered: Differences between un-modified and modified iPhone 6s Plus image metadata: - The File Size of modified images is generally smaller as the compression using editing software is usually better than that from the phone camera software - Exif Byte Order changes in modified images - JFIF related metadata appears in modified images - ICC related metadata appears in modified images - In modified images Software changes to show the name and version of the editing software - In modified images the value for Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling is lost and displays Unknown (1) - In modified images Offset Time, Offset Time Original and Offset Time Digitized disappear - In modified images GPSH Positioning Error disappears - The Thumbnail Offset. Thumbnail Length and Thumbnail Image number values change in modified images - Maker Notes related metadata disappears in modified images - XMP related metadata appears in modified images - In modified images Run Time Since Power Up disappears - In modified images Flash appears - In modified images GPS Latitude Ref and GPS Longitude Ref appear - The order of Exif and Composite related metadata changes in modified images As you can see from the above metadata comparison, the sphere photograph matches the control image not the modified image, greatly implying that it is a legitimate non-modified image. Sighting Analysis This is an unusual sighting with some interesting aspects to it. Regarding the photographs, it seems very likely that they are genuine, however they do not appear particularly impressive. There is a spherical shape visible in them but it cannot really be confirmed as a solid object. If it were just the photographs provided with no testimonial evidence, I would immediately consider it just to be an unusual patch of cloud which happened to have formed a spherical shape temporarily. However there are numerous testimonial quotes which point away from this. Firstly Trevor stated that he actually saw the sphere descend over a couple of seconds and separate itself from the rest of the cloud layer. This does not really sound like usual behaviour – clouds generally slowly change shape and tend to drift the same direction across the sky. This manoeuvre certainly impressed him enough to focus on it and photograph it numerous times. There is also the fact that he claims that he contacted a military establishment after the incident was over, and they confirmed to him that there had been an object in that area of sky at that time. They apparently stated that it was not a tracked balloon, and even went as far as confirming its size and informing him that it had been detected on radar. The issue with this is of course that this communication took place over the phone rather than a written E-Mail, and according to Trevor he was asked not to pass on the name of the establishment to anyone. I have no reason to doubt that this call did indeed take place, but until I receive a response it is impossible to verify this aspect of the case. There are two RAF bases in the vicinity of Newport, RAF Cosford 7 miles to the South East, and RAF Shawbury, 10 miles to the West: It is likely that it was one of these bases. As they are both a roughly equal distance from the location the sphere was supposedly situated, it is very likely they both would have detected it on radar. What is unlikely is that they would answer my questions about the incident directly over the phone months after it took place. I instead raised a Freedom Of Information Request to see if I could obtain confirmation on the presence of the object. On 3rd June 2023 I received an official response to this request: Unfortunately, as you can see, radar and telecommunication information is only required to be held for 30 days, so they had no data available when the request was made which could have helped prove or disprove Trevor's claims. Could he have been mistaken regarding the manoeuvre it was seen to perform? Perhaps the sphere was just a patch of cloud which happened to get caught in an air current and suddenly separate from the rest of the cloud layer. This separate patch of cloud could then have dissipated while he was attempting to zoom in on it. Maybe the military establishment he contacted was referring to an entirely different object hidden from view by the clouds, there is nothing definite linking what they stated with with what is shown on the photos. If we assume that the witness was not mistaken, and there really was a spherical object present in the sky which was captured on camera, then what could it have been? It was clearly not an aircraft or helicopter. Flight Radar 24 confirms that there were no tracked aircraft in the vicinity at the time of the sighting: 360 Radar confirms that the area does not lie within an airway, and also that the area falls within controlled airspace, making an untracked aircraft also unlikely: The most likely alternative mundane explanation would be some kind of large inflatable. The military establishment stated that there were no planned balloon launches over the weekend of the incident, however this does not rule out a private untracked launch. That said, I would expect more of a noticeable difference between the object and the surrounding cloud, even if it was white or highly reflective silver. I have seen many photographs of distant balloons over the years and they tend to be more clearly defined. Could this have been a genuine sighting of something more unusual? If so then perhaps it was an advanced craft which was using some kind of stealth technology, purposely making itself appear similar to the cloud it was surrounded by. While you may feel that this explanation is improbable, it is still something worth considering. At the end of the day, the strength of this case currently rests not only on the numerous photographs which were taken, but also on the testimonial evidence provided by the single witness. He clearly does not have any personal gain in mind as he did not want his full name or contact details added to the report. He also came across as very believable in the extensive conversation I had with him. Is the witness's testimony, supported by the photos he managed to take, enough to confirm that this was a genuine anomalous object? That’s entirely up to you to decide… Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

