Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 22/04/2020 Theresa got in touch with me via our group’s website to go over a sighting she had of two UFOs back in the 1970s. Sighting Details It was the winter of 1974 and Theresa was 14 years old at the time. She used to regularly attend a gym class held at the gymnasium of Murray Park Community School on Earlswood Drive, Mickleover. On the evening of the incident there was a power cut around 4pm so the gym session was finished early. Theresa rang her father to pick her and a friend (who’s name she cannot remember) up from the end of Earlswood Drive. Due to the time of year it was already fully dark. They waited on the corner of the road looking up the gradually sloping Murray Road to the South West. They kept seeing car headlights appear at the top of the road and drive down towards them, but each time it was other drivers not her father. They then saw two more lights appear at the top of the road. However these looked different to the usual car headlights. They appeared to be about 30 feet above the road at approximately the same height as the tops of the street lights! The two lights were situated diagonal from one another and looked like glowing white discs. Each seemingly had a beam coming down from it to the road below. The two glowing discs were slowly moving in their direction. Theresa immediately realised the lights were not from a road vehicle and exclaimed “That’s a UFO!” She was frightened so after a couple of seconds put her hands up over her eyes for a brief moment. When she looked back the objects and beams had completely vanished! Theresa asked her friend if she had seen them too and her friend simply replied “Yeah.” Theresa doesn’t recall speaking much more about the incident. She did not tell her father when he picked her and her friend up as she felt he would not believe her. She no longer knows the other witness so I am unable to speak with her about what happened. Strangely this was not the only UFO-related incident which happened around that time. Roughly a fortnight before, Theresa was attending a gala in her school hall. She looked up at one of the large windows near the ceiling and saw what appeared to be a glowing dark orange cigar-shaped object. She immediately exclaimed to her teacher “Look there’s a UFO outside!” Her teacher replied “Don’t be so silly!” and informed her that it must be the moon. Theresa cannot recall what happened after this but feels sure that her teacher did not bother to look themselves. Sighting Analysis The incident that happened after the power cut is intriguing. Due to the height of the glowing disc-shaped lights or objects they could not have been headlights of an approaching car. If they were attached to a taller vehicle such as a lorry or bus surely the girls would have seen this vehicle continue down the road and drive past them? Yet they seemingly vanished in moments. There are no side roads towards then end of the street which a larger vehicle could have quickly turned down. Also you would expect these lights to be level with one another as opposed to diagonal. The fact that her friend saw the discs too shows that they were actually present. However it is a mystery as to where they went, and this remains a brief but interesting sighting. It’s hard to know what to make of Theresa’s previous sighting at the school gala. While her description does not sound anything like the moon, on occasion this can appear orange in colour and larger than usual when viewed from certain angles and under certain atmospheric conditions. It appeared to be stationary so perhaps this really was what she saw outside. Due to the briefness of the sighting there is no way to know for sure. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 19/04/2020 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In March 2020 Patrick got in touch with me by our Facebook community page to report a sighting he had at 5am of many star-like objects crossing the sky over Gloucester in clustered groups. Later on the same day a second report of the same objects came in via our website. After looking into the details I feel confident that the objects were Starlink satellites launched as part of Elon Musk’s Space X programme. When I rang Patrick to discuss the explanation for his sighting, he also covered three other previous sightings which are harder to explain. This report covers these three sightings in depth. First UFO Formation Sighting In the early 1970s Patrick lived in Springfield, Chelmsford with his parents. It was the autumn of 1972 / 73 when Patrick was 12 or 13 years old (He thinks October but can’t be certain). It was 7pm in the evening and he was out on his bike riding around the housing estate on Aldeburgh Way with his next door neighbour. Due to the time of year it was already dark and the stars were out. It was very quiet and there were no other pedestrians around. Patrick looked up into the sky and noticed a cluster of points of light directly overhead. They looked similar to stars in appearance. There was between 30-40 of them and they appeared to be at high altitude. The objects were moving extremely rapidly in different directions, sometimes stopping abruptly for periods of time or performing sudden sharp right angle turns. Both he and his neighbour were fascinated by the objects. Unfortunately they did not have a camera on them, and Patrick doubts it would have picked up the objects anyway. After watching them for a period of time all of the objects suddenly vanished at once. Then a few seconds later they all reappeared. This happened a number of times during the sighting. After watching them for about 10 minutes they decided to ride back home, with the objects still visible above them in the sky. This is an interesting sighting due to the movements the objects were performing. I asked Patrick if he felt the objects could have been explained as light from the ground reflecting off a flock of birds. He said that the movements the objects were making were too sharp and sudden to be birds. Due to these movements and the speed of the objects a tethered bunch of helium balloons from a celebration can also be discounted, and there were far too many objects for them to have been a formation of high altitude helicopters. Egg-Shaped UFO Photograph By 2005 Patrick had become an antiques dealer. In the summertime he visited Venice to deliver some glass to an antiques gallery. It was a clear, sunny and still day. He was walking around Venice island when he arrived at the edge with a view over Venetian Lagoon with a view back across to the mainland. Roughly half way across the water, about a mile from his location, he noticed a chrome silver coloured object. The sunlight was reflecting off its surface. It appeared to be about 200 feet up and 8-10 foot in diameter. The object was the shape of an egg positioned vertically with the top narrower than the base. At first Patrick thought it must be a balloon. However he soon realised the object appeared to be completely stationary. He looked away from it a moment. When he looked back at first he couldn’t see it, but then spotted it again a bit further away. Once again it appeared to be stationary, although it had certainly moved from its initial position. Patrick got his camera out and took a single photograph of the object. He looked down at the camera screen to see if he had caught it, but it was nowhere to be seen on the image. When he looked back up the object had completely vanished from sight. This was unusual as it was a clear day and there was nowhere for it to have gone. He did not notice anyone else looking out over the water from his location, but due to the fact it was seen in daylight there is the possibility of other witnesses. When Patrick got back home he uploaded the photograph to his computer. Zooming in on the photograph he realised he had managed to capture the object, but it was very small indeed. It is good that Patrick managed to take a photograph of the object, even at a distance, as it confirms it was definitely present. Patrick is currently unable to provide the photograph as it is storage and he is unable to visit this due to Coronavirus. Once I receive it I will update this report with it. Despite the fact that object appeared to be stationary whenever he was observing it, I feel that a silver-coloured inflatable cannot be entirely ruled out. It certainly seemed to have changed position when he glanced away temporarily. And perhaps when it vanished for good it had merely drifted slowly out of sight away from him. It was clearly not a very large object and it did not perform any significant manoeuvres which would indicate it was under intelligent control. Second UFO Formation Sighting By 2010 Patrick had moved to a house in Richmond, Surrey. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and he had gone out to an area of grassland called Ham Common with his partner Joanna. They were lying down on the grass and looking up at the blue sky. Directly overhead Patrick suddenly noticed a cluster of metallic or pale grey objects at very high altitude. There were between 10-15 of these objects and they were moving back and forth around one another. The movements were less direct than the objects he had seen back in the 1970s. Patrick pointed them out to Joanna. At first she found it hard to see them as it was day time and they were so high up but eventually she was able to spot them. They both continued to watch the objects for about 15 minutes. After this time they were no longer able to see them. It is possible they had ascended to a higher altitude out of sight. Neither of them had a camera on them at the time, and Patrick doubts it would have picked them up due to the altitude they were at. While this is again an interesting and prolonged sighting of a formation of UFOs, I feel that in this case a cluster of tethered helium balloons cannot be ruled out. These could have slowly drifted up into the sky and were continuing to rise until they vanished from sight. Patrick says that the movements looked more like drifting rather than artificial and controlled. Another possibility is a flock of birds however they did watch them for 15 minutes, it seems unlikely that birds would remain in the same area of sky for this length of time. Conclusion Patrick has had a number of intriguing sightings. It is interesting that he initially came to me with a sighting of a formation of objects which were identified, but two of his previous sightings were also of groupings of many objects which are harder to explain. It is also great that he managed to photograph the silver coloured UFO (albeit at a distance), and I look forward to analysing it in due course once Patrick is able to obtain it! If you have any additional information relating to any of these incidents please get in touch. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

In light of recent announcements regarding Coronavirus I have decided in the best interests of the health of BUFOG members to postpone all meetings & sky watches until further notice. I will keep everyone updated here, on Facebook and via our phone texting service. Case investigations and report uploads will continue as normal.

The IFOs page has now been updated with additional content to cover SpaceX Starlink satellite launches and smoke rings. As always, if you have a sighting of something unusual in the sky it's a good idea to check mundane possibilities before considering other options!

