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Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 05/08/2025   In June 2025 Malcolm Ratcliffe got in touch via Facebook Messenger to discuss both a childhood UFO sighting he experienced in Dudley, and a couple of much more recent sightings he and his wife Lynne experienced from their previous residence in Shirley. This report covers the two Shirley sightings. The Dudley sighting is unrelated so has been written up as a separate report. A link to this can be found near the end of this one.   Initial Sighting   Back in 2020 Malcolm and Lynne lived in a flat on Stratford Road, Shirley. The flat is part of a block towards the Northern end of Shirley main shopping centre, situated above Howden Insurance.   Aerial map indicating the location of the flats Photograph of the front of the flats  Around the rear side of the flats is a concrete balcony for the residents to use which faces North East.   Aerial map indicating the balcony Between 5-6pm on the evening of a pleasant day in either June or July Malcolm stepped out onto the balcony for a cigarette. Due to the time of year it was still fully light in the sky. It was dry and there were very few clouds in the sky. Malcolm cannot recollect whether it was still or whether there was a light breeze.   He was staring off the balcony to the North East. Roughly 150 feet away is a line of tall trees. Suddenly an object emerged through the upper branches of the these trees. It was moving quite fast, and initially Malcolm thought it was a bird. But he quickly realised this was not the case. The object was flattened equilateral triangular in shape, and was a grey silver colour. It had no markings visible on its smooth surface. Its edges were clearly defined and corners curved. It appeared to be quite small, no bigger than 10 feet across.   Witness drawing of the UFO/UAP  It was flying at low altitude, only about 20-30 feet higher than the balcony. Malcolm watched as the UFO/UAP quickly approached on a straight and level course. As it got closer he realised it was completely silent. As it passed nearly overhead he felt a tingling sensation coming from it similar to static electricity. It then moved over the roof of the flats and was lost from sight.   Aerial map showing the movement path of the UFO/UAP In total Malcolm had observed the object for roughly 10-15 seconds. For its size it had seemingly moved very quickly, and it had appeared to be a controlled and under powered flight as opposed to a drifting object such as a balloon. After finishing his cigarette he went back inside and told Lynne about what he had just seen.   Second Sighting   About a week later, Malcolm and Lynne were both out on the balcony chatting with a friend. It was between 4.30-5pm and once again a pleasant day. Lynne happened to glance up into the sky. Almost directly overhead she saw the same object her husband had previously informed her about – a small silver coloured triangle.   It was higher up in the air this time, but lower than a light aircraft would fly at. It was moving on the same course as before. She only witnessed it a couple of seconds as it was moving very rapidly and quickly moved out of sight. As Malcolm was in the middle of conversation she did not mention the sighting at the time, but once their friend had departed she let him know.   Sightings Analysis   It is intriguing that both Malcolm and Lynne saw the same (or a very similar) object a week apart from the same location. It is quite rare for UFO/UAPs to be seen multiple times in the same vicinity.   The UFO/UAP approached from the North East. It should be noted that Birmingham International Airport resides 4 miles in that direction, although this may have been nothing more than coincidence.   Aerial map indicating the location of the flat (A) and Birmingham International Airport (B) Malcolm informed me that he and Lynne would regularly see aircraft pass overhead on take off from the airport. This means they were both familiar with how normal aeroplanes would look at different heights and weather conditions. Unfortunately due to the fact that it occurred 5 years ago I am unable to check Flight Radar 24 to confirm whether aircraft were present in the sky at that time. Due to its appearance, low altitude in the initial sighting and apparent small size I feel that an aeroplane can be discounted.   The object not perform any manoeuvres which would indicate it was under intelligent control. Malcolm feels that its path was too direct for it to have been a balloon drifting on an air current. There was no drifting from its course or rotation at any point during either of the sightings. The distance between the flat balcony and the tall trees to the North East is approximately 150 feet, and on the initial sighting it took 10-15 seconds to fly overhead and pass out of sight. If it was at low altitude as Malcolm believes it was this means it was moving at between 7-10 mph. There is also the fact that he sensed static electricity as the object passed overhead. Neither Lynne nor her husband or friend felt this with the second sighting, but she confirmed that it was higher up this time so perhaps was out of range to detect this.   Although a balloon caught in a stable air current could conceivably be responsible for what was observed, the sensation Malcolm felt in the initial sighting is hard to explain, and points towards this being something more unusual. If it was a genuine advanced craft of some kind then perhaps it was performing reconnaissance of the area, hence the reason it was observed on two separate occasions.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 30/07/2025   Several years ago I spoke with Ian while giving a talk at Probe Conference. We discussed a childhood sighting he had of a cigar-shaped object which was witnessed by him and his parents. In May 2025 Ian decided to get back in touch to get the incident officially down on record.   Sighting Details   Back in the summer of 1952 when Ian was 10 years old his father worked for British Rail at Wooperton Train Station, Alnwick, Northumberland. The line is no longer in operation, and the station officially closed in December 1954.   Map indicating the position where Wooperton Train Station used to be   Historic photograph of Wooperton Train Station   Ian lived with his family in the Station House. His father also ran the local Post Office from the same address. Even though the train line has been demolished, the house still stands.   Aerial map of Station House Modern photograph of Station House  It was a pleasant sunny evening in June or July. It was quite warm and still, with patchy clouds in the sky. His father was sitting at the living room table doing a crossword. He happened to glance up out of the living room window and noticed an object in the sky. He called out to Ian and his mother “Hey look at that!”   They rushed over to the window and saw an enormous cigar-shaped object moving silent over the roof of the house. It appeared to be metallic silver in colour. Ian cannot recall it possessing any markings, lights or windows.    The three witnesses rushed outside to get a better view. The object was travelling to the West and was not making any audible sound. Ian estimates it was 500-1000 feet up and moving at around 120 mph. He believes it was about 200 feet in length.   Witness drawing of the UFO as it passed overhead As it moved away from them it was occasionally hidden from view by clouds in the sky. They watched the huge object for about 5-6 minutes as it gradually made its way to the West. Ian says that his parents did own a camera which they used for holiday photographs. He does not know where this was at the time but does know that his parents did not attempt to find it and take any photos.   A bank of darker clouds obscured the summit of the Cheviot 12 miles away. It moved behind these and was lost from sight.   Aerial map showing location of Wooperton Station House (A) and Cheviot (B)   Witness drawing of the UFO moving towards the dark clouds In the following days many locals visited the Post Office and conversed with his father. Ian found out from him that other people in the area had also witnessed it, but nothing was reported in the local newspaper to his knowledge.   If it was travelling on a straight course before the witnesses observed it then it would have come in from the North Sea around Craster, three miles North of Boulmer where an RAF base was situated at the time.   Estimated route of the UFO, with the location of RAF Boulmer indicated   Sighting Analysis   My first thought when Ian described this historic sighting is that he and his parents may have witnessed a silver-coloured airship/blimp crossing over the house and away into the distance. The shape, large size, colour, straight level course and speed would all fit this possible explanation.   According to online sources, airships and blimps saw a decline in popularity post World War II because of safety concerns brought on by previous accidents, such as the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, combined with the superior speed, range and payload of aeroplanes.   