On Thursday evening Birmingham UFO Group's Chairman Dave Hodrien will be giving his brand new lecture, Beyond The Veil, for the first time. In the talk he'll be delving into the missing time phenomenon, an aspect of contact which continues to fascinate him. He'll be sharing details of some stunning cases which have involved either partial or complete missing time (including some brand new un-released incidents). He'll look into the science behind the loss of long term memories, and go over a number of possible explanations for why the phenomenon takes place. The lecture will take place at the group's usual monthly venue, the function room of Hot Shots at 100 Crosswells Road, Oldbury, Birmingham B688HH from 7.30pm. Whether you've attended talks at the venue before or have only just discovered us, you are more than welcome! Hope to see you there!

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 23/05/2023 Last Updated: 24/05/2023 In early May 2023 a lady named Laura Wakelam got in touch via Facebook Messenger to ask whether I had previously investigated cases from around Wednesbury. I asked her why she was interested and she informed me that she had experienced a UFO in the area back in 2005 when she was 15 years old. I arranged an extensive phone call with her to go over what took place. Sighting Details Laura thinks the incident happened around October 2005. She is unsure of the exact month, but says that it was getting dark early in the evening so she feels it happened in late autumn of that year. Back then she used to live on Moor Street, Wednesbury with her parents and two younger brothers. She believes it took place around 7.30pm. She had gone up to her bedroom, leaving her parents and brothers downstairs, possibly searching for her mobile phone. She had a high sleeper bed in her room which was up against the front wall of the house with the window partially blocked. However there was no desk under the bed, so if she wished she could duck down under the bed to look out of the window, which had a net curtain on it. She noticed a white light coming from outside, so decided to crouch under the bed, lift the net curtain and take a look. It was a clear and dry night outside. Due to the time of year it was fully dark, but the road was lit by a number of street lights. She cannot recall whether she could see the stars or whether there was cloud cover. It was very quiet with no passing vehicles or pedestrians. Just off to her left, and visible over the neighbouring house roofs she could see the silhouette of an aerial object. It appeared to look like a domed-disc shape and roughly 40 feet across. It was tipped up at an angle of about 35 degrees, with the left side higher than the right. It seemed to be positioned just to the right of one of the back gardens of the opposite houses, and at a very low altitude, perhaps only 60 feet up. Coming from the left side of the object was a thin white beam of bright light, which was shining down into the garden to its left. This beam looked thinner and more sharply defined than the beam from a helicopter’s search light. The beam was sweeping around in circles like it was looking for something. However the object itself remained un-naturally still in the air. There appeared to be no sound coming from it at all. Laura was quite frightened by the odd appearance of the object, it’s stillness in the air and the beam coming from it. She stared at it for about 2 minutes, too scared to call out for her parents or brothers to come and see. Back in 2005 she had an early camera phone, however she did not have it on her at the time or knew where it was, and she was transfixed on watching the object. Suddenly the beam went off and the object vanished without trace. Then a few seconds later it reappeared directly over the roof of four houses along the road to the left, now in a horizontal position. It immediately started to flash a sequence of multi-coloured lights. These lights appeared around the central rim of the object one at a time, and it was these which drew Laura’s attention to its new position. At this point she was convinced that she was looking at something highly unusual and this was definitely not a patrol helicopter. The sequence took a number of seconds to proceed right round the craft in an anti-clockwise direction. There were two rotations of the lights before they ceased flashing. After this the object moved forward until it was positioned over the road. It then slowly began to tip up on its axis until it was positioned vertically! This took about 10 seconds. At this point of the sighting Laura should logically have been able to see it clearly, lit up by the street lights. But she only has vague recollections of its