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 04/03/2020 On the evening of 27th February 2020 a man named Martin got in touch with me via the BUFOG website to report that he had just seen a UFO hovering over Plymouth, probably over the harbour, and to ask if other reports had come in relating to it. He reported seeing a very bright white glowing orb of light he believed to be over the harbour which had the same brightness as the moon. At first he thought it was moving in a figure of eight pattern, but as he looked closer he determined its movement pattern was more likely tight circles and that it was hovering or potentially rotating. He deduced that it could not be a helicopter because the light coming from it was too bright, it was silent, it was hovering above the cloud layer (helicopters tend to keep to a lower altitude) and was staying put for an extensive period of time. It could not have been a plane as these only move on a continuous flight path. It is unknown how long the witness observed the light for, but he informed me that he did manage to record it on video. Unfortunately he is yet to respond to my E-mail responses so this is the only information known at present. If he sends me the video footage it will be included in this report with analysis and further details will be added as necessary. While Martin’s logic is sound, and it is clear that he has thought hard about what he was looking at, I do not believe that a helicopter can entirely be ruled out as the explanation. Helicopters on patrol are known to sometimes hover in one place, and while they generally fly below the cloud layer on this occasion one may not have been. Also if it was quite distant then the noise of the rotor blades may not have been heard. I will need to receive further information to comment further. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 11/03/2020 In February 2020 I was invited to give a lecture at New Horizons group in St Annes. During the evening I met a lady named Kathryn who mentioned she had experienced a sighting back in the 1960s. I ran out of time to discuss things further but soon afterwards got back in touch to discuss the incident in depth. Sighting Details The sighting happened some point between late 1968 and early 1969. At the time Kathryn was in the army and stationed at the Royal Engineers Army Camp at Barton Stacey. On the night of the incident, she had been out from camp for the evening (Kathryn confirmed that she had not had any alcohol). She was walking back to the camp on her own some point between midnight and 1am. She was walking North along the edge of A34 and just approaching the Bullington Cross roundabout where the A34 and A303 meet. It was a calm, dry and pleasant night. Due to the time of night there was very little traffic on the road. Kathryn began to hear a low undulating droning sound coming from her right from behind a row of poplar trees on the far side of the road. She stopped walking and stared to the East towards the sound. She then saw what the sound was coming from. As she watched, a line of roughly six white lights appeared. They were about 200 feet off the ground and travelling in her direction at around 10 mph. There appeared to ba about 10 feet between each light. Kathryn watched as the lights passed over the top of the trees, across the road and right overhead. She could not see anything linking them together but they kept precisely the same distance apart from one another. Kathryn got the distinct impression that the lights were attached to a single larger object, however it was impossible to see this as it was dark. She continued to watch for a number of minutes as the lights glided away parallel to the A303 to the West at a constant speed. Unfortunately she did not have a camera with her at the time. After the lights had moved out of sight she continued walking back to the army camp. She did not tell anyone about what she had witnessed. Sighting Analysis Kathryn’s sighting is fascinating and hard to explain away as something mundane. The row of lights could not have been a formation of helicopters. The witness was in the armed forces and was familiar with how helicopters both appear and sound at a distance. There were no other navigation lights visible, and at 200 feet up it would have easily been possible to see these. The sound coming from the lights was also completely unfamiliar to the witness. They were moving too slowly to have been a formation of other aircraft. Lit inflatables are out of the question. Firstly this sighting happened decades before LED balloons existed. They were the wrong colour for Chinese lanterns and also balloons or lanterns would certainly have drifted a bit rather than maintained a constant position from one another for the duration of the sighting. They would also not have been making any sound at all. It is unfortunate that Kathryn could not see the main body of the object, even just a shape blocking out the night sky. Because of this we have no way of verifying whether it really was a single object or whether it was a formation of smaller lit objects which were keeping an accurate distance from one another. Either way it is likely that this was something out of the ordinary, and I would like to thank Kathryn for coming forward with this information. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 09/03/2020 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In February 2020 someone under the moniker of “M” got in touch with me via our group’s website to report details of a sighting they had back in 2010. Sighting Details Back in 2010 M lived in Redditch. It was roughly 10 pm on the 5th November and they were watching nearby fireworks being set off from an upper window in their three storey house. Out of the corner of their vision, they suddenly noticed a glowing orange shape, translucent and bright yet solid at the same time. It appeared to be about the size of a small car and was floating about 20 feet off the ground. It was hovering and gliding slowly along on the opposite side of the road, and M froze in disbelief at what they were looking at. As they watched, another glowing orange object seemed to emerge from the first and then began to follow the same flight path. This second object seemed intelligent, as if it was looking for something. It followed along the path, then manoeuvred to the left of their house and hovered in front of a nearby bedroom window. Then suddenly it vanished from sight. The first object had also now disappeared. M spent weeks watching to see if they would return but they never did. Sighting Analysis The most probable explanation for what was seen was a couple of Chinese lanterns gliding along at low altitude. The witness specifically mentioned lanterns in their statement, going by the logic that they could not have been these as they were too large in size and seemingly intelligently controlled. On this occasion the witness had a point of reference for the objects as they were low down and hovering in front of nearby houses, reducing the chance of inaccuracies regarding size and distance. However it is possible that these were particularly large lanterns, and the glowing light from within them could have made them appear larger than they in fact were. The incident took place late evening on bonfire night. While lanterns are quite uncommon these days due to them being removed from general sale as they are a fire risk, ten years ago they were extremely popular and would often be launched, especially on celebrations. It is unlikely the second object actually emerged from the first, it could just as easily been hidden from view behind it and then changed course or speed, giving the appearance of coming from it. The manoeuvres may have appeared intelligent to the witness but could just have been caused by random drift in air currents. Lanterns often follow along the same path as one another and can sometimes come to a halt. Also the way in which they suddenly disappeared also fits with this explanation. When the flame inside a lantern burns out it can no longer be seen after dark, giving the impression that it has completely vanished. While the idea that the objects were lanterns cannot be 100% I feel there are enough aspects in this case which make this the most probable explanation. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 04/03/2020 In late February I gave a talk at New Horizons paranormal group based at St Annes. During one of the breaks I met a man named Aaron who informed me of an unusual UFO sighting he had experienced back in the summer of 2018. Sighting Details It was around 3.30pm on a bright, pleasant and still day in August 2018. Aaron had gone out for a walk. When he is out he often checks the skies for anything out of the ordinary. He was walking West along School Road and just heading past St Nicholas Primary School. Suddenly for some reason he felt compelled to turn around. When he did, in the distance he noticed a black object in the sky slightly off to the left of the road. He could not immediately identify it as a plane or helicopter, and was intrigued as to what it could be. He began to walk back East along School Road. As he got closer to the object he began to see it in more detail. It appeared to be a flattened black coloured disc. In the middle of the underside of the object was a bright blue light which was constantly lit. On the left side of the object a fin-like shape also protruded. There were no markings or other lights visible. The object appeared to be about the size of a small helicopter, perhaps 15 feet across. It seemed to be at an altitude of about 200 feet. The UFO seemed to be hovering near to some trees off to the left of the road on the far side of the crossroads with Midgeland Road. He had his mobile phone on him at the time with a camera, but he did not attempt to photograph or video the object as he was more interested in watching it. Aaron informed me that the camera on his phone is quite low quality and it may not have picked it up anyway. As he continued walking it moved slightly to the right and then was lost from view, seemingly having descended down behind the trees out of sight. As he continued along the road he rang his grandfather who was in Newcastle at the time. He said “I’ve just seen something really seriously strange. Wasn’t a plane or a drone or a helicopter.” His grandfather asked him to describe what it looked like, which he did. A number of minutes later Aaron crossed over Midgeland Road and entered the field on the far side which contained the copse of trees. However when he arrived at them there was no sign of the object anywhere, it had completely disappeared. There were two other people walking nearby but he did not ask them if they’d seen anything as it looked like they hadn’t. He was convinced the object he had seen was not a conventional aircraft of any kind due to its unusual shape and bright blue light. It also appeared much too large to be a drone or UFO shaped radio controlled model. Sighting Analysis This is quite an unusual sighting due to the blue light in the base of the object and odd fin-shape protruding from one side. I have dealt with other cases before involving disc or cigar-shaped craft with small extensions protruding from them, but they are quite rare. What could the object have been? It was clearly not a helicopter, and was hovering still for too long to have been an aircraft. There is the possibility that it was some kind of unusual lit inflatable, such as a custom-made solar airship. The object did not perform any advanced manoeuvres which would suggest it was under intelligent control. Solar airships are black in colour and always launched on sunny days as this is required to heat up the air inside them. However they are generally cylindrical in shape and do not have any lights on them. Also Aaron thoroughly searched the area of trees which it had seemingly descended into or behind and found nothing. Surely if it was an inflatable that had descended to the ground it would have been quite obvious given the size? As this sighting took place mid-afternoon on a sunny day there is the possibility other witnesses may have also seen it, although Aaron did not spot anyone who looked like candidates for this. It remains a compelling mystery. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 03/03/2020 On 10th February 2020 I was invited to give a talk at New Horizons at St Annes. During the evening I was approached by numerous people who wanted to share their UFO experiences with me. One of these individuals was a gentleman named Andrew who informed me of a fascinating sighting of multiple UFO formations he had experienced the previous year. Sighting Details Andrew lives on Inner Promenade, St Annes, close to the Eastern end of Fairhaven Lake, which is situated close to the edge of Granny’s Bay. He often likes to lie down on the front driveway of his house and sky watch after dark. On a Friday or Saturday night in either September or October 2019 he was doing just this. It was between 11pm – 1am. Andrew was lying down on the drive while his wife was inside the house. It was a very clear, still and mild night with the stars fully visible overhead. He was staring straight upward when suddenly three objects smoothly glided overhead. Each object was triangular in shape and glowing with a dim white light. They were positioned in a triangular formation, with one at the front followed by two behind. They appeared to be completely silent. Andrew believes they were about 25-30 feet across. The objects seemed to be about 700-1000 feet in the air, and he estimates they were moving at about 150 mph. They were heading on a Southerly course. As soon as he spotted the objects flying overhead he thought to himself “What the fuck’s that?” He sat up and watched as the objects disappeared out of sight, seemingly heading out over the bay. They were visible for no more than 10 seconds and before long had vanished into the darkness. Andrew questioned what he had just seen. They did not appear to have been normal aircraft of any kind, and appeared to have been low enough to have been able to hear sound if there was any coming from them. He considered whether they could have been birds reflecting lights from the ground but this did not fit either for a number of reasons. Firstly he was used to seeing these fly overhead on previous occasions. The objects he had just seen seemed too angular and there was no sign of movement coming from them. Also when he had seen birds previously they would usually come in to land on the lake and he would hear the noise of them splashing into the water, but on this occasion there was just silence. He was convinced they had carried on flying out over the sea. He lay back down and continued to wonder about the objects. About 5 minutes passed by. Suddenly he was amazed to see another formation fly overhead! This time there were five of the objects – one at the front, two behind and then three behind them. Everything else about the sighting remained the same – the size, shape and colour of the objects, the speed and direction they were moving in! As they flew overhead the middle one at the rear appeared to move a little to create a precise formation. Andrew was astounded. He had just seen two groupings of objects he could not identify. He wondered if anyone else in the area had also seen them. He went inside the house and called his wife, saying to her “You’ll never guess what I’ve just seen. Come on out!” She joined him and they both headed back outside onto the driveway. They stared up into the sky while Andrew recounted what had just taken place. They waited for about 5 minutes but there were no further sightings of anything out of the ordinary. It was getting quite cold so they decided to head back inside. Andrew wishes that he was able to capture the objects on camera but he did not have one on him at the time, he was just out there to relax and look up at the stars. Sighting Analysis This is certainly an interesting sighting. As Andrew himself realised, these did not appear to be conventional aircraft of any kind, military or otherwise. It seems improbable that they were birds as it would have been possible to see their wings flapping and they would not have appeared so straight edged. The objects could not have been Chinese lanterns as they were the wrong shape, and also lanterns tend to glow a fiery orange colour rather than white. It is interesting to wonder whether the objects were picked up on radar. If this was a very recent sighting and we had a more accurate date and time it would have been possible to contact the nearby airport to ask this very question, although even if something had been detected they may well have not revealed this information anyway. I have dealt with a number of cases on previous occasions involving formations of triangular and oval shaped UFOs, so while uncommon this incident is far from unique. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 13/01/2020 In September 2019 I was invited to speak at the Supernatural Fayre, a day of paranormal talks and market stalls at Worcester. One of the attendees of my talk was a man named Michael. He informed me that he had a couple of experiences he wished to go over with me. While we did not have enough time to go over the details on the day itself we got in touch via phone soon afterwards to discuss them further. Michael has informed me that is very intuitive, practices reiki and is a psychic medium. While the details of this side of his life have been omitted from this report on request, it is interesting to note as many contactees report having one or more psychic abilities. Note: For reasons of anonymity certain details have been omitted. Grey Visitation Michael used to work at a snooker club in Droitwich. Late one evening in 2010 he was just preparing to leave and head for home around 10.30pm. Suddenly he felt the definite presence of four unseen entities standing around him. He sensed they were tall in height and felt quite intimidating. When he left the building he could sense that they were following him. He got back into his car and drove the two miles to his house, still with the feeling that the entities were there with him. Even in his home he could still sense them. He tried to ignore their presence and got into bed. Somehow he was able to drop off. However something woke him up at roughly 3am. When he opened his eyes it was now that he finally saw the beings. There were two of them standing along each side of the bed. They were about 8 feet tall and their skin was grey in colour. They appeared to be unclothed but wrapped in some kind of smooth casing. Their faces were humanoid but without hair or ears. The beings were bent over staring down at him. Michael was terrified. He quickly pulled the duvet cover over his head. He doesn’t know how long he remained there but the next thing he became aware of was waking up in the morning. The atmosphere of the room had completely gone back to normal and he could no longer sense the presence of the entities. Michael informed me that he has sensed spirits before but these entities felt different. He feels convinced that he had an experience involving ET beings. There are numerous aspects of this experience which fit closely with it being a visitation by four tall Greys. Many contactees have reported feeling the presence of something prior to having experiences, this is a common aspect of contact. Could Michael have sensed these beings watching him hours before they finally appeared? The appearance of the beings certainly fits with them being Greys. It is possible that the “casing” which Michael describes was his interpretation of the smooth skin of the beings. It is unknown whether any further interaction took place. As memories of contact experiences can sometimes be entirely removed it is possible that Michael was abducted but currently has no recollection of what happened. Invisible UFO One Saturday in 2015 Rob had finished his shift at the snooker club and was on his way back home in his car around mid-day. It was a clear and sunny day with no clouds in the sky. As he approached a set of traffic lights he suddenly felt the sensation of something large but unseen in the sky drop down in front of his car. The strength of this feeling actually caused him to flinch and duck in his seat! He sat back up and saw a huge shadow appear from the right side of the road. It passed across the road from right to left roughly 8 feet in front of the car. There was nothing visible in the sky which could account for the shadow, but whatever was casting it appeared to be quite large in size, possibly 40 feet across. Michael quickly got out of the car to see if he could spot the source of the shadow but there was nothing which could account for it. He watched as it moved along the pathway and then faded away. There was nothing more to do but to get back in the car and continue his journey home. Michael feels that the shadow was of a UFO hovering over the road which could not be seen by the naked eye but which was blocking the sunlight. Conclusions It is interesting that these two experiences are both quite different from one another but both include things not visibly seen (at least at first). The beings which Michael saw in 2010 are likely to have been Greys. It is possible that the shadow he saw in 2015 was being cast by a cloaked craft of some kind, however this of course cannot be verified. It is unknown whether the two incidents are in some way linked with one another or not. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 17/12/2019 Helicopter Intercept In his twenties Rob would regulary go fishing with Mick on the pier at Helensburgh, 10 miles from Dumbarton. They would often stay up the whole night fishing for cod and then travel home in the morning. On a Saturday evening in November 1988 they caught the train to Helensburgh with the intention of fishing till the following morning. They got there around 5pm. There were lots of other people around on the pier at that time but as the evening went on there were less and less around until it was just them standing in the darkness. They had warm clothes and a bottle of Whiskey to see them through the night. It was overcast with low lying cloud cover but quite still. Behind them at the edge of the town Rob heard the familiar sound of taxis leaving the nearby taxi rank. This meant that the pubs had closed and it was about midnight. He then began to hear a regular ticking noise in the distance. He moved his head around and worked out that the sound was coming from the direction of Rhu along the coastline to the North West. The noise began to get louder. Rob then realised what it was. He said to Mick “Do you know what that is? That’s a helicopter! It’s actually coming down the water’s edge.” They then caught sight of it in the distance against the base of the cloud layer which was reflecting the lights of Helensburgh. They soon noticed that there were no navigation lights visible on it, it appeared to be flying dark. As it got closer they realised it was a military helicopter and that it was flying at full speed, with its nose dipped down towards the ground. Rob exclaimed “This thing’s coming directly towards us! If he doesn’t elevate soon he’s going to crash straight into this pier!” As soon as he had said this it started to gain altitude. It was now only about a hundred feet away from them along the beach. As it got close to the pier both Rob and Mick looked up to watch it fly overehead. It was now that they noticed a disc-shaped object in the sky directly over them! It looked completely black silhouetted against the cloud. It appeared to be about 300 feet above them and about 12 feet in diameter. The disc remained motionless for several seconds but then suddenly began moving away from them to the South West. As it began to head out across the estuary it picked up speed until it was going a little faster than the helicopter was flying at (Rob estimates about 50mph faster). They watched as the helicopter turned, clearly giving chase to the object. Both the disc and the helicopter flew off into the distance in the direction of Greenock. After seeing the UFO both Rob and Mick became very un-easy and felt a little vulnerable in their current location. They decided to reel their fishing rods in and head into the town. However it was now 12.30am and all the trains and buses to Dumbarton had stopped running. At the Co-Op on Sinclair Street they found a loading bay for delivery trucks and decided to rest there for the remainder of the night until morning. This felt preferable to remaining on the pier, despite the fact that they had nothing to do to pass the time, which highlights how uncomfortable they were feeling with the situation. In the morning when the trains finally began to run again they caught an early one back home. Caravan Nightmare Further along the coastline North West of Rhu is Gare Loch. The A814 runs along the Northern edge of the Loch. The road is usually very quiet as the only people who tend to use it are MOD staff on the way to Fastlane submarine base which is situated at the North West end of the Loch or residents of the sporadic properties in the area. A third of the way along the edge of the Loch is a gradually sloping hill which leads to Blairvadach stately home. This is used by the Council Office Planning Department. Part of the grounds of the estate were used for camping, and Mick’s dad Jimmy owned a caravan there. When he wasn’t using it himself, Jimmy would let Mick, his brother Raymond and Rob stay in it overnight. They would regularly take a boat out from Blairvadach Outdoor Education Centre, go out fishing on the loch in the day and then return to the caravan for the evening. One weekend they were out fishing when it begin to spit with a light rain. They decided to call it a day before the rain got any heavier. They tied up the boat at the boating centre and walked across the road to the caravan field. On arrival they put some music on and sat down for a relaxing evening with a few drinks. The main window end window of the van faced in a North Westerly direction with a view of part of the field including the six foot high hedge that separated it from the A814. There were also two smaller side windows. The curtains of the right side window were closed but the main window and left side window were uncovered. It was between 11pm-midnight and very dark outside. However it was possible to see the road due to the occasional street lights along it and the lights from the nearby Outdoor Education Centre. Looking out of the main window, Raymond suddenly remarked “Look at this guy here!” He drew Rob’s attention to a figure in the distance on the opposite side of the hedge. The figure appeared to be slowly heading in their direction and on the path alongside the edge of the road. But something wasn’t right. The figure seemed to be much too tall. It was possible to see them down to their waistline. But the hedge itself was 6 foot high, and was also at an elevated height of several feet from the road, so this meant that the figure would have to be about 15 foot in height. Rob’s immediate thought was that it must be someone hanging out of the top of a sunroof of a car which for one reason or another was travelling on the pavement instead of the road, and was out of sight behind