However, there were still some in operation. Here is an overview of a number of different types of airships/blimps which were flying over the UK in the 1950s:   Goodyear Blimps   Sometimes utilised for advertising at special events. One could potentially have been flown over Wooperton on its way to an event to the West. As the witnesses were viewing it from underneath and then from the rear, they would not have seen the wording on the sides. However these blimps had clearly visible tail fins, and a cabin hanging underneath them, both of which would have been visible to the witnesses as it passed overhead and moved away into the distance. Even if Ian himself could conceivably have viewed one of these blimps as something more exotic due to his young age at the time, surely his parents and other local residents would have realised it was a blimp? For these reasons I find it improbable that this is what was observed.   The Bournemouth Airship   A non-rigid airship (blimp) supported by Bournemouth as part of the Festival of Britain. Based at RAF Cardington where a number of test flights were performed. Its first flight took place in 1951. It was meant to be tethered outdoors for public viewing, however a number of design issues prevented it from being used regularly.   Aerial map showing location of Wooperton Station (A) and RAF Cardington (Now Cardington Airfield)  As you can see Wooperton is a completely different area of the United Kingdom to Cardington, and is also situated to the North of it. Test flights of the Bournemouth Airship would have only been performed in the local vicinity of the RAF base, they would not have flown it hundreds of miles up the United Kingdom. Therefore I find it extremely unlikely that what Ian and his parents witnessed was this.   Barrage Balloons   In World War II barrage balloons were utilised to defend ground targets from attacks from the air by raising steel cables. Post WWII some were still utilised as targets for nuclear tests or for parachute tests. However they completely the wrong shape for what the witness describes, quite rounded with large tail fins. Also they are not flown, but tethered, so cannot have been what was seen.   I asked Ian for his thoughts on the blimp/airship theory. He stated the following:   “I checked out some blimp pictures on the internet they were not the same as I saw. This object was long and shaped like a thick pencil. It had no wings or fins that could be seen and its power source was silent.”   The points he makes are all valid. He feels that the object he and his parents witnessed was thinner and had no visible tail fins. Also if it was a blimp then when he and his parents went outside to continue observing it they would have heard the sound of the propellers.   If the object was not a blimp or airship, what could it have been? It was clearly the wrong shape for an aircraft, as the wings would have been visible. A novelty hot air balloon seems improbable back in the 1950s, and surely the basket would have been visible underneath? The metallic colour of the object means an unusual cloud, such as a lenticular cloud can be ruled out. The incident took place decades before solar airships were commercially available, and the object sounds far too large to have been one of these.   Although the object did not perform any advanced manoeuvres there is still the possibility it was an advanced craft of some kind, possibly non-human in origin. However the idea that it was a blimp cannot be completely ruled out, despite the points described above.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 04/03/2025   In February 2025 I was contacted on the phone by a Scottish gentleman who was away on business in Poland. He wanted to discuss numerous incidents that had occurred in his childhood, including the sighting of a triangular UFO which occurred in the summer of 1993 when he was 10 years old.   Sighting Details   At the time, the witness, who I shall name Gavin, lived with his parents on the outskirts of Fauldhouse, Scotland. It was late evening and the sun had fully set. The weather was warm, clear and still. The stars were visible in the sky.   Aerial map of Fauldhouse He and Jeremy, a friend who lived in his neighbourhood, had been out riding their bikes. They stopped at a field situated just behind Gavin’s house and relaxed a while chatting. Suddenly they both felt compelled to look up into the sky for an unknown reason. About 300 feet up, nearly overhead of them but just off to one side a bit they saw a triangular shaped object. It was not quite equilateral in shape, slightly elongated. It was jet black in colour and was definitely solid as it was blocking out the stars. Gavin estimates it was about 30 feet across, about the size of a large static caravan.   At each corner was a glowing ivory white coloured light. These were not glaringly bright but neither were they dim. They did not flash or change in brightness at all. There were no other lights or markings visible on the object.   Mock up of the UFO based on witness description The UFO was completely silent and moving forward at a very slow pace. The boys watched it for up to 15 seconds. Then without warning it suddenly vanished without trace, seemingly “melting into the sky”.   Gavin turned to Jeremy and asked “You just saw that didn’t you?” Jeremy replied “Yeah I saw it as well”.  Gavin said “Maybe it was a UFO, maybe like something from the X-Files!”  The boys returned to their homes. According to Gavin they both kept the incident to themselves. They felt that their parents would not believe them if they told them about what they’d seen. I asked Gavin about how he felt while the sighting was taking place, to which he replied “It felt other-worldly, not malicious in any way.”   Sighting Analysis   Unfortunately I am unable to speak with Jeremy as Gavin has no kept in touch with him, so we only have Gavin’s testimony to go on. However he came across trustworthy over the phone and wanted to remain completely anonymous, so clearly has nothing to gain from sharing the details of this historic sighting with me besides my insights into what took place.   Due to the fact that the object blocked out the stars it is clear that it was a singular large object present in the sky.   It could not have been an aeroplane due to the extremely slow speed of movement. Light aircraft need to fly at at least 30mph to remain airborne. It was completely the wrong appearance for either a plane or helicopter and did not possess normal navigation lights. The following diagram shows navigation lights of aircraft and helicopters: No red, green or strobing lights were seen, only the ivory white lights at each corner of the object. At the height it was apparently at the sound of engines or rotor blades would have been audible, yet it appeared to be completely silent.   It was far too large to be a remote controlled model, and the incident took place decades before drones were commercially available.   Nor could it have been a novelty triangular-shaped hot air balloon. One of these would not have had lights at its outer corners. The glow from the flame at the basket would have been visible after dark. Also night-flown hot air balloons are legally required to display a flashing warning beacon, and this was clearly not present.   The way in which it suddenly vanished in a clear sky puts an aircraft, hot air balloon or other inflatable out of the question. This aspect of the sighting suggests the use of highly advanced, potentially multi-dimensional, technology. I have dealt with many cases of triangular shaped UFOs, commonly referred to as Flying Triangles, before. In some of these cases the object has been seen to appear or vanish in a clear sky, just as this witness reported. Looking at the testimonial details I find it extremely likely that this is what was witnessed, possibly non-human in origin.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 29/07/2025   Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used   Over the years I have investigated hundreds of UFO/UAP sightings. In the vast majority of these cases the object(s) seen remain airborne. In rare cases they are seen to descend to or take off from the ground. However this case is rarer still. In this stunning incident, which took place back in the autumn of 1971, a UFO/UAP was observed on fire. According to the elderly witness, who I shall call “Howard”, this object then fell out of the sky and crashed into the Clwedog Reservoir situated in Powys, Wales.   I was put in touch with Howard by his son, who reached out to me on Facebook Messenger in early 2025. Through numerous phone calls I gained an in depth overview of what took place, the details of which will now be shared.   Crash Incident Overview   Back in October 1971 Howard was 28 years old. At the time he lived with his wife and two young children on the North Eastern edge of Hafren Forest, approximately 1 mile away from the village of Staylittle.   Aerial map indicating the edge of Hafren Forest (A) and Staylittle (B)  Every Monday to Friday he worked night shifts at a company named BRD in Newtown, situated about 15 miles to the East (The company has since disbanded). In order to get to and from work he would drive his Austin 1100 along the B4518 past the North East edge of Clwedog Reservoir.   