appearance. She feels that the memories of this may have been blocked from her mind. Once it was vertical the sequence of flashing lights once again occurred. It then came back down the road and moved back over to where it had initially been situated. Once again the beam came on a short while and did another circular sweep of the garden. It then came forward again, arcing round the front of the houses as it moved back up the road, until it was positioned over the far side of the crossroads with Kilvert Road. It remained there a short while, then moved away to the North East out of sight. Laura felt traumatized by what she had just witnessed. She sat there at the window thinking that she should go downstairs and tell her mother about what had occurred. She crouched down under the bed, but as she crossed her room she realised that the details of the incident were becoming hazy in her mind, and the feeling of trauma was subsiding. By the time she was downstairs it had gone completely. The details of what happened only came back to her ten years later when she decided to watch a UFO documentary about Bob Lazar, the man who claimed to have worked on back engineered craft at Area 51. At a certain point in the documentary Bob spoke about witnessing one of the craft tipping up vertically in the sky. Upon hearing this, Laura had a vivid flashback of what she had seen when she was 15. The details of the craft tipping up in the documentary had seemingly jogged her mind and caused the memories of the incident to return! Sighting Analysis This is a fascinating event and one which has numerous unusual and interesting aspects to it. It is quite rare that witnesses report seeing beams of light coming down from UFOs. But what exactly could it have been? The object could not have been an aeroplane due to the fact it was hovering motionless at numerous points within the sighting for an extended period of time, seemingly at very low altitude, and shining a light down onto the ground. The obvious mundane explanation which needs to be considered is that the object was a police helicopter checking the local vicinity for one reason or another. Unfortunately due to the fact it happened many years ago it will not be possible to get the police to confirm this one way or the other. Helicopters can of course send search lights down to the ground and can hover quite still in the air when required. Here is an example photo of one doing precisely this: However there are numerous aspects which do not fit with this explanation. Firstly the shape of the object was not right for a helicopter. True it was quite dark, and initially it might have just looked like a dark indiscriminate shape, but later in the sighting Laura was able to see its shape more clearly, as she has drawn. At no point in the sighting did the object display any standard navigation lights (and it was of course seen from different angles throughout the sighting). Helicopters normally have white, red and green navigation lights on them, as indicated below: Logically at least some of these would have been visible to the witness. In the previous night photograph of the helicopter the red tail strobe and lower of the two white strobes are clear to see. Laura says the stillness of the object in the sky appeared un-natural. Even a helicopter hovering in the same spot will tend to drift a little bit, but when this object came to a halt there appeared to be no drift at all. Also it is very likely that at that distance from her house Laura would have been able to hear the rotor blades if it was a patrol helicopter. Yet it appeared to be completely silent. The vertical tilting it performed and the row of flashing multi-coloured lights which were seen numerous times again both point away from this being a helicopter, or any other normal type of aircraft. 360 Radar confirms that the area does not fall within any airways: It also confirms that it does lie within controlled airspace: These reduce the likelihood of it being an untracked private aircraft. If it wasn’t an aircraft what else could it have been? It seemed much too large to be some kind of radio controlled model, and the sighting took place many years before drones were commercially available. The beam of light, controlled manoeuvres it performed and flashing sequence of lights also rule out some kind of large inflatable. There is also the fact that Laura completely forgot the incident took place almost immediately after it happened. Even though she was clearly shocked by the sighting, it is very unlikely that her mind would have blanked out the experience to the point that she could not remember it at all. I feel that this aspect of the incident is extremely important and points away from it being something mundane. When asked about this aspect of the experience, Laura stated the following: "I remember getting by the bed and I was going to go and tell my mum then I couldn't remember what it was, but I could feel that it was bad. Then as I got by the stairs that feeling went. Then when I was downstairs I didn't even know any of it. I just know that it traumatised me because every time I try to think about it, it does my head in. And when I first remembered it, it put me in shock. I still don't remember some things because I know I stared at it when it was upright just can't remember what the bottom of it looked like. But I know I stared at it" It seems likely that this was a genuine sighting of a domed-disc shaped advanced craft, possibly of ET origin. I have investigated many cases of UFOs of this