the hedge. This was the only way he could rationalise what he was seeing. He looked down to the base of the hedge to see if there were any car lights visible but there was just darkness. The figure got closer and closer, moving at a constant speed. They got to about 25 feet away from the caravan. It was now possible to see features. The figure was wearing a black outfit. Its face was grey coloured, almost sickly looking. Its eyes were dark, almost like they were sunken into the head. Rob realised in that instant that he recognised this figure. It was the same being that had touched him on the shoulder back in 1971! He turned to Raymond and said “That’s the guy from Househillmuir Road!” He, Raymond and Mick stared out at the being as it continued along the path. There was no motion of movement in its upper body, it was as though it was drifting along at a constant speed rather than physically walking. Rob recalled that the being he had seen back in 1971 was about 5 feet in height. If this was indeed the same being then it must have been 10 feet off the ground to be able to see it as they were. This meant that it was either standing on something out of sight behind the hedge, or as Rob suspected was floating in mid-air. The being continued moving along the path. It went out of sight from the main window of the caravan. Rob, Raymond and Mick continued to watch it though the left side window. It was now only about 10 feet away from the van. As it was in alignment with them its head turned very slowly until it was looking right at them. Rob says the way that it did this was so eerie. It did not stop but continued until it was out of sight. The three witnesses began to discuss what they had just seen. Then without warning the caravan started to shake! There were loud thudding sounds like something was banging against it. With the thudding came a high pitched screaming sound which was horrifying to listen to. Rob, Raymond and Mick soon realised that the sounds and banging were coming from the right side of the van. Raymond slowly walked towards the right side window and pulled back the curtain. They were all shocked at what they saw. There was the face of a sheep pushed up against the glass! The sheep was terrified and letting out the screaming sounds. The thuds were its legs bashing against the outside of the van. The window was at least four feet off the ground. Something was lifting the sheep up into the air and pressing it forcefully against the window. Raymond backed away from the window in horror and the curtain fell back down. Immediately the banging and screaming sounds ceased. They never re-opened the curtain to see whether it was still there. All three witnesses were deeply un-nerved about what had just taken place. But Mick was especially affected by the series of events that had unfolded. He began briskly looking through all the cupboards of the caravan until he found some blue coloured rope. He then started to tie the latches of the door and all of the windows closed. By the time he had finished there was rope crossing the van like a spider web. He was clearly in a panicked state and wanted to make sure that the being did not come into the van. When he had finally finished and was happy everything was locked down he went and sat underneath the table. All three of them stayed awake all night. They were so frightened about what had happened that none of them got any sleep. They spent most of it discussing what had taken place. Around 6am when the morning light started to appear they discussed what to do. They were still nervous about going outside but decided it was time to get out of there. They untied the rope from the caravan door and all left together. There was no sign of the sheep outside. Usually they would catch a bus back to Helensburgh but it was too early for that. So they walked back to the town and caught a train home from there. There are many unusual and un-nerving aspects to what happened here. Why could the Grey be seen over the hedge? Was it really floating in the air? I have investigated other cases where Greys have been seen to float so this is not out of the question. It seems extremely likely that it was either there specifically for Rob, or perhaps for Mick and Raymond too. But if so why did it float along the path past the caravan instead of coming towards it (or even appearing inside it directly)? It clearly sensed they were looking at it as it turned to look back at them. Why would it travel along the path then vanish from sight and never re-appear? There is no suggestion that the witnesses were abducted. Maybe this was the original intention but due to the reactions of the witnesses this was called off, we will never know for sure. What happened with the sheep is truly horrifying. Why was it being lifted up into the air and pushed against the window? Was there some kind of energy doing this? Perhaps there was a craft over the van or in the vicinity and what was happening to the sheep was un-intentional. Perhaps the being was doing this using its mind or even physically picking it up. But if so why? To frighten the witnesses? If so, to what end? Why did this stop as soon as Raymond had put the curtain back down? Was this merely coincidence or something more? And what happened to the sheep? It clearly didn’t die as it was not lying on the grass outside of the van in the morning. Could it have been abducted aboard a craft and this is why the noises and banging instantly stopped? Or had it merely been dropped and then it ran off back to its own field? These are just some of the unanswered questions surrounding this fascinating yet disturbing incident. Night-Time Disc Robs older brother James sadly passed away in early February 1992. After he died Rob felt it was his duty to keep in touch with people who had known him throughout his life. One of his brother’s friends was named Peter. On an evening in late February Rob went round to visit him at his house on Flanders Street, Clydebank. When Rob arrived Peter was busy feeding his many pets. After he had finished they decided to take his pet Doberman out for a walk. At the end of Flanders Street is a small park. Beyond this is some open grassland. Peter’s dog would enjoy playing on this, so Rob and Peter made their way to the edge of it. The sun had already set but there was a perfectly clear star-filled sky overhead. It was still and not particularly cold. Rob and Peter stood at the top of the hill and let the dog loose to run onto the grassland. The only artificial light was a slight orange glow coming from Faifley Road behind them. In the direction they were facing there were just rural farmers’ fields. As they looked up at the stars the men suddenly noticed something up in the sky off ahead and to the left of them. There was a patch of stars which were clearly being blocked out by something solid. This patch seemed to grow and grow as it approached until it was right overhead. Rob knew exactly what it was – there was another disc directly above them! It had descended which is why it appeared had appeared to grow in size. It appeared to only be about 20 feet above them, just above the tree line. Looking up at the object they could make out no lines or markings, it was just a silhouette. They were only able to see three quarters of the object, it had descended so low that the furthest edge was obscured from view by foliage. Rob estimates it was about 25-30 feet in diameter. Without warning many very intense beams of white light suddenly appeared all around the rim radiating outward. As they shone they slowly rotated in an anti-clockwise direction and moved up and down in a fan-like motion. The beams lit up everything in the surroundings – the trees, insects flying in the air, even the buildings on the corner of Auchnacraig Road. Rob could barely believe what was happening. He turned to Peter and exclaimed “We are either blessed or cursed here!” The beams shone for about 30 seconds before all going out at once. Then the disc began moving away to the North East East in the direction of Milngaive. It travelled quite slowly, Rob estimates about 20-25 mph. As it moved away into the distance they were able to see a bit more of the object’s shape. It was flat on the base but gradually domed on top. The men watched it until it was out of sight. Unfortunately neither of them had a camera on them and back in the early 90s camera-enabled smartphones did not exist. Peter was quite un-nerved by what took place. After the incident he did not get back in touch with Rob, and seemed to be avoiding him on purpose. Rob has not kept in touch with him and so I am unable to speak with him about what he recollects. Distant UFO Sighting In the 90s Rob used to go out fishing on Loch Fyne with various friends. On one occasion he went there with his friend Gordon, Tony and Tony’s wife Tina. He had told his friends about his previous experiences. Gordon and Tina were quite open minded but Tony was very sceptical. It was late afternoon and the sun was starting to set. They decided to end their fishing excursion and return to the camp where they would be staying for the night. They lit a bonfire and then sat around it chatting. On the far side of the loch about a mile away is a road. From their camping location they would often see headlights of passing cars after dark which would appear and then disappear as the vehicles moved behind the trees and hills. It was now fully dark. Tony spotted a bright white light above the road and trees. He pointed it out asking “Is that a helicopter?” The light was quite dazzling to look directly at. It sat stationary above the trees. To the right hand side of it there was a reddish glow. The main beam of light was really intense. There were no visible navigation lights which would usually be seen on a distant helicopter. Also they were in a valley and it would have easily been possible to hear the rotor blades. The object appeared to be completely silent. Rob replied “That’s not a helicopter, it’s something else!” The object remained stationary for several minutes. Then it began to slowly move to the right. It began to gain altitude keeping in line with the hillside and then disappeared. In total they had watched it for about 10-12 minutes. As with previous sightings nobody had brought a camera with them, and in this case the object was probably too distant to photograph anyway. The Disappearing Men Rob remembers the exact date that this unusual incident took place because it was his son’s 5th birthday – 1st June 2001. At the time his ex used to look after his son during the week and he would have him at weekends. Rob was living in Cardross, and each weekend he would pick up his son from his sister’s house on Jean Armour Drive, Clydebank. As he did not drive he used to get the train to Drumry train station and then walk from there. As usual he picked up his son around mid-day from his sister’s then began walking back towards the station with him. Their route took them Southward along Clarence Street, a gradually sloping straight road with Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses Church at the end corner. It was a really pleasant sunny and clear day, and there was very little traffic on the road. They were walking along the pavement on the left side of the road. At the base of the road on the far side the church was visible in the distance. As they reached the T-junction with Melfort Avenue, Rob noticed a man leaning against the white wall which runs alongside the boundary of the church. He was bent over forwards with both hands pressed against the wall. Standing next to him were two other men. Rob assumed that the man leaning over was ill in some way and the other men were there to assist him. As they continued down the hill Rob was able to see the three men more clearly. Strangely the man leaning against the wall was wearing what looked like a salmon-pink coloured robe which went right down to his feet! Rob was not able to make out his face but he could see that he had long hair. The two other men looked identical to one another. They were both about 7 feet tall. Their skin looked pale and their faces had a chiselled appearance. Again their clothing was unusual. They were both wearing what appeared to be green coloured body warmers and black trousers. This was especially bizarre considering how warm a day it was, their clothing looked completely inappropriate. Rob was intrigued and so crossed over the road and continued down the hill towards the men. Suddenly the two tall men began moving towards him and his son. One of them stepped into the road while the other remained on the pavement. They both began marching up the hill! As they got nearer the man on the pavement also stepped out onto the road. They continued briskly walking, staring directly at Rob as they approached. Rob kept shifting his eyes between the two tall men and the third man who was still leaning against the wall. Within moments they had reached them. But the men did not react or do anything they just continued marching right past them out in the road. Rob kept glancing at them as they moved. He glanced back towards the church and then saw that the third man had stopped leaning on the wall and was walking down to the far corner of the road away from him. When he glanced back the two tall men had vanished without trace! There was nowhere they could have gone to in the space of time Rob had looked away. Deeply puzzled by what had just happened he wanted to catch up with the remaining man in the robes. He briskly continued down the road with his son. The man reached the corner of the church and turned right onto Montrose Street, vanishing from sight. Within seconds Rob had caught