Aerial map indicating Hafren Forest (A) and Newtown (B):  On the evening of Friday 22 nd  October Howard set off for work at the usual time of 9pm. It was a wonderfully clear night, with a particularly bright moon in the sky, and the stars fully visible. It was dry, still and not particularly cold.   About 5 minutes into the journey he was driving along the B4518. For a Friday evening it seemed unusually quiet, and there were no other drivers on the road.   Suddenly there was a loud whoosh sound which came from the air over the grass-covered fields off to the right of the road. At the same moment his car engine stopped and he ground to a halt. Looking to the right from where the sound had come from he was astounded to see a disc-shaped object entirely engulfed in flame.   It was quite close to the road, only about 100 yards away, and at quite low altitude, probably only a couple of hundred feet. Not only were there flames completely covering it, obscuring the exact shape, but also what looked like sparks shooting off it.   Aerial map indicating the approximate position where the car stopped:   Mock up of the burning UFO on top of photograph of the location based on witness description Howard estimates that the object was between 25-30 feet in diameter. It was travelling on a very slight downward trajectory, and looked like it was in trouble and was going to eventually crash into the ground if it continued on its current course. It was travelling quite fast, in excess of 100mph.   Sitting in the now stopped car, he watched the object for over 30 seconds as it made its way across the fields. Sadly he had no photographic or video camera on him. In the distance ahead was the brow of a hill, beyond which was the main part of the reservoir.   Mock up of the UFO as it moved towards the hill: He was convinced that the object, on its gradual decline, would not clear the top of the hill. However as it reached the summit it just about cleared it, and then disappeared out of sight beyond. Howard was intrigued to see where it went, but at present the car engine would not start. He got out and lifted up the bonnet.   The Austin 1100 had a transverse engine setup. In a setup of this type, the number 1 spark plug lead and cap is the spark plug nearest the front of the vehicle. When Howard checked he found that this plug was hanging loose and appeared to have been disconnected. He reconnected it and then tried starting the car again. Luckily it started absolutely fine.   Example photograph of an Austin 1100 He continued driving along the B4518 in the direction of the hill. He was hoping to see whether the object he had previously witnessed had crash landed so wanted a good vantage point. There is a small car park at the summit, but he felt this would not give him a clear enough view of the surrounding area.   Modern photograph of the entrance to the car park He continued along the road a little more just so he was over the brow of the hill. He then pulled in at the side of the road and got out. Off to his right he now had a clear view of a large part of the Clwedog Reservoir. Modern photograph of Clwedog Reservoir The bright moonlight lit the water up extremely well, he could even see the vegetation on the far bank. There was no sign of any burning object or debris. However half way across the reservoir, over the deepest part of the water, he could make out a domed disc-shaped object which appeared to hovering a short distance above the surface.   Mock up of the UFO/UAP over the surface of the water   Aerial map indicating the position of the witness (A) and the position of the UFO/UAP (B) It was roughly the same size as the burning object he had previously seen, about 25-30 feet across. From his position he could only make out the upper half. It appeared dark gun metal grey in colour. On the side of the central dome he could make out a row of rectangular-shaped windows. These looked slightly lighter than the main body of the object, but were not glowing. There was a singular red light on the outer rim of the object which did not change in brightness.   As he watched he realised the object was rotating slowly in a clockwise direction. If it wasn’t for the light and rectangular windows this may not have been noticeable. Apart from this slow rotation the object appeared completely motionless.   Howard watched it for approximately 15 minutes. During this time no other vehicles came along the road. Even if they had they may not have noticed the object over the water. After this time, without any warning, the object started to ascend vertically at a slow speed. It continued until it was about twice the height of the hill, approximately 400-500 feet up. It then halted briefly.   He could now see the underside of the object. There was a second dome underneath, slightly larger than the upper dome. But apart from this there were no markings or other lights visible.   Mock up of the UFO hovering over the reservoir  The object then started moving off to the South West in the direction of the Clwedog Dam at the southern end of the reservoir at a moderate speed.   Aerial map indicating the position of the witness and the path the UFO/UAP headed away on  About 10 seconds later as it reached the dam it greatly increased in velocity and shot away like a bullet to the South West on a straight and level course. It had completely vanished from sight in less than a second!   Howard was absolutely stunned by what he had just witnessed. He knew that both the burning object and the object over the reservoir were completely anomalous, and the second object had clearly been under intelligent control.   He got back into the car and continued his drive to work. Later on he informed a work colleague about the sighting. They did not take the mick, but neither did they didn’t seem particularly interested.   Howard decided not to tell his wife about what he had witnessed due to the fact that they lived remotely on the edge of a forest, and he did not want her to get concerned. However over the weekend he decided to contact the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) via phone and inform them about the incident.   When he drove back into work on Monday evening his work colleague showed him an article in the Shropshire Star newspaper. The article stated that there had been several other sightings of UFOs in the vicinity earlier in the evening on the same day as his sighting! Unfortunately Howard did not keep a copy of this article, nor does he remember the specific details of what was reported. He was just aware that the sightings had taken place within the border of Montgomeryshire (now known as Powys). But he believes they may have been previous sightings of the UFO/UAP he witnessed.   Possible Related MIB Incident   Howard never heard back from BUFORA after sending them the completed chart. In the Spring or Summer of 1976 the incident crossed his mind, and he decided to reach out to them by hand-written letter.   A couple of days went by. By 1976 Howard was no longer working for BRD, and instead had an early morning shift at the local Post Office from 5am till mid-day. When he got back in from his shift he got himself some lunch and then went for a nap around 1pm.   At around 3pm he woke up and happened to look out of the front-facing window. It was now that he noticed two men in dark suits, hats and dark sunglasses approach the front gate. They opened the gate, walked down the path and knocked on the door.   Howard did not like the look of the men and was suspicious regarding what they wanted, so pretended he was out and did not answer the door. He watched as the two men left and walked back out of sight.   Son’s Testimony   Throughout his life Howard has mentioned the incident to his son on numerous occasions. His son provided the following statement regarding these conversations.   "The only thing I remember when growing up as a youngster was with him talking about what he had seen but I also vaguely remember seeing paperwork with drawings on them of the UFO, which I believe he had done himself. I assumed the drawings he had done he still had. But they must have been the forms he had sent off."   Incidents Analysis   What Howard witnessed back in 1971 could well be extremely significant – the possible crash of a UFO/UAP into Clwedog Reservoir. UFO/UAP crash cases are extremely rare but do occur from time to time. Could this really be a crash incident which has up until this point been largely kept from the public’s knowledge? There are many aspects worth considering.   Although at present we only have Howard’s detailed testimony to go on, after talking with him in depth about the incident I have no doubt that it occurred as he described. He answered my questions immediately when asked, and it was clear that the experience left a lasting impression on him, hence why he able to recollect it in such good detail decades on. He freely mentioned passing the details on to BUFORA, and his son also confirmed that he recollects his father talking about what happened.   Regarding the burning object, a mundane explanation we need to look into would be a meteorite. At close proximity a meteorite about to reach the ground would very likely be audible. The air disruption caused by the passing of such an object could potentially dislodge one of the spark plugs inside the bonnet of a nearby vehicle, which could explain what happened to Howard’s car at the time.   