shape before, and there are countless more on record. I have even dealt with cases where precisely the same lighting has been reported, with a rotating line of multi-coloured lights around the central rim. There are known cases where these craft have been seen to tip up vertical in the air, just as Laura reported. There are also cases on record where UFOs have been seen to send down beams of light as if scanning the ground, including the infamous Rendlesham Forest Incident. The blanking out of the incident from Laura’s mind is also a regular aspect of UFO encounters, often associated with direct contact. Usually only partial missing time occurs, but I have looked into numerous incidents where the memories of the experience have been completely removed, and it is only through a later “trigger” that they have returned. This trigger can sometimes be seeing/hearing details of a similar incident, which is precisely what happened in this instance. There does not appear to have been any direct contact or interaction with the experience. When the memories did return to Laura, she only recalled seeing it and then heading back downstairs after it had left the vicinity. It is of course possible that there was, but the memories of this have not yet returned. However if this did indeed happen, I feel there would be more of an indication of this such as a bright light or confirmation of missed time from her family. If it was an advanced craft, we can only speculate as to what it was doing in the area, or why it was shining beams of light down into the one specific garden. Due to its apparent size, the beams of light and sequence of flashing colourful lights, it is also possible that there were other witnesses to this incident who have yet to come forward. If you have any information relating to this sighting please get in touch. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

Birmingham UFO Group Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 18/05/2023 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used and certain locations have not been mentioned I have previously investigated two sightings by a man who I have named “Simon”. These are written up as separate case reports, the links to which can be found at the end of this report. In January 2023 he got back in touch with me via Whatsapp to report a third incident which he witnessed in 2014. This incident seemed to involve a low altitude object with a very unusual appearance, and possible military involvement. This report documents the bizarre series of events in depth. Incident Details Back in 2014 Simon rented an art studio which was part of a complex of buildings at a farm near a small village in Staffordshire (precise location provided but not disclosed here). The farm was owned by an elderly couple who were partially sighted, and in exchange for the rental costs he used to drive them places when required. On the morning of either 12th February or 8th April, one of the farm owners, “Margaret”, asked him to drive her to Kidderminster to see her aunt who was in a retirement home. Unfortunately Simon can’t recall which of these two specific dates it was, he is just aware that it was one of them. They set off on the journey at around 11am in Margaret’s old Volvo V70. It was a clear and sunny morning but quite cold. The journey time took just over an hour. They had made the journey several times before but every time would take a different route, it was not the most straightforward place to reach from their location. After remaining with Margaret’s aunt till around 1 pm they then began their journey back to the farm. At 1.20 pm they were travelling North West along a rural stretch of road between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth. Unfortunately, despite actively searching for it on numerous occasions and doing a thorough search on Google Maps, Simon has been unable to locate the road so is unaware of its name. It was a straight stretch of road with trees and bushes either side, with occasional gaps through which the surrounding fields were visible. It was not particularly busy, but there were other vehicles travelling in both directions. As he drove along, he noticed several helicopters circling over the road about half a mile ahead of them. They appeared to be at very low altitude, no higher than 100 feet up. Margaret is partially-sighted, and Simon brought them to her attention, asking “Can you see what I’m looking at Margaret?” She replied “Yes, what are they doing?” As they got closer Simon realised that they were black without any markings. Each had the side door slid open, and visible through the open doorway of each sat a single man. They were each dressed in a beige coloured uniform with black boots, balaclava-like head piece and rubber ear protectors. Each held an automatic rifle positioned downwards in the safety position. One of the men had a circular megaphone-like device strapped to his chest. As they drove under the helicopters Simon noted that he could not hear their rotor blades at all, despite being in quite close proximity. He looked either side of the road to see if he could work out what they were doing in the area. They happened to be driving past a gap in the hedgerow on the left side of the road. When he glanced to his left past Margaret in the passenger seat, he was able to see what was in the local vicinity. He only managed to see for a brief time before the view was once again blocked by the hedgerow, but Simon says that what he saw “will stay with him for the rest of his life.” There was a open grass-covered field, about 300 yards wide, beyond which was a dense copse of deciduous trees, which were about 45 feet high. But beyond these trees was a large and very peculiar object. It seemed to be airborne and slowly descending, with the lower part hidden from view behind the treetops. Due to its appearance, he immediately assumed it was some kind of aerial vehicle. It appeared to be about 400 yards (365 metres long). It was split into three distinct sections. The main body of the object was roughly rectangular in shape. But attached to this by a short circular neck was a spherical section. He assumed this was the front of the vehicle, like a cockpit area. Around this sphere was what appeared to be three bands of continuous windows, one around the centre, with another both above and below. These windows seemed to be made out of dark glass and nothing could be seen through them. The top and bottom sections of the sphere were yellow in colour, but the sections splitting the three bands of windows were black. All sections were shiny and reflective, like painted metal. The neck which linked the sphere to the main body of the object looked like a series of circular black-coloured rings which slowly expanded. The main body of the object was covered in different sections at different levels of depth, with some other smaller rows of windows at various locations across it. Like the sphere, the main section was also a mix of black and yellow colours, and looked quite complex in its structure. It was titled at a slight angle with the spherical section at the lower end, suggesting that it was coming in to land. Simon had never seen anything like it before in his life! He was absolutely awestruck by what he was looking at. Unfortunately he only managed to glimpse the object for a few seconds before it was lost behind the hedgerow again. Margaret was distracted by the helicopters and did not appear to have noticed it. Simon did not immediately tell her about what he had just seen as he did not want to frighten her. Now you may be wondering why at this moment he did not stop the car to continue observing the object. When I asked him this exact question, he informed me that there were a number of reasons for why he didn’t stop. Firstly there was no hard shoulder and embankments on either side, so there was nowhere safe to pull over. There were other vehicles behind him on the road, and he didn’t want to hold up the traffic, this could have even been dangerous and resulted in a pile up. He had Margaret in the car with him and felt responsible for her safety. Lastly, he felt a little threatened by the presence of the helicopters with armed men on board. He continued driving, thinking about what he had just witnessed. About a mile on there was a lay-by and he was able to pull over. However this was still surrounded by an embankment and he was unable to see the surrounding area. He could just make out the helicopters in the distance still circling. At this point he decided to tell Margaret about what he had seen. Once he was back at the farm and was able to check on his computer he looked at a website which confirmed that there had been no aircraft in the area at the time of the sighting. Obviously due to its appearance he did not think it was not a normal aircraft of any kind, but he decided to check anyway. This also confirmed that the military helicopters he had seen were untracked. He searched online for any planned military activities but could not find anything. The following day he was standing in the courtyard of the farm with Margaret discussing what had taken place. They then heard the sound of rotor blades. Looking up they saw what appeared to be a single helicopter of the same type they had seen the previous day hovering motionless in the sky. It had a disc-shaped device of some kind attached to the front of it. This one was flying at a higher altitude than the others had been, around 300 feet. After a few minutes they watched it fly away into the distance. After their discussion, Simon again checked for aircraft in the area on his computer but once more nothing came up, so the helicopter was again untracked. A number of weeks later he once again brought up the incident with Margaret in discussion. He was amazed to find that she could barely recollect what had taken place. He says that this was not at all like her, and despite her age she could usually remember details of incidents very clearly indeed. But for some reason she had almost entirely forgotten about seeing the helicopters over the road or what he had said about the strange object. Incident Analysis This is a very unusual sighting and Simon clearly witnessed something out of the ordinary. There are of course many questions regarding what took place. What could the object have been? Was the presence of the helicopters directly related to this object? If the object was not mundane, was this a military intercept or a pre-arranged event which they knew was going to occur? Was the helicopter seen the following day over the farm spying on him because its pilots were aware that he was a witness? First let’s discuss the object itself. I did initially wonder whether the object could have been something on the ground rather than in the air, such as a temporary construction, perhaps for a movie set. However Simon confirmed that in the few seconds he observed it for he actually saw it descending. When he first spotted it the base of the sphere could be seen above the trees. Several seconds later this had disappeared from view, and due to the short length of road which he drove along in that time I highly doubt this was due to a change in viewing angle. Therefore I believe unusual buildings, temporary or otherwise, can be discounted as the explanation. It was clearly not a normal aircraft of any kind, civilian or military. No aeroplanes or helicopters look anything like what was witnessed, and Simon also confirmed that there had been no tracked aircraft in the vicinity at the time. 360 Radar confirms that the area does fall within controlled airspace, and does not lie within any airways, which decreases the possibility of the object being an untracked aircraft of some kind: It was much too large to be a radio controlled model, drone or novelty balloon. Could it have been a much larger inflatable object? It had a very specific and unusual structure which tends to put the idea of it being a blimp out of the question. However there is a possibility that it was some kind of novelty hot air balloon just coming in to land behind the copse of trees. Simon said that it certainly appeared to be solid and metallic, however this explanation cannot be entirely ruled out, especially given the unusual shape, colouration and the fact that no extreme flight manoeuvres were observed. It seems likely that the helicopters were military in origin due to their colour, lack of markings and the armed individuals sitting inside them. If the object really was nothing more than a hot air balloon then they would of course have had no interest in it. There is also the individual helicopter of the same type observed the following day by the witnesses in the vicinity of the farm. Was the disc-shaped device attached to the front a listening device, and if so was this helicopter actively monitoring what Simon was saying about the object? They may have been able to find out the address the car was registered at and then approached to listen in to conversations. However if this was the case why wait until the following day to do so, surely they could have determined the address much sooner? Perhaps, like the helicopters over the road, it was merely a coincidence. On 20th April 2023 I raised a Freedom Of Information Request with the Ministry Of Defence to inquire as to whether any military exercises were taking place on either of the two known dates/times. On 17th May they came back with an official response: As you can see, the MOD claims that there were no military exercises taking place in the area which took place in the area at the dates/times provided by the witness . They suggested that the helicopters may instead have come from the civilian helicopter training school or police helicopter base at Wolverhampton Half Penny Green Airport. The fact the helicopters contained armed men means the first of these possibilities can immediately be discounted. Using Wayback Machine, a website which allows you to view previous saved versions of webpages, I checked a 2014 version of the the Aircraft FAQ page of the National Police Air Service (NPAS) website: As you can see, the page confirms that back in 2014 NPAS had a fleet of MD902's, a fleet of Eurocopter EC135's and a single EC145. When privately owned it is possible for these helicopter types to be painted in a range of colours, including black. For example here is a photograph of a black coloured MD902: However the FAQ confirms that all of the NPAS helicopters had the standard police navy and yellow colours back in 2014, so their MD902's would have looked like this: The above checks suggest that the helicopters which the witness observed could not have been civilian or NPAS. It should be noted that although the helicopters appeared to be unmarked, the colours of the UFO itself were somewhat similar to police helicopter colours - mostly dark but with bright yellow sections. This might imply that it was police-owned, but if so I have no idea what it could have been. If the object really was some kind of advanced craft, then it is an extremely unusual one. I have never investigated nor heard of any other cases involving a similar shaped craft. If it was, then the pilots of the helicopters must have been aware of its presence, and were potentially there to ensure that nobody stopped or approached it, or were even actively trying to provide a distraction for passing drivers so they wouldn’t spot it in the first place. It is disappointing that Simon is unable to determine the precise location where the incident took place. He says that this has been extremely frustrating. He visited the area about a year after the incident took place to see if he could track down where it happened, but after driving along all of the main roads between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth he could not find the stretch of road they were on at the time. He tried again in 2020 but again failed to find the location, which confuses him greatly. One thing I feel sure of is that Simon observed something that day. This does not come across as a fabricated story, the details provided are too unusual and specific. This is not the only UFO sighting Simon has experienced. As I stated at the start of the report, there are two other sightings of his which I have previously investigated. The first is a sighting of a disc-shaped UFO in 1978 witnessed by him and his wife at the time. Click here to go to the report on this. The second is a Flying Triangle sighting he witnessed in 2012. To go to the case report on this click here. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023