up and also walked round the corner – and just like the two tall men the third man had now also gone. Rob was extremely frustrated at this fact and mystified as to what had just occurred. Due to the clothing the man had been wearing it would have been easy to spot him but he had vanished. Rob checked every car, every doorway in the nearby area just to make sure he had not stepped out of view but it was no use. The incident bothered Rob for a long time. He knew something very odd had happened but had no idea as to why it occurred. He even wondered if it was somehow religious in nature due to the fact the men had been initially standing alongside the church, although I feel that this could easily have just been coincidental and might not be anything to do with who the men were. Due to Rob’s many other contact related experiences there is definitely a possibility that these men were humanoid ETs, which would explain how they were able to suddenly vanish. However what they were doing there or why they approached but did not interact directly with Rob remains a mystery. Another Orb In 2007 Rob moved into a house on Alsatian Avenue, Clydebank with his partner Julie. For a couple of years nothing out of the ordinary occurred there. But one early evening in the autumn of either 2009 or 2010 things another incident took place. At the time Rob was considering setting up a video channel on Justin.tv to broadcast videos discussing some of his previous experiences. He had purchased a cheap web cam and was in the process of setting it up on the top of his computer monitor. He had already plugged it in so he could see himself on the screen, and the part of the living room immediately behind him. Suddenly he saw a fiery orange orb of light enter the frame. It looked to be between his computer chair and the couch and was about a foot off the floor. It was about the size of a football. It appeared to slow to a halt for a second. Surprised by the presence of the orb, Rob turned round to see it with his own eyes. He caught a glimpse of it for about a second, then it suddenly shot off across the living room at a great speed and vanished through the wall. On the other side of the wall was his bedroom. He headed through there but the orb was nowhere to be seen. If Rob had only seen the orb through the camera picture it could be easy to dismiss it as some kind of reflection or lens flare. But he saw it directly and also watched it shoot across the room, so was clearly physically there, similar to the orb seen many years before by him and his father. Possible Implant On a Thursday morning in the summer of 2010 Rob woke up with a dreadful pain in his lower right jaw. It had started hurting overnight and was swelling up. He went to his dentist and she performed an emergency tooth extraction. This seemed to stop the pain and obviously Rob thought this would be the end of it. But on the following morning the pain and swelling had returned even more intensely than before. Rob went back to his dentist. This time she told him she could not do anything further and he would have to go to Glasgow Dental Hospital for further work. He booked an emergency appointment and headed there later the same day. They extracted a second tooth alongside the one he had previously had out. There was very little pain on the Saturday, and Rob assumed his ordeal was finally over. However on the Sunday morning once again he work up with pain and swelling! He rang the hospital and booked a second emergency appointment. To attempt to see what was happening they took an X-ray. Rob was sitting in the dental chair and could see the photograph on the screen. On the photo he could see a close up of one of his teeth. A short distance under it there was another small object which appeared white on the image. It appeared to be 5-6mm long and stood out on the picture. Rob pointed at the object and asked the radiologist “What’s that?” The radiologist responded in a very abrupt tone “I don’t know what it is.” They then handed Rob a copy of the photograph and asked them to take it to the dentist. Rob had read about alien implants before and wondered if this could be one. As soon as he was out of sight of the radiologist, he opened up the envelope, took out the X-ray and photographed it on his mobile phone. He then took it to the dentist, who proceeded to extract a third tooth. The dentist made no mention of the small object and Rob did not ask him about it. Below is the photograph of the X-ray which Rob took, with the object of interest ringed in red. Rob informed me it is not as high quality as the original was: The white object in the upper middle of the photograph is one of Rob’s teeth. There are a number of possibilities for what the smaller object could be. Perhaps it is merely a bone fragment off the root of the tooth. It is the same colour as the tooth on the photograph. Perhaps it is some kind of cyst which was responsible for the pain that Rob endured and subsequent teeth extraction. But there is the possibility that it is in fact an implant placed there on a previous occasion. It is very likely Rob was abducted back in 1971, and may have been taken since but had the memories blanked out. It is possible that the object has since vanished. However if it is still there then the first step towards determining if it is an implant is to confirm that it is metallic. This in itself could prove to be difficult. I own a stud finder which can be used to detect implants under the skin. If Rob and I meet up at a later date I could use this on him. However Rob has had some metal fillings and these might set it off giving false readings. We will have to wait and see. A Strange Vision In late August of 2011 Rob was invited to attend the reception of the son of his friend Pete. It was an evening reception so beforehand he decided to go and visit his younger sister Julie. At the time she owned a fancy dress shop on Glasgow Road in Clydebank. Rob would occasionally pop in just to keep her company. He arrived at the shop about 4.30pm. There weren’t many other customers around, however there was a mum and daughter who were there to pick up a costume. Julie asked Rob “Could you do me a favour and go down the stairwell, find the box and get the wee girls costume she’s ordered?” Rob was happy to help and so headed down the steps to the cellar of the shop where the costume box had been stashed. He soon found it and knelt down next to it to look through it. Suddenly he felt something hit him in the left side of the head, so hard that it almost knocked him over! His first instinct was “We’re being robbed and someone’s just hit me in the head.” But as he leaned to the right he glanced round and could see there was nobody there. The impact had felt like someone had hit him in the head with a bat above his left ear. He didn’t want to freak his sister out so when he went back upstairs with the costume he didn’t mention what had happened. He soon headed back home to get ready for the reception. He was standing in his bedroom at the base of the bed, preparing his clothes and still thinking about what had happened at the shop. Suddenly there was another impact on his head exactly like before! He fell backwards onto the bed. He looked all around the room. Once again there was nobody there. Rob sat himself back up and rested on the corner of the bed. Again there was another impact, and he once more fell backwards. When he sat back up a second time he felt like he was almost going to black out. It was now that he realised he was not alone. At the right hand side of the base of the bed he saw three strange goblin-like creatures. They were crouching down and moving around. To their left was a man wearing a white coloured hooded robe. He had long grey hair and a beard. In his left hand he was holding a long wooden stick. He began hitting the three creatures with this stick. They cowered away from the blows, holding their hands up into the air to defend themselves. After a moment they backed off and vanished into the bedroom wall. Rob felt that it had been the three creatures which had been hitting him in the head and this man had helped him by frightening them away. He stood up and said “Thanks very much!” He then held out his hand and shook hands with the man. The man’s right hand felt very coarse and weathered. Rob asked “Is there anything I can do for you?” The man replied “Just be loyal.” After he said this he instantly vanished. Rob was extremely frightened by what had taken place so did not go the reception. The blows he had received to his head were quite traumatic. He was concerned that the man and three beings had been hallucinations brought on by a medical condition. Three days later he plucked up enough courage to go to his GP about what had happened. The GP referred him to Southern General Hospital to have a CAT scan. A number of days later he went for the scan. However when the results came back there was no sign of any trauma, growths or blood clots, it looked completely clear. This put his mind at ease. Since this incident Rob has never experienced the same thing again. The reason for the impacts on his head and the origins of the man and three creatures remains a mystery. Glowing Window In 2015 Julie worked at the local hospital and Rob would regularly pick her up after her shift ended. On an evening in October he was preparing to head out to get her. It was about 10pm and he was standing in the kitchen having a cigarette. The houses on the opposite side of the road are on a gradient and set higher up than his property was. He noticed out of the window a light just above the roof of the house directly opposite his. His first thought was that there was a youth messing around and opening a sky light. He kept looking and soon realised that the light wasn’t coming from a sky light in the roof itself but was beyond the roof. As his eyes became adjusted to what he was looking at, Rob began to interpret the shape as a cone-shaped window with orange-yellow light spilling out. It was like an upside down triangle with the lower point severed off. There were two black lines running down it separating the window into 3 distinct sections. Within the light he saw what he believed was the head of a being looking out and bobbing around. The window itself was not stationary but was slowly moving up and down, it would descend down behind the roof and then would reappear. Rob stared at it for a number of minutes. He was convinced there was a UFO hovering there behind the building, out of sight because of the darkness, and this glowing window was the only sign that it was there. He was so interested in watching it he did not think to try and take a photograph. Rob tells me that his phone at the time had a poor quality camera on it anyway, and it is unlikely much would have come out. He was not frightened, and wanted to make direct contact by the being he could see in the window. He threw his cigarette out of the open window, stepped back and then tried to contact it telepathically, inviting it to come on down and enter his house. He thought to himself “If you want to spy on me why don’t you just come down and talk to me?” He gestured with his hand, pointing towards the floor, inviting the being to come closer. He tried this for a short while, but nothing took place. Then the light suddenly went out. Rob did not walk across the street to see if anything was still there, he just assumed it had gone. He thought about what had happened for a short while, then left the house to pick up his girlfriend. He did not tell her about what he had seen as he thought it might frighten her. Due to the flattened cone shape of the object and the colour of the glow coming from it I did ask Rob whether it could have been a Chinese lantern hovering in the air and slowly drifting around. However Rob dismissed this. He informed me he not only knows what lanterns look like but has actually launched them himself numerous times, so would certainly have known how they appeared at different distances. The object which Rob saw remains a mystery, but considering his previous close encounters with craft it is entirely possible that this was indeed another close proximity sighting. Conclusions Rob has had some truly fascinating, sometimes un-nerving, encounters throughout his life. One of the aspects of his case which particularly stands out for me is the fact that most of these incidents have also involved other independent witnesses. This is quite rare, especially in cases involving contact. From the original experience involving him and his brother it is extremely likely that Rob is a contactee. Due to the missing time he currently has no memory of what took place in those missing hours, but everything which took place suggests that he and his brother were taken aboard the glowing disc. I hope to arrange for Rob to be regressed in the coming months to see if any additional details can be retrieved. It is common for contactees to have encounters with UFOs, and it is very probable that at least some of the later craft which Rob witnessed were there for him, perhaps monitoring him in some way. It is also very interesting that two of these incidents seemingly involved attempted interception of the craft by military forces. We have no way of knowing what the end result of these interceptions were but it is clear they were aware of the presence of the UFOs on these occasions. Obviously many of the incidents in this report include other individuals. Unfortunately at present I am not able to speak with any of them. Rob’s father has now passed away, and his brother Mick does not like to speak about the incidents that occurred. Rob has lost contact with some of the other people involved. His friend Raymond still lives in the area but is not yet ready to speak with me, so for now we only have Robs word to go on. However I find him a very sincere and believable man and have no doubt that he has had these stunning experiences. I would also like to thank him for his assistance in putting together this report, including the many location photographs he has obtained which have aided my understanding of his experiences. I hope that going forward he keeps in touch should anything else take place. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2019