However there are numerous details which do not fit with this explanation. Meteorites tend to have a burning tail visible behind them as they travel across the sky. Howard did not see a tail, it was just a disc-shaped object covered in flame emitting sparks.   Also if the object was close enough to cause a shockwave and make an audible sound it would have to have been quite close. Meteorites move extremely fast, and are usually only visible for a few seconds before burning up completely. They also tend to descend at a noticeable angle. The object Howard saw was only descending very gradually, and he observed it for around 30 seconds as it approached the hill, so was moving far too slowly to be a meteorite.   It was the wrong shape for a crashing aeroplane or helicopter, and was moving too quickly to be an airship or other large inflatable on fire. The sighting occurred decades before drones were commercially available. Therefore there is the distinct possibility that this was a genuine advanced craft which was in trouble and about to crash.   When Howard reached the summit of the hill he then saw a disc-shaped object hovering over the reservoir. One question to ask is whether this was the same object or not. Could the object have entered the water temporarily, dousing the flames on it, and then it re-emerged unscathed? As Howard stated, it was approximately the same size and shape as the object he had seen on fire.   However he has a different theory entirely. Howard believes that the initial object was a craft, and that it did come down and crash into the water, sinking to the base of the reservoir. He then thinks that a second craft arrived, potentially in an attempt to rescue the crew and/or technology from the crashed craft. He theorises that the initial craft may have sent out some kind of SOS and that the second one was hovering near to where the first one had sunk.   The object seen over the reservoir was clearly not a normal aircraft of any kind. It hovered for an extensive period of time so could not have been an aeroplane. Nor could it have been a helicopter. It had a different appearance, was slowly rotating (something a helicopter would have no need to do), and did not have normal navigation lights. Although helicopters do have red lights, they also have white static, white strobe and green lights, some of which would have also been visible.   Diagram indicating normal helicopter navigation lights The rotation and lighting also put a novelty shaped hot air balloon out of the question. After dark hot air balloon pilots are required legally to hang a white strobe warning light from the basket, which would have been visible.   It was too large to be a remote controlled model, and there would be no reason for someone to fly such a model after dark over the reservoir in the first place.   In addition to this, the sudden increase in speed which the object performed when it left the vicinity put mundane explanations out of the question. We do not possess any military aircraft that can perform such a manoeuvre today, let alone back in the 1970s.   From the witness’s detailed testimony everything points towards this incident being a genuine sighting of either a crash of an advanced craft with a second craft intentionally there to assist, or a singular craft which was on fire and then used the water of the reservoir to put out these flames.   It is unfortunate that Howard did not have a camera with him at the time, as the sighting was quite extensive so he would have had plenty of time to take photographs or video footage. However this is fully understandable as he was just on his regular voyage to work.   It is also unfortunate that he did not retain the article from the newspaper reporting the other sightings in the area. The Wikipedia page for Shropshire Star indicates that it began circulation in 1964:   However when searching for the newspaper on The British Newspaper Archive website the stored articles for the Shropshire Star sadly only go back to 2 nd  January 1986:   I reached out to the website to ask why this might be the case. Below is their official response E-Mail:   As you can see they did not provide a response regarding why Shropshire Star articles prior to 1986 were not on their site, but did advise going to the British Library. In searching their catalogue I did manage to find Shropshire Star newspaper:   However after chatting online with support staff I was informed that no digital copies of the paper exist, and in order to attempt to track down an article I would need to visit the newsroom at either St Pancras, London or Boston Spa. I intend to visit one of these newsrooms in the near future and attempt to locate the article. If I am successful in doing so it will be added to this report.   Regarding the potential “Men In Black” visit which took place 5 years later, there are multiple possibilities. It is possible these men were actually investigators from BUFORA and had come round to visit unannounced to discuss the sighting in more detail. He had after all sent off the letter to them a few days before, and this would have had his address on. Another possibility is that they were just smartly dressed civilians, for example salespeople attempting to sell a product, or a religious group who wanted to talk.   Of course, there remains the possibility that they were genuinely Men In Black sent out from a governmental or military body who wanted to ask questions about what happened or warn him off talking about it. They could potentially have intercepted the letter he sent and only discovered he had witnessed it at this time, which may have tipped them off regarding Howard’s involvement and address. If so this would explain why they did not visit him sooner to the incident itself.   We will likely never know for certain because he decided to not answer the door, and the men did not make a return visit to the property. Howard informed me that at the time of these incidents he had no real interest in UFO/UAPs and it was only many years later that he learned about visits from Men In Black and their association with the subject.   I would like to thank Howard for getting in touch and going over what took place. It is good to get this potentially important incident down on official record. I hope to obtain some direct drawings from Howard in due course. If you have information regarding any of the incidents which are discussed in this report please get in touch.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2015 Last Updated: 25/06/2025   Sighting Details   Around 6pm on the evening of 27th June 2015 John was out in the back garden of his house on Bursnips Road. It was a pleasant and clear evening, and due to the time of year the sun was still high in the sky.   Aerial map of Bursnips Road  He happened to look up into the sky to the North and noticed an unusual object. It was long and cylindrical, and appeared to be dark brown in colour. The surface appeared non-reflective and there were no markings visible. There was no trail behind it and no audible sound. John estimates it was about 8-10000 feet up, about the same height that a mid-level plane would fly at. If it was at this height then it was about the size of a jumbo jet (250 feet).   The UFO/UAP seemed to be moving very fast, much quicker than a plane would fly at. It travelled on a straight and level course heading South, and was only visible for 8-10 seconds.   When he spotted the object he called his brother to come outside. By the time he was joined by him it was almost out of sight, but his brother still observed it for several seconds.   Later on John looked online but found no other reports of the object.   Sighting Analysis   This is an interesting sighting due to the unusual appearance of the object, apparent speed of movement and lack of sound. Sometimes at very high altitude aircraft reflecting sunlight can appear as glowing white cigar shaped objects. However this was not reflective and was a dark brown colour. If it had wings or a tail these would have been visible.   John says he is used to seeing aircraft in the sky travelling to or from Birmingham International Airport. However this object appeared to be moving much faster. He says it’s the “fastest thing he’s ever seen!”   However it is unknown whether it really was as distant as John believed it to be. Sometimes it is hard to accurately judge the height of objects seen in the sky where there is no point of reference. If it was closer then this would have made it appear larger and move faster than it in fact was.   If it was smaller and slower then a dark brown coloured solar airship may have been responsible. These are long cylindrical balloons which can be launched on sunny days and drift up into the sky. They are usually tethered but could potentially be launched untethered or break off and start drifting on air currents. Example photograph of a solar airship To counteract this argument, solar airships are usually black in colour. They also tend to rock/rotate while drifting, where as this remained horizontal for the duration of the sighting. Although the object did not perform any advanced manoeuvres there is still the possibility it was an advanced cigar-shaped craft.