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 17/12/2019 Introduction In early October 2019 a 58 year old Scottish man named Rob got in touch with me via telephone to discuss a number of fascinating, and in some cases frightening, UFO and contact related experiences which had happened throughout his life. Unlike many cases, most of these incidents involved multiple witnesses. This report covers these experiences in depth and features many photographs and drawings from Rob, as well as testimonial statements from some of the other people involved. Vision in the Wall Rob’s first unusual experience happed in late July of 1965. Usually I would have to query the witness to find out the details of what happened to them. However many years later Rob actually wrote down this and some of his other experiences in a diary. Below is his recollection of what took place. “One sunny summer morning shortly after my fifth birthday I was awake in bed nearest to the wall behind my brother. There were no curtains on the large bay windows and from where I was lying I could see into Govan dockyard, but all I could see was the tops of the many cranes that were there, they were busy moving to and fro, lifting this and that from the ships in dock like giant metal fingers moving around. I was just staring, day dreaming, but my mind was really on other things. Dad was on his way and Mick and I would be tucking into something special when we eventually got out of bed, but not before mum or dad, there were rules. Dad was home, it was just after seven in the morning and I knew better than to get out of bed, so I just stared out the window hoping that the time would pass quickly. Mick was fast asleep, and the house was still, very little traffic no real distractions or noise to speak of. With my back to the wall I was suddenly aware of a coldness, a chill if you like. I wrapped the blankets round me tighter but then I realized that I could see my own breath. I was puzzled for a moment but soon realized that this is happening. I turned round and what was once a recess wall with white wood chip wallpaper was now a complete image of a back lane with cobble stones and brick bin sheds on either side the full length of the lane. What five year olds imagination could ever have stretched as far as to conjure up such an image, not even in a dream? But there it was, as large as life, like a giant wall poster that could only be fit for a wall in Hell. The lane was about half the length of a football pitch and at the out her end of the lane I could see there was a figure standing with their head bowed down hiding their face. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I froze on the spot. What was this, who was that standing at the other end of the lane? My curiosity was about to become a terrible reality. Suddenly the figure started to move down the lane, slowly at first, at walking pace with its head still bowed, then it quickened until it was almost at a running pace. It started to lift its head as it got closer and closer, now I could see it. Its head was elongated and misshaped, almost horse like with large dark eye sockets and sunken eyes. As it got closer I can see its eyes and with its brows turned down with an evil menacing look about it. Suddenly it was there, it was as if a hole had just opened up on the far side of the wall. Its long gnarly fingers were ripping at the wall creating a bigger and bigger hole until its head was completely though it, and now it was staring straight at me with its mouth open and a long slithering tongue lashing about. I didn’t hesitate, I catapulted myself over Mick not even taking the time to wake him. I ran like the wind in to my mum and dads room, in one movement I had grabbed the bottom of the bed clothes, lifted them over my head and shot under the blankets without stopping. I was moving that fast, what a fright they must have got but nothing compared to what had just happened to me. My dad throw his hand round to stop me from ending up at the back of the head board. I started screaming my head off. ‘The man, the man is in the wall, there’s a bad man in the wall!’ It probably took them about ten minutes to settle me down to a point where they could start asking me what was wrong. I repeated everything I had seen, they were not convinced and they put it down to a bad dream. Dad decided it was time to get me back into my bed. He woke Mick and said to go to the back of the bed and let me go to the front. Mick, under protest, complied and dad reassured me that it was just a bad dream and no monsters where in the wall, he returned to his room. Minutes past, then suddenly I could hear a raspy breathing sound. I was hoping that it was Mick but I could see my breath again. I grabbed the blankets and pulled them up over my head but curiosity was getting the better of me. Was I imagining things? Was this just a bad dream? Why the fuck did I do it? I turned round and there it was, lunging strait out of the wall at me with its tongue waving about! It was the most hideous thing to look at, I was off like a shot again but this time a got hold of Micks top and screamed at him to get up and run. To be honest I don’t know if he followed me or not. A few years ago I joined an online paranormal group, I posted a blog with the information about the thing in the wall and I got a message back. The nearest description I could give was the teacher from the Pink Floyd music video 'Another Brick In The Wall', the head shape is almost the same with the eyes set as far back. What five year old wouldn’t be scared of an image like this?” According to Rob the paranormal group he contacted informed him that the creature he had seen was a demon which was known to stalk children and caused activity similar to a poltergeist. However I can’t help but wonder if this terrifying incident was in fact an early visitation. Some of the aspects of the being Rob describes, such as the elongated face and dark eyes are reminiscent of a Grey. Greys have often been reported to appear from and step through bedroom walls, maybe some kind of portal to another location had opened and the being used this to arrive in Rob and Mick’s room. Also screen memories, where ETs mask their true appearance, are especially common in childhood, and it is possible that Rob interpreted the being as a monster and so this is what he saw. This is merely speculation due to the fact that later on Rob had other experiences clearly linked with contact, as you will see. Ghosts The being coming through the wall wasn’t the only unusual thing which occurred at the house. In Rob’s notes he eludes to the fact that there were numerous incidents of a paranormal nature. While these incidents are unlikely to be directly related to his contact experiences as they often involved other people, they are worth including. “It wasn’t easy for mum and dad to find accommodation, but there was plenty of room in that house. Even though it was a loft apartment everyone had a bed. My nana had her own room which was closer to the living room, mum and dad where in the room across from us. They were quite generous rooms, the one Mick and I had my uncle Jim slept in for many years until he met my aunt and moved out. It had been empty for some time but mum and dad had fixed it up as well as they could until hopefully something else would come along come along. There were strange things going on that Mick and I never knew about, but every now and then we would hear bits of information as we sat around the kitchen table which was the place everyone would gather, the heart of the house. We were hardly ever in the living room. I remember my aunt talking about the Polaroid photo that she had taken of my uncle on his birthday with his brothers at the bottom of the hall at the front door. Once the photo had developed, directly behind the 4 of them was a figure of an old woman with a crouched shawl over her head. She was looking over her right shoulder holding the shawl over the right side of her face peering out straight at the camera lens. It was unmistakeable, she didn’t belong there. No one had any idea who she was. As I got older, 18/19, I got to see that photo. The hallway was always poorly lit any time of the day or night, and you would find yourself running along the hall as fast as you could to the kitchen door. What a relief when the door opened and you were in the light and you could see a friendly face again! I remember almost squatting and putting my head down as I entered the ten foot high dark green front door of the house. I would run like the wind along the hall to the kitchen before I felt as if someone was brushing over my hair with their hand, it was a very strange sensation. Mick and I were in bed. There were still things that belonged to Jim in the room, mostly musical instruments, TV parts and an old wooden organ that you would have to pump air into with the foot pedals at the base. It sat in the alcove where part of the slate roof started sloping at the windows. Jim being a bit of an engineer got it from an old woman for repairing her black and white TV with every intention of fixing it but he never got round to it. It was late and I was fast asleep. Suddenly I could hear Mick screaming his head off! I sat up and looked at him. He was sitting up in bed and looking into the recess of the alcove. I could tell that he was scared with tears running down his face. I asked him several times what was wrong but he never answered. My mum and dad where on their way, I could hear them stirring. Mick became quiet. Dad was trying to open the door but was unable. Mick started to move his head from right to left towards the bedroom door as if he was following something moving in the room. Then he looked up as if someone was standing right next to him. Dad was still trying to get into the room. Mick started to lift up his hand and opened his fist like he was receiving something from someone. Then the door opened and dad was in. Dad asked him what was wrong. ‘The bad man’ he said. ‘What bad man?’ my dad asked. ‘The bad man that was sitting on top of the organ.’ Apparently he was sitting on top of the organ with his legs crossed and he had the classic devilish red eyes. ‘There’s no one there’ said dad. ‘I know, it's ok the lady chased him away’ Mick said. ‘What lady?’ asked dad. ‘What did she look like?’ Mick replied ‘She was lovely. She had a blue top on with a white scarf over her head, like the lady in Nanas pictures. She gave me something.’ ‘What did she give you?’ asked mum. Mick started to open his fist but there was nothing there. A look of disappointment came over his face, but the person he was describing my mum and dad believed was the Virgin Mary. The priest was called, he came to the house and blessed it, but it never made things any better. Could it get any worse? My mum was heavily pregnant with my sister, she had been preparing the evening meal with my aunt. As she bent down to place something in to the oven suddenly she felt someone, something trying to push her down and into the oven. She turned to my aunt at the table with a look of total shock, and next to my aunt a chair roses up as if it was stuck to the wall and hung there for a moment till it hit the floor. It was obvious that things where not getting any better, in fact it was quite the opposite, things had gone to another level! The priest was called again, but it was all they could do just to keep their wits about them and not crumble.” Nordic Visitation After all the paranormal activity at their home Rob’s parents decided they needed to move out. However the council would not allocate them a home straight away, so his mother’s parents offered to let them temporarily stay at their house on Alderman Road in the outskirts of Glasgow. Soon after moving in Rob’s parents purchased a bunk bed for him and his brother to sleep on. It was set up in the living room as this was the only space available for it. Mick being the eldest got the top bunk. Rob really wanted to try the top bunk so persistently moaned until his mother gave in and let him sleep on the top bunk for one night. It was during this night that Rob had another fascinating experience. As before, he wrote down the details of this incident. “It was getting dark and my grandparents had already retired for the night. Mum and dad set about getting James settled down for the night in the box room. Mick and I were in bed and the living room was in darkness except for the light coming from under the box room door. I had just dropped off to sleep or so I thought. The time I was unaware of but I could suddenly feel a presence above me to my right hand side. Then it happened. I felt someone kiss me on the lips softly. I opened my eye half expecting to see my mum standing over me, but instead there was a strange but really lovely looking woman leaning over me. I know it’s hard to believe almost incredible. I think about it still. Who was she? Why was she there? She really was quite beautiful with long blond hair and ruby red lips and eyes that looked like they were glowing with an intense shade of blue. She was smiling, and it was as if she was glowing. It took a second or two for me to realise that it wasn't my mum and I knew that my aunts had gone home. I started to scream at the top of my lungs with fright. I can still hear the sound I made. In a flash she had moved towards the kitchen door that was adjacent to the box room, and it was as if she just disappeared in a cloud as she turned right at the kitchen door. Mum and dad arrived late obviously. They got me out of bed and asked me to describe the woman and asked me if she said anything. She hadn’t.” Some of the aspects of this experience point towards it being a visitation by a Nordic being. These are usually reported as looking quite humanoid, having blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Also I have investigated other cases where these beings have been seen to glow, just as Rob reports here. Many experiencers feel positive about encounters with these beings, and often sense that they are cared for by them or even protected from harm. If this was indeed a Nordic rather than a ghostly apparition of some kind, maybe this kiss was symbolic of this, and she wanted to let Rob know that she was there to look after him. Dual Abduction On Saturday 25th November 1971 Rob had an experience which has clear links with ET contact, an incident involving both a UFO and the apparent abduction of himself and Mick. He has documented this incredible incident in detail. “My cousin Jean was recruited to baby sit while my mum and dad went to my aunt and uncle’s wedding anniversary in Grangemouth. Jean was going on fourteen, my brother Mick had just turned twelve in September, I was ten. At school we would chat about the things we were watching on television, mostly cartoons or the odd scary movie, but one program in particular stood out, The Untouchables, a new US hit crime series, everyone was talking about it. The program in question was scheduled to start at 7pm that night. On the way out my father reminded Jean that I was to be in my bed for 7.30pm. Well at least i was going to get to see this amazing American Gangster show, something to talk about on Monday at school! At 6.30pm there was an announcement. ‘Due to unforeseen time delays in our scheduled programs the Untouchables will now be shown 30 minutes later than billed.’ This meant I’d be in bed when the program started. Well that was not going to work. I was going to watch the show and that’s that! But Mick made it quite plain that bed time was a lot closer than I thought and I wasn’t going to be watching the telly. Bang on 7.30pm Mick was out of his chair and trying to push me out of the living room. I had a firm grip on the door, using my foot as a door stop, it seemed as if I was winning for a moment but it wasn’t going to last long. The door was about to shut on me, the program was starting and I was still trying to look around the door to see what it was all about. Suddenly the room lit up. There was a bright light coming from outside in the street. The living room lit up like day light...much brighter than the street lights or car lights and it was still getting brighter! Jean let out a scream and shouted ‘Don’t go to the window, stay away from the window!’ But that never stopped me. Mick was in a trance so I pushed the door open wide and stepped back into the living room. The light got brighter and things started to disappear in the room, you couldn’t see the light from the bulb in the standing lamp next to the fireplace or the light from red bulb in the electric fire. The picture on the TV screen had disappeared too. I turned round to the window. It was ultra-bright, you couldn’t cast a shadow with your own hand on the living room wall. I ran to the window and lifted the net curtain over my head. As I looked out to my left I could see a light moving slowly from left to right. It was a beam of light hitting the road and up onto the pavement. It wasn’t a car, just a great big white ray of light on the ground. It started to get closer and moved across towards my friend house zigzagging its way along the street. The light crept up the wall and across the roof and down the front of wall the house next to my friend Billy. It moved to my right and out of sight. I wanted more, I wanted to know what it was. My eyes are stinging with the light, then it was gone from sight. Unchallenged by Mick I made a run for the front door, ran out of the side door, turned right and started to run to the bottom of the path next to the front gate. Down four steps and I was there. I turned to my right and looked up at this massive white circle hovering over the woman’s house next to the lane about 40 feet away from me. It looked quite funny at the time because the apex of the building it was over made it look as if it had a missing piece from it like a piece cut from a cake. It was broader than the house. The light was so intense that you couldn’t see anything above the white disc. I could hear Micks feet on the path heading towards me. He came down the stairs and stood right behind me at the gate. This was better than the Untouchables! I turned round to say something to him but when I looked at him he was light grey with a tinge of blue from head to toe. The hedges where grey blueish, the fence, the gate. Mick had a shirt with a bit of tartan in it but you couldn’t see any colour on it. The look he had on his face it was so scary. I said ‘Look at you!’ and Mick said the same thing back. I turned back round to look at the light. Suddenly I was aware of a hand on my right shoulder. I looked round and there was someone standing next to me. I could clearly see fingers on my right shoulder. I looked up and I could see that his face was as grey as everything around us, smooth with no hair. I could only see the side profile of him, but what was really strange about him was the things he was wearing. It was like a long gown from the neck down to the feet, but the strange thing about that was it was as black as a coal mine. I felt as if I could reach out and put my hand right into the blackness. I was mesmerized by the darkness, but if everything else around us was grey blueish, what made his gown react in that way? It was as if the light was being absorbed by the darkness. I looked back up at him, but he never turned round, he was staring into the light too. The next thing I could remember was of being in what appeared to be a pinkish like bubble. Then it started to disappear in front of me, dissolving. Bits of blue sky and sunshine started to appear through the top of the bubble and it was dissolving from top to bottom. There was no sound at first but slowly the sound of singing appeared. Music started to play in my left ear – ‘Where’s your mama gone, where’s your mama gone, far far away, far far away.’ That song is ingrained in my mind. The pink bubble was almost gone. I looked down to my right where a hole had appeared. It started to reveal a boy playing in the lane next to the electricity power box. He had a toy truck in his hand but he was just looking straight at me. I would have done the same thing too! I turned my head round to the left to see where the music was coming from and saw Mick standing in the same position he was in last night, but now it was daylight and why were we standing in the lane next to our house 30 feet away? I ran to the top of the lane to see where we had both been standing just moments ago. In actual fact it was still 7.35pm last night in my head, I really couldn’t understand it. It was about 9.30am maybe even 10am on a cold crisp November morning. I knew something was wrong, I knew it, but I hadn’t got a clue about what happened. Then a side window opened up on the house that the disc had been over last night. A woman appeared and said ‘Are you the two boys that have been out all night?’ We both made for the house, but the information was already disappearing from our minds as the minutes passed. Eventually I couldn’t remember anything, it was gone. But the memories of that night hadn’t quite disappeared into the back of my mind, tucked away never to be seen again, far from it.” So many aspects of this incident fit in with other cases on record, including some I have directly investigated. Many contact experiences begin with the location being flooded in white light. It seems clear that this light was coming directly from the glowing craft seen in the vicinity of the house. It is very probable that this light would have also spread into the other houses in the neighbourhood. You may then ask why no-one else had also stepped outside to see what was taking place. Although it was fully dark outside because of the time of year it was not particularly late. However it is probable that this craft was here specifically for Rob and his brother. There are many cases on record where other people in the surroundings have been temporarily “switched off”. Contactees have often reported not being able to wake sleeping family members or seeing other people in a trance-like state. This could have been what happened here, and if so this would explain why Rob and Mick were the only apparent witnesses to what was taking place outside. The being which touched Rob on the shoulder was clearly a Grey. While Rob did not see its face on this occasion (although would do at a later date), he did see that its head was completely hairless and grey in colour. It is very likely that this being was there to take him and his brother aboard the craft, although neither of them had any recollection of this. While he does not mention it in his notes, Rob informed me that other than the colouration the being’s hand looked human. This is a little odd as usually Greys are described as having elongated and smooth fingers. The boys then experienced missing time for approximately 14 hours. While it cannot currently be verified at this point, it is probable that they were aboard the craft during this time, and were then returned to the approximate, though not exact location where they were taken. The mottled pink “bubble” of energy seen around them when they were returned is very interesting. While I have investigated some cases involving glowing energy or swirling portals, I do not recall any where this exact same thing has been reported to me. It was clearly blocking out the sound, as this slowly returned as the bubble dissipated. It is fascinating to wonder what the boy with the toy truck saw. Did he witness Rob and his brother suddenly appear from thin air? It is unlikely we will ever find out. In his notes Rob describes how he and his brother ran back to where they had previously been standing, but then the memories of everything started to fade away until they were completely gone. While this is rare, I have investigated other cases where the exact same thing has been reported. And just as with this incident, some but not all of what took place returned at a later date. I believe that this is a memory block put in place on purpose by the ETs. It is probably intended to be permanent, but for whatever reason the memories sometimes come back, usually in the form of flashbacks or nightmares. How Rob and Mick recalled the incident will be discussed later in this report. During this time they were abducted Rob’s parents would of course have returned home. It is unknown what Jean remembered, she may have recalled seeing the glowing light and the boys running outside, or maybe it was all completely blanked from her mind too. Either way it is likely that they had searched the neighbourhood for the boys and asked around at neighbouring houses for any information as to their whereabouts. This would explain the question asked of them by the lady in the window. Soon after the incident his family moved house to Dumbarton outside Glasgow. Rob does not know why his parents did this, he says they had no reason to move at that time as they were settled. He wonders if his parents decided to move because of what had happened there. There are clues that his parents were aware that something related to UFOs or contact had taken place. Rob used to often go fishing with his father. On numerous occasions up to the age of 17 he recalls his father bringing up the subject of UFOs. At the time he did not associate this with anything, and his father did not specifically mention the incident. But looking back he wonders if he was trying to jog his memory of what had taken place. The Orb Contactees often report seeing glowing orbs of light in their proximity, and Rob’s case is no different. In July 1973 just before his 17th birthday he had an experience of this nature which was also witnessed by his father. They were now living in a house on Lochlea Avenue in Drumry, Clydebank. Below is Rob’s account of what took place. “I remember sitting with my dad one evening having a drink. There was a cupboard to the right hand side of my chair. Above that was an old serving hatch to the kitchen that had been blocked off years ago. My dad was at the other end of the living room with his chair next to the fire across from mine. We were talking for a while the usual things - fishing, snooker, more fishing, but my eye was now drawn down to the right hand side of my chair. I could see a ball of light moving along the top of the skirting board. The middle of the ball of light was bright white then in to a light pink and out to a bright red. It was bright for its size, powerful if you like, about the size of a marble but not solid, blended edges, smooth colour flow. It moved slowly towards the fireplace, along the skirting board. I quickly mentioned it to my dad and that he was about to see this thing. It moved left then right across the front of the fireplace and into plain sight. Dad could see it crossing the front of the electric fire towards him. ‘What the fuck is that?’ he exclaimed. Well he reacted the way I should have. It got closer to my dad, he was almost backing away as it drew nearer. It turned again down the other side of the fire place and along the back wall. My dad leapt to his feet and pulled his chair and a small drop leaf table away from the wall to see where it was but it had gone. We looked at each other in disbelief. What the hell was that and where did it go to? We sat for a long time talking about it. Deep down I knew what dad was thinking, but he wasn’t going to say for fear of panic in the house, so he said to me not to say to anyone about it, especially my young sisters.” It is unknown whether this orb of light was linked with his contact experiences, a ghostly apparition, or was some form of energy manifestation like ball lightning. However I was not surprised at all to learn of this incident as once again it is something often reported in cases of ET contact. Ghostly Dog The glowing orb would not be the only thing Rob would experience at the house Lochlea Avenue. This was just the beginning of paranormal events at the property, as Rob explains in his notes. “I came home from work one Saturday afternoon around 3-ish. My Saturday ritual every 3rd Saturday of the month after work was a shower, something to eat and head straight up stairs and back into bed. I was ready to settle down, get a few hours’ sleep and then get up later for a night out with my friends. I shut the bedroom door, closed the curtains and got back into bed. I was laying on my stomach with my hands under the pillows in front of me. I was ready for my 120 winks. Dozing off I was aware of something in the middle of the bed to my left almost at my waist. I could feel the mattress being pressed inwards as if something was turning round and round then scratching at the bed clothes. My first thoughts were that our dog Penny was on the bed beside me and she was settling down making her bed the way dogs do. I pulled my left hand out from under the pillow and moved it down and tried to brush her off the bed but my hand just ran right through the space I thought the dog might have been lying. There was nothing there. ‘Penny get off the bed’ I muttered, and moved my hand down further thinking she was there. Nothing! I got up and looked to the spot where this was all going on and there was nothing there. I looked down at the bottom of the bed. I could hear myself saying the words ‘Penny come on outside’ but I knew there was nothing there. I walked to the bedroom door looking over my shoulder and fumbling, reaching for the handle on the door so I can make a sharp exit. The door opened and I was off, right down the stairs. I burst into the living room. Dad was startled. ‘I just had a dog on my bed!’ I blurted out. ‘What?’ dad replied. ‘I just had a dog on my bed and thought it was Penny.’ ‘But Penny’s been here with me for ages’ he said. But he knew I was telling the truth and we both went back up to my room. After an inspection my dad said again ‘Don’t say a word to anyone.’ It really had started again. My head was buzzing, the memories of Glasgow started to rush in. But it was more personal, it was something making itself known to me. How close do you need to be to something like that and not be afraid or intimidated about it in some way? A week or two had passed, nothing had gone on in that time, but this particular night that was going to change. Dad and I were at home, the girls where in their beds or siting about in their room, Jamie was out with friends. It was an ordinary day, things had gone well, and dad and I had settled down for the night. It was my turn for making coffee. I was in the kitchen getting the coffee ready. For some reason my dad had taken the kitchen door off. Coffee in both hands I started to make my way to the living room. I had to put my left elbow up to turn the light switch off as my hands were full. Then I turned left down the hall towards the living room. I was stopped in my tracks. The lights in the hall were off but that was usual for us, we never left lights on if it wasn’t necessary, and we could navigate our way round the house without light. There was a dog in the hallway, sitting right in front of the living room door! I could clearly see it by the light coming from the glass panel in the front door. It was just sitting there. My first thought was ‘It’s Penny’ but there was no movement, nothing to suggest it was Penny. No tail wagging, no tongue hanging out panting as you would expect your dog to be doing. It was just looking up staring at me. The interesting thing about it was its eyes. They were a piercing bright bright green. I said ‘Right Penny move, come on, let’s go’ but nothing, it was just staring right at me, tilting its head from left to right, as if studying me. i was still thinking that it was Penny, what else could it be? I started to move towards the door. ‘Right Penny come on’ I said. Still no movement. I lifted my leg over it to get by and it was still there. I was getting quite annoyed at the dog thinking it was Penny being a bit of a wee pest. I opened the living room door and walked in. To my surprise Penny was sitting on the chair and my dad was on siting on the floor. ‘Dad, I’ve just seen the wee dog that was in my bed just now outside in the hall!’ I said. I put the coffee down and went back into the hall to see if it was still there but there was nothing to see. It was probably the first time that we had left a light on for any reason.” Poltergeist Activity Soon after witnessing the apparition of the dog, other paranormal activity began to occur in the house. Rob recollects a number of incidents involving unexplained sounds and moving objects. “You know your home, every little noise, creak, bump, bang that goes on, we had all become aware of that over the years. In the early hours one morning I came down the stairs to use the bathroom about 2-3am. There were no lights on. I was standing in the bathroom. I had left the door open, and had almost finished what I was doing. I could hear a noise from the hall behind me. Imagine coming down your own staircase from top to bottom and the noise you might hear from the wooden steps. Well you get to remember each step and the noise it made. If there was another noise to be heard it wold be me going back up the stairs and the noise would be reversed but that’s not what was happening. Almost done I could hear the noise again, but it had started at the top of the stairs. I turned to see who was coming down but there was no one there. The stairs where creaking as if someone was coming down right to the bottom of the stairs. A cold shiver ran down my back. What the hell was happening? Well I guess I was in the right place at the right time for a change. I wasn’t happy about going back up the stairs, well you wouldn’t be! It seemed that something was trying to get our attention, soon everyone was going to experience something, what it was and when was going to happen was the big question. Mum was away at the caravan site in Wigtonshire, the two girls and my brother had gone too, leaving dad and myself to get on with painting the living room and the hall. We had almost completed the hall and had called it a day. Dad went over to the shop and bought some beer for refreshment. We sat in the living room. The TV was on and we were chatting. Suddenly there was an almighty crashing noise from mum and dad’s bedroom upstairs directly above us! We did get a fright, it was so unexpected. Dad and I ran upstairs to see what was going on and when we got into the room there was nothing out of place, no mess. Nothing had been moved or touched. It was very strange but we soon realised what was going on. We had a visit again. The noise was real. I described it as if someone had gone in to the kitchen, taken the cutlery draw went upstairs into the bedroom and just slammed it onto the floor. We could hear the metal like forks and spoons hitting off each other, exactly like that. Saturday tea time. Dad had made mince and potatoes with dough balls. I got home from work, went straight into the kitchen and sat in my usual chair at the alcove. Dad came over to where I was sitting with my food. I was absolutely starving, early finishes on a Saturday meant I hadn’t had a lunch break. Dad had go back over to the sink to clean up some dishes. I was holding the fork to my mouth for my first bite. Suddenly my plate was airborne and heading for the back of my dad’s legs! The plate hit the back of his right leg and into the kitchen sink door. Dad turned to me and shouted at me, but he saw me with the fork in hand and a look of disbelief on my face. Mum decided that the girl’s bedroom should get freshened up with a lick of paint and new curtains. So my older brother and I set about doing that. All the windows were open and the furniture was back in place. It looked really nice, clean and drying out well. That night everyone was in bed. It was the back of 2am. We are all woken to the sound of one of my sisters screaming at the top of her lungs! My brother and I leapt to our feet and rushed into the girl’s bedroom. We put the lights on and saw my younger sister Julie sitting up in her bed, holding the blankets up to her face. Dad arrived and asked ‘What’s going on?’ We thought that someone had broken into the girl’s room through the bedroom window. ‘What happened?’ dad asked. Julie replied ‘There was a man standing there.’ ‘Where?’ asked dad. ‘Right next to my bed there at the window.’ ‘Did he say anything?’ ‘Yes, he said I'll get you if it's the last thing I do.’ Dad noticed that there was a hand print on the wall directly above Julie’s head board. The rest of the room was dry except for the wet hand print. My older brother had the biggest hands in the house. Dad said ‘Put your hand in that hand print.’ So he put his left hand over the wet print and lined his hand up. The fingers were at least and inch and a half longer, easily. This room seemed to hold a presence - very dark, very dangerous and very real.” White Disc Sighting It was a bright, clear and still summer’s day in 1986/87. Rob was round visiting his friend Michael (who like his elder brother he nicknamed Mick) at his house on Vanguard Street, Drumry. They were playing with his pet dog in the front garden. Rob was holding a rubber play toy which the dog would bite a hold of and he would then swing the dog round in the air. The semi-detached houses on the street have concrete steps leading up to their front doors. Mick’s mother Kathleen and sister (also named Kathleen) were sitting on the top step of the house watching them. Mick’s younger 9 year old brother Mark was also in the garden playing by himself. At the right hand edge of the garden is a 7 foot high hedge. As Rob picked up the dog into the air and swung him round he caught a glimpse of a white flattened object over the top of the hedge. He immediately thought someone had thrown a Frisbee over the hedge and instinctively ducked. But nothing landed in the garden. As he stood back up he looked towards Mick’s mother and sister on the step. They were staring past him into the distance with their mouths hanging open. Rob turned round to see what they were looking at. Roughly about 400-500 feet away East of their location in the sky visible above the hedge was a white object. It was a disc, but the top had a slight domed shape to it. Rob estimates it was about 7-9 metres in diameter and about 3 metres in height at its central point. It appeared to be about 200 feet off the ground. The underneath of the object was a brilliant white colour. The top was more cream coloured. However at intervals around it were what appeared to be scorched lines that were almost black in colour. The object was moving on a level course at roughly 30-35 mph. It was travelling to the South West in the direction of Glasgow Airport. To prevent it being lost from view Rob and Mick ran inside the house and to the front bedroom window to get a better view. The UFO passed over Clydebank Rugby Club. However as it neared the River Clyde it began to slowly turn to the right by 90 degrees. It then began flying to the North West following the river towards Earskine Bridge. They watched it intermittently through the gaps between the buildings until it was fully out of sight. They then went back downstairs and spoke with Mick’s mother about what they had just seen. Mick was sceptical that the object was truly anomalous and said “This is unbelievable! It must have been under remote control!” Rob dismissed this saying “Remote control? Did you see the size of the thing? IF it was remote control you would need to be able to keep in range of it and see it. Who would have been flying it? You’ve got to realise what you’ve just seen there!” Mick’s mother was dumbfounded at what had just occurred. She sat back down on the step and began rubbing sun tan lotion into her arms. Then everyone heard a dull roaring noise coming from the North East. The sound got louder and louder. Suddenly two harrier jump jets flew straight over the roof of the house! They were quite low altitude and the sound coming from them was tremendous. Mick’s mother got such a shock that she fell backwards into the open doorway of the house. The jets flew away in the direction the UFO had travelled. Rob informed me that he never saw any other jets fly over while visiting Mick. It seemed clear that they had been launched to intercept the disc they had seen. RAF Lossiemouth is 120 miles North of Glasgow and it is from here that Rob speculates they may have taken off from. Later on that evening Rob described to his girlfriend what they had witnessed. (Continued in Part 2) Copyright Dave Hodrien 2019