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 22/09/2015 Last Updated: 23/06/2025 In September 2015 my ex-wife’s uncle Graham came to visit for the weekend. During this time he informed me of an extended UFO sighting he and others experienced while on holiday in Clyro near Hay-On-Wye in the summer of 1981. Sighting Details In August 1981 Graham (who was 13 at the time) went on holiday with his parents, Aunt Lynn, and Lynn’s friend Claire. They were staying on Princes caravan site (Now known as Borders Hideaway), West of Clyro. Aerial map of the campsite today showing the position Graham's caravan was situated: Modern photograph of the campsite entrance: It was about 8pm in the evening. The sun was beginning to set, and it was pleasant still weather with very little cloud. Looking out of the window of the caravan Graham noticed an unusual light in the sky to the North West over the Radner mountains. It appeared to be about 2-3 miles away and at a height of around 2000 feet. The light was flashing red, yellow and green in a regular pattern. It would stay lit for several seconds, then switch off for several seconds before coming back on in a different colour. It’s movement pattern seemed far too erratic for an aircraft or helicopter. It was drifting backwards and forwards across the sky, regularly changing course in slow gradual turns at about 35-50 mph. After a couple of minutes of watching the light, Graham called everyone else to watch it. Upon seeing the light, everyone headed outside to get a better look at the object. There was no-one else around at the time as the site was not particularly crowded. Unfortunately nobody had a camera with them at the time. Puzzled by its appearance, everyone watched it for about 15 minutes before returning back inside the caravan. Graham continued to observe it from the window. After about an hour the object began to move in the direction of the campsite. It got to within a mile of their location and also descended in altitude to about 1000 feet. The sun had now set and it was quite dark, but Graham could see a flattened disc shape with squared off ends. The pulsing light was coming from the centre of it. After watching it for a number of minutes, the UFO increased dramatically in speed and shot away to the West extremely fast. Within a second it was lost from view from the window. Witness drawing of the UFO: Graham continued to watch for 15 minutes to see if it would make a reappearance but it did not, so he decided to go to sleep. The next day he checked on the news to see if anyone else had seen the object but there were no reports mentioning it. Claire mentioned that she had seen a similar object on previous occasions. Sighting Analysis This is an interesting sighting for a number of reasons. The length of time the UFO was observed for is quite unusual. Most sightings take place between a few seconds and several minutes, but this object was watched for over an hour. The colours which the light was flashing do not fit in with normal aircraft navigation lights. The manoeuvres of the object means it cannot have been an aeroplane, and the appearance of the object when it moved closer confirms that it was not a helicopter. The stunning increase in speed which the object performed when it left the area also put out of the question that it was an unusual lit inflatable or remote controlled model of some kind. Looking at all these aspects it seems probable that this was a genuine sighting of an advanced craft, possibly of extra-terrestrial origin. I would like to thank Graham for coming forward with this information and allowing it to be published on the BUFOG website. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2015 Last Updated: 19/06/2025   This report is based on the initial information sent via the witness involved. Unfortunately Thomas did not get back in touch with answers to my many additional questions so details are limited. The incidents all took place between 1978 and 2015, but precise dates for most incidents have not been given.   Grey Abduction   When Thomas was 4 years old he lived with his family in Lynwood. He and his brother shared a bunk bed, with him on the top.   Aerial map of Lynwood  One early morning he awoke and propped his head up using his elbow. For an unknown reason he could see through the bedroom wall like it was transparent. He could see clearly into the back yard of the property.   In the back yard was an apricot tree. It suddenly started shaking like a rattle. At first he thought it was a ghost and got frightened. Then two six foot tall thin beings appeared next to the tree. The beings had a slender body frame, with large heads, and appeared to be unclothed. Their skin was a pale tan colour. They had large oval-shaped eyes which were a similar colour to their skin, only a lighter tone.   They walked across the yard towards him, through the transparent wall and into the bedroom. One of them reached out and picked him up, cradling him in its arms. He tried to scream but when he did no sound came out. The being carried him out of the bedroom and to his parent’s room. In the room he saw that his father was missing from the bed. His father’s side of the bed was folded very neatly.   The being held him out over his sleeping mother. He again tried to shout and wake her up but could still not make a sound. After 10 seconds he was carried back out onto the hall. The next thing he was able to recall he found he was no longer in his house. He was lying down on a flattened table in an unfamiliar room. The room was glowing white and looked extremely clean. It had rounded walls. Along one edge was a ledge jutting out with a number of unusual instruments on that he did not recognise. Either side of him stood the two beings he had previously seen.   The one on his right held up a needle to his face and dripped a clear liquid from it. Frightened by this, Thomas thrashed his head back and forth. The being on the right told the one on the left to hold his head still, which it did. As it reached out towards him he saw the being had three fingers and was wearing gloves. He then felt its gloved hand on his head.   The next thing he became aware of he was back in the hallway in the beings arms again. It carried him back into his bedroom and placed him back on the bed. He then watched as the beings walked back through the wall, which was transparent like before. He pulled the bedcovers over his head and rolled over to sleep. When he closed his eyes he felt traumatized at what had just happened but in less than a minute managed to drop off.   For many years Thomas put this experience down to a bad dream. But many years later he read a book about the contact phenomenon and saw the many similarities between experiences reported in the book and what he remembered taking place.   In 2015 he spoke with his mother about this experience and what he remembered of it. His mother informed him that when he was young his father used to work nights, which would have accounted for why he was not in the bed at the time. His father informed him that he used to make his bed Navy style with an extra fold, which is what he recollects seeing.   Silver Boomerangs   Thomas’ father used to work for the Pacific Bell Telephone Company in Anaheim. One night he came home from work and informed Thomas that he had seen a UFO. He said that near to Disneyland Park he had witnessed a small metallic boomerang-shaped object which approached him at very low altitude. As it got closer some large trees obscured his view of the object. It did not reappear.   Aerial map of Disneyland Park  A couple of days later Thomas claims that he was visiting Disneyland. He was only a couple of miles away when he also saw the same object! He says that it moved very slowly at only a couple of miles per hour at only 50 feet above the sidewalk. It seemed to be about six feet across.   At the time of the sighting Thomas was stopped in his car waiting for a traffic light to change. As far as he could tell no other drivers had spotted the object. According to him the object travelled on a straight course, travelling along the street until it moved out of sight.   The fact that on both occasions the object was travelling slowly on a straight course, was small in size, and did not perform any manoeuvres to indicate intelligence, suggests that they may have been novelty balloons. The proximity of Disneyland means that they could have been balloons sold there which had been released into the air either intentionally or accidentally. Not forgetting that this sighting took place decades ago back in the 1970s, looking online I have been unable to find any novelty balloons of that precise shape, but here is a crescent-shaped balloon which appears somewhat similar: Silver coloured novelty balloon I have investigated other sightings of boomerang-shaped UFOs before, but there is nothing to indicate that these were advanced craft.   White Orbs   One night in his parent’s backyard Thomas saw a bright white orb of light to the East. Initially he assumed it was just a bright planet or star. A couple of seconds later it suddenly seemed to split and became two smaller orbs, roughly 400 yards away from one another.   These two orbs remained completely stationary for about 15 seconds. Then without warning they moved very swiftly towards one another, becoming a single bright orb again. A moment later this orb shot away extremely fast, ascending as it went. It was out of sight in just a second.   On another occasion around 8pm Thomas was out on the sundeck of his parent’s house. His dad was sitting in a rod iron chair. Thomas watched him lean his head back and look up into the sky. He asked him what he was doing, and his father said he was looking for UFOs.   Around 15 seconds later he pointed up into the sky and calmly stated “There’s one!”  Because of his calmness Thomas thought he was kidding. But he then stood up off the chair and continued to point. Thomas looked up and finally managed to see what he was looking at.   There was a small and faint orb of light moving on a straight course that appeared to be at very high altitude. At first Thomas thought it was just a satellite. But as it approached another stationary light, they seemed to merge and then instantly vanish!   The initial sighting could have been a couple of objects initially travelling alongside one another. From Thomas’ location this could have looked like a singular bright point of light. Various mundane explanations could be given for the majority of what was seen, including distant helicopters or white LED balloons. However the joined orb moved much too quickly at the end of the sighting for it to have been something normal, meaning that this sighting is certainly anomalous.   The second sighting that he and his father had could easily have been a satellite as Thomas suspected at first. Sometimes satellites cane flare up in brightness when they catch the suns rays, or can seem to vanish when they turn to a non-reflective angle.   Humming & Nosebleeds   For the following year after the sighting of the splitting orb Thomas began to hear a strange humming sound coming from the sky to the East on numerous occasions. He was unable to distinguish its exact origin. It would always start soon after he went to bed and would sometimes keep him awake for hours.   One night he got angry and at around 1:30am got out of bed and got dressed. He headed outside but when he did the sound ceased. He walked right along his block but could not hear it at all. When he returned to the house and got back into bed it started again!   On the nights when he was able to get to sleep, he would wake up with a nose bleed. He remembers asking his parents if they had heard the sound, but they said they had not.   After a year had gone by, Thomas moved into a room and board home three miles away from his parent’s house. When he moved the humming sounds and nosebleeds immediately ceased.   The fact that the sounds and nosebleeds ceased when he moved address suggests that the noise was coming from something local to the house, perhaps some unusual electrical machinery. It is possible that the nosebleeds were a side effect of hearing the monotonous noise for long periods of time, or could just have been coincidental. Thomas has no recollection of any contact experiences at these times.   Craft Landing Dream   During the year of the humming sounds, Thomas’ parents went away on an extended vacation to Italy for a couple of months, leaving Thomas’ to look after the house. One evening he decided to go to bed early as there was nothing good on television to watch.   When he lay down he heard the den screen door rattling, as though somebody was trying to get in. He realised he had forgotten to lock the door. Frightened by what might happen he decided to call out to scare off any potential burglars. Jumping up out of bed he loudly shouted  “Get the shotgun! Somebody is at the door!”   He slowly crept towards the screen door, which had now stopped rattling. Opening it he went out into the back yard. There was nobody there. He decided to return to bed. As soon as he closed his eyes he sank into a very deep sleep, which was highly unusual for him as it would usually take him hours to drop off. He then began to have a very vivid dream.   He was in complete darkness going down a steep hill in some kind of container that felt like a wheelbarrow. All of a sudden he topped out of it and found himself sitting in a sunlit grass-covered area. He became aware of a picket fence behind him, beyond which were a number of green-purple coloured farm buildings, and a 4 foot wide brooder in front of him to the right. He heard the sounds of cows and horses coming from it. He leaned forward and peered inside. It was half filled with dirt, but on top of it was many tiny cows and horses, no bigger than one inch tall. He counted them. There were seven cows and five horses. They began walking towards him.   Thomas backed away from the brooder. He looked to the North and in the sky saw a V shaped formation of seven metallic discs about 600 yards away from him. They were at an altitude of about 60 yards. One of the UFOs suddenly darted towards him, causing him to become frightened. It began to shoot six foot wide beams of light near his feet.   Witness drawing of the formation He noticed a large avocado tree about 50 yards away from him, and ran towards it crouching down to temporarily gain cover. Continuing onward from the tree he ran to a dirt path. He was out of breath so turned and squatted down to see what was going on behind him. He then thought about how he was going to get back home.   A minute later he felt a stinging sensation on the back of his right arm. Immediately he felt the effects of a paralyzing drug travel up around his left shoulder and down his left side. Being unable to run away, he was then approached by a tall humanoid being. The being appeared to be male, about 7 feet tall, and was wearing a white coloured bodysuit with a turned up collar and black construction worker style boots. He had a large head, no hair, with small eyes, nose and mouth.  He said to him “Come with me. I won’t hurt you.”   He grabbed hold of Thomas’ arms and helped him to start walking. They walked along the path about 100 yards. They arrived at a large white coloured disc-shaped craft on the ground. It was about 70 feet wide. It had an open doorway and a ramp coming down from it. The ramp was blue and purple colours and looked like it was made of acrylic. The being helped Thomas’ up the ramp and they entered the craft.   Inside was a corridor with a number of rooms coming off it. They entered the first room on the right hand side. Inside it was quite dark but looked pristine. He helped Thomas up onto a flat table, and then told him to look at a screen to his left.   All around him were short Grey beings, although he did not know what they were at the time. They were about 3.5 feet tall, had very large bald heads with huge black almond-shaped eyes. There were about seven of them, and they scurried about seeming to not pay much attention to him.   He looked over at the screen as he had been instructed to do so. At this moment he head two loud bang sounds behind him coming from the other side of the room which sounded like a hammer. Immediately he blacked out.   Thomas then found himself travelling slowly through a dense fog in a foetal position. After about 40 seconds the fog cleared and he realised he was floating in the air outside of his own house. For an unknown reason he could see through his bedroom wall. In his bed he saw himself asleep. As he realised he was asleep he moved back into his body and woke up.   His immediate thought was “Wow, what the hell was that?”  Recollecting the dream he started to make a mental note of everything that had happened before he forgot about it. He also realised that he now had a tremendous craving for cinnamon. The more he woke up the stronger this craving became.   He jumped up and ran to the kitchen but could not find any cinnamon. Checking the clock he found it was 10:50pm. He realised the local Alpha Beta supermarket was still open for ten minutes. He quickly got dressed and ran to the store. There he purchased a cinnamon apple pie. Returning to home he eagerly ate it cold. It was extremely satisfying, and luckily the craving subsided.   As it was still late evening, he once again tried going to bed. When he lay down something else strange took place. A small fairy-like creature holding a wand appeared in the air in front of his face. It was about 7 inches tall, and had wings similar to a dragonfly. Its skin was grey in colour but apart from this it looked quite humanoid.   The fairy began to touch his forehead with the wand every 15 seconds or so. As it did he experienced vivid visions of violence and destruction in his mind – bombs exploding, crimes taking place, wars breaking out. This went on for about a minute and then the fairy departed. When he closed his eyes to settle down to sleep Thomas had the vision of a statue of an owl at his bedroom window.   Later on he found out from books and the internet that the 7 foot tall humanoid he had seen in the dream was a Nordic, and the smaller beings he had seen aboard the craft were Greys. He has spoken about this series of incidents with friends and family often. In 2008 a friend advised he should read the book Communion about the contact experiences of Whitley Strieber, because what I was describing sounded very similar to things she had read in that. Thomas did purchase a copy of the book, and when he read it he was amazed by the number of similar aspects.   There are all sorts of fantastical aspects of this experience which suggest that it was certainly a dream rather than a flashback to an actual experience. That said it is possible that it was a mix of imagined ideas and aspects of one or more contact experiences he had previously had, including an abduction aboard a craft. According to Thomas’ he had no idea of the types of beings seen during contact, so how would these have been incorporated into his dream? The fairy and owl statue at his window could both have been screen memories masking a visitation that was taking place at the time.   Bigfoot Odour   After graduating high school Thomas attended junior college on and off. He took a night vocabulary course. One night in 1978 he parked his car in the driveway of his parent’s house, got out and walked up to the porch. He then decided to look up at the clear night sky above.   For some unknown reason he suddenly thought about what a Bigfoot might smell like. He has no idea why this thought came to his head. He could not detect any unusual odours, and had not recently been looking into anything Bigfoot related. He began to feel faint so went inside the house for a lie down.   Several days later he was watching VHF TV news channel. On the news there were 12 people from the neighbouring city of Buena Park being interviewed about a Bigfoot they had all observed running near a reservoir. They stated that it smelled very bad. Upon hearing this Thomas became very frightened and confused, and wondered why he had thought of this very thing only a few nights before.   This is a bizarre experience. It is not really a Bigfoot incident, as one was neither seen nor smelt at the time. it comes across more like a premonition of watching the news report. Experiencers often report having premonitions or precognition of future events.   The White Orb Returns   After living at the board home for two years, Thomas moved into an apartment in Garden Grove, in a shopping area called The Promenade.   Aerial map of The Promenade  One night he could not sleep so he decided to step outside onto the porch. He lived on an upstairs floor so the roof was close above him. When he looked up he saw a bright orb of light at the end of the roof in the centre of the sky. From his perspective it was about ¼ of an inch across, and was travelling on a straight course in an Easterly direction. After about 10-15 seconds it suddenly disappeared. There were no clouds eminent at the time which could have hidden it from sight.   As the orb did not perform any unusual manoeuvres a mundane explanation such as a distant aircraft, LED balloon or satellite cannot be ruled out. If it was a satellite this could have disappeared as it stopped reflecting sunlight. Thomas says that there were no clouds visible, but after dark it is sometimes hard to see clouds against the night sky. Maybe there was one which the object suddenly moved behind, appearing to vanish. It could not have been a drone as these were not commercially available until 2011.   Field Communications   On another night Thomas was listening to his radio in bed. At midnight he switched it off and settled down to sleep. As soon as closed his eyes heard a buzzing and wooing sound seemingly coming from outside down the street. It was very faint at first but got louder and louder, which Thomas interpreted as getting closer.   Within 30 seconds it was extremely loud and sounded like it was about 10 feet above the apartment roof. In his mind he visualized a 16 foot wide disc-shaped UFO, with a 4 inch wide groove running around the central rim. Inside this groove appeared to be dust. Whatever was making the sound hovered over the apartment for 45 seconds and then started moving down the street towards a nearby field (Thomas did not state the specific field but by studying maps of the local area it is likely he is referring to Brookhurst Elementary School playing field). Aerial map of Brookhurst Elementary School playing field Thomas was considering running down the corridor stairs to see if he could see it, but he thought that by the time he’d got his robe on and got outside it would be gone. He closed his eyes and said to himself “Tom, just another UFO.”   He closed his eyes to try and drop off to sleep. When he did he saw some kind of white substance covering his left eyelid. Because he is Christian he interpreted it as the Holy Spirit protecting him from the UFO he had sensed over the apartment.   Seconds later he began to hear a human male voice coming from the corner of his bedroom. It was loud and very frightening. He opened his eyes and sat up. The voice immediately ceased. When he closed his eyes the voice started again. It was deep and spoke in English, but he cannot remember exactly what was being said. He opened his eyes and got out of bed, concerned by what was taking place. At around 12:15am he sensed an intelligent presence coming from the direction of the field. He then had another vision, this time of a disc shaped craft on the ground with four beings within it. At the same moment he realized he was telepathically communicating with these beings. This communication went on till 3:30am. Once the communication seemed to cease, Thomas looked into the large dresser mirror in the room. In the mirror he saw the silhouette of a being standing in the living room. It was standing in front of the window and around 5 feet tall. Its head had an elongated shape similar to an American football. Its shoulders were very small and squared off, and it had thin arms and legs. It reminded him of a man wearing a suit of amour. Upon seeing the being he exclaimed out loud “What the hell is that?”  But for an unknown reason he did not feel intimidated by it. He lifted himself up on his elbow to get a better look. Several seconds later the being took a step sideways into the adjoining kitchen. When it did Thomas was able to see that it was wearing trousers made out of thick material. Fifteen minutes later he got up to get a drink of water. He was aware that the figure had entered the kitchen so called out “Is anybody there?”  There was no response. He slowly approached the kitchen door and turned on the light. There was no sign of the being anywhere. As he was drinking his water he heard knocking at the front door of the apartment. He was too frightened to answer it, unsure of what may be there. He sat there transfixed looking towards it. Eventually after about three minutes the knocking ceased, and he went back to bed. Once lying back down the communication appeared to start again. Only this time he knew he was communicating with an alien doctor. He has no idea how he was aware of this. This went on for another couple of hours. Around 5:30am he sensed this communication stop and the presence in the field also seemed to have departed. Thomas was relieved and fell off to sleep. A couple of days later on the way to the shops he walked through the field. He looked to his left and saw a perfect semi-circle impressed in the ground that was about 16 feet across, the same size as the craft he had envisioned floating above the roof of the apartment. He walked over to it to take a closer look. It was quite shallow, only about half an inch deep. In the middle of it was a patch of burnt ground.   Photograph of Brookhurst Elementary School playing field A couple of days after this Thomas says he spoke with two police officers and got them to drive to the field. He pointed out the spot to them. According to him they were both amazed. One of them picked up some of the burnt soil and smelled it. He said that it had a sulfur smell to it.   Thomas explained what had occurred during the night. One of the officers advised him to contact 20/20 and Hard Copy, two American investigative television shows. He did try to reach out to them by he was unable to get through. Several days later he was sitting in his living room when he suddenly sensed the same presence he had previously sensed in the field. It seemed to fill the entire room around him. He felt that it had come from far out in space. He then received a telepathic communication which informed him that they wanted to dissect him that night. He does not know why they did not go through with their plan, but is of course very grateful that they did not. There are some very interesting aspects to this series of events. The strange sounds which he heard approach and hover over his apartment do not sound like normal helicopter rotor blades, and if it was a helicopter why would he have had the vision of disc-shaped craft? He then had extensive telepathic communication with some lifeforms he interpreted as being situated in the nearby field. The fact that he later on found strange depressions and burn marks in the field is interesting, although these may obviously have been un-related and it was just him making the association. It is a shame that Thomas did not take any photographs of the markings or send me any proof that the meetings with the police did take place, we only have his testimony to go on. The knocking at the door is another intriguing aspect. I have actually dealt with other cases where people have heard their door being knocked or door bell being rang, very odd indeed. As it occurred in the middle of the night it is unlikely that someone had approached the house and was knocking on the door for several minutes, although this cannot be ruled out entirely.   Stopped Watch   On another occasion for several nights in a row Thomas heard a loud humming and pulsating sound near to his apartment between 1:37am and 1:50am. On the fourth night he had his bedroom light on and the window shades open. The sound did not occur on this night and he dropped off to sleep.   In the morning when he awoke he found his watch had stopped at 1:42am.   A couple of days later he bought Weekly World News, a news publication which regularly covers UFO/UAP and paranormal subjects. In it was an article discussing alien species apparently known about by the US Government. One of the species it mentioned were what it referred to as “Little People”, which the article claimed had a fascination with clocks and watches, and regularly liked to play tricks on people. Thomas wonders if it was one of these who visited him on this occasion.   The fact that the sound occurred multiple times for the same period of time suggests it was caused by some temporary night work taking place in the vicinity of his apartment. It is possible that his watch had just broken or ran out of batteries, and it was just a coincidence that it had done so around the same time that he had previously heard the sounds. It is too much of a stretch to state that it had been intentionally stopped by an alien being, especially as nothing was observed at the time.   Hospital Experience   In 1993 Thomas became very hyperactive at night and found he could not drop off to sleep at all. This ended up in him having to go to hospital for three nights. The nearest hospital to The Promenade is Providence St Joseph Hospital Orange, which is most likely where he was taken to. Aerial map indicating The Promenade (A) and Providence St Joseph Hospital (B) On the final night he was moved to another room because of an issue with another patient. Unfortunately someone else was snoring in this room which meant he could not drop off to sleep.   At around 1:30am he heard a continuous high pitched sound coming from the ceiling in front of him. Fifteen seconds later off to his left he saw a very thin wire coming towards him from the ceiling. It passed across his face and the end of it touched his right ear. It remained there for several seconds before retracting back into the ceiling. The same thing then happened a second time. The wire re-appeared, descended, touched his ear then retracted again. After it had done this the sound abruptly ceased. Soon afterwards he was able to finally drop off to sleep.   After breakfast in the morning the nurse mentioned that the doctors wanted to talk with him. She escorted him to the back of the hospital. He entered a room with a large oval table surrounded by roughly 40 people, who looked like doctors. Some of them were staring at him with their mouths wide open.   At the head of the table was his own doctor, with an empty chair alongside her. She asked him to come and sit down, which he did. She then asked him “Did you have a UFO experience last night?”  Thinking this was a bizarre thing to ask, and what might happen if he said yes, he simply said “No.” He was then informed he could leave the room.   Thomas went back to the room he had slept in, got his things and left for home. Ever since he has wondered about what took place that night, and how his doctor was aware that something unusual had gone on.   He visited the hospital to fill out some forms for a doctor to look at his records. But the room was so packed with people he felt flustered so went home. Years later he called the hospital for contact information on the doctor he had been assigned, but was informed that she no longer worked there.  On another occasion he searched for his doctor online, but found hundreds with the same name, far too many to contact individually.   In 2006 he again got curious and contact the hospital, but they informed him that they disposed of records after ten years so no longer had any information.   This is a very bizarre series of events. The high pitched sound he heard in the hospital bed could have been caused by tinnitus, or may possibly have been something at the hospital itself (although why it would have been in the ceiling is a mystery, perhaps there were multiple floors).   The wire which emerged and descended towards him is the strangest part of all. This was probably a visual hallucination caused by the irritation of the sound or his health at the time caused by the lack of sleep. I have not come across any other contact cases where the same thing has been reported.   However if it was just this, then why was he questioned by his doctor about the subject, and why were there many other doctors also present for this? This particular aspect of the incident I find particularly challenging. How would his doctor have known he had any kind of experience in the first place? Why would she associate this strange event with a UFO experience? It suggests that she was not a doctor at all (nor the other people in the room), but surely she must have been employed there as one or else. It is a shame that Thomas has no evidence that this took place, although according to him it looked like he attempted to get some on numerous occasions.   Xylophone   One night around 1996 Thomas lay down to go to sleep with the right side of his face on his pillow. Less than a minute later he began to hear distinct xylophone music in his right ear. A slow melody played which he did not recognise. He lifted his head off the pillow and shook his head but he could still hear the notes. The music seemed to continue for about a minute longer after he put his head back down on the pillow before finally halting. Thomas has heard of tinnitus causing continuous high pitched noises but says that this was very different, with actual notes being heard.   This is a strange experience. While I agree that it could not have been tinnitus on this occasion, it is possible that it was music coming in from outside, or perhaps a sleep-related hypnagogic audial hallucination.   Lit Cylinder   After living at the apartment a while, Thomas decided to move next door to a neighbouring complex. The move took a number of days, but he finally got everything put away.   Sitting for the first time in his new living room he looked out of the window. Within 10 seconds he suddenly saw a strange object in the sky about a quarter of a mile away. It looked like an upside down car gearstick, cylindrical, with a round sphere at one end, which was brightly glowing a fiery mix of colours. The cylinder was positioned vertically, with the sphere of glowing light at the base of it.   Witness drawing of the UFO According to Thomas the object was only visible for several seconds as it, “flying out of the atmosphere at a high speed” . As it performed this manoeuvre it rocked back and forth like a very fast pendulum. Thomas was amazed that one of the first things he had seen in his new apartment was a UFO!   This is certainly an unusual sighting. It is possible that the rainbow glow coming from the end was caused by bright reflection of sunlight catching the base of it. One potential mundane explanation would be an untethered solar airship drifting in the breeze and rocking back and forth. However the object does sound like it ascended too fast to be this, although this may just have been Thomas’ interpretation of it at the time. White Domed Disc   Within walking distance from Thomas’ apartment was Tomy’s Fast-N-Fresh Burger Restaurant. Because of its proximity Thomas became friends with some of the employees, and he would often go there until closing.   Photograph of Tomy's Restaurant One night around 10:50pm he was walking back along the road he lived on when he suddenly noticed a very low and large bright light. He was taking a shortcut through an alley, which meant that the object was sometimes being obscured from sight by buildings and trees.   When he reached a preschool close to where he lived, the object approached him and then suddenly halted. It appeared to be about 20 feet in diameter and disc-shaped. The main body was white in colour, with two bright lights on the front which reminded him of car high beams. On the top was a 7 foot tall cylindrical section which looked like it was made from bubbled glass panelling.   Witness drawing of the UFO  The bizarre object hovered silently in the air over the school playground. It gave Thomas’s the impression that it probably could not fly very fast.   However a couple of seconds later it moved sideways a very short distance and then instantly accelerated, briefly leaving a tracer line from the two bright lights on the front angled slightly upward and to the North. This manoeuvre immediately confirmed that the object had not been a normal aircraft of any kind.   The object seen on this occasion was very unusual indeed, especially the tall cylinder emerging from the top. Although planes do have a couple of white landing lights on their front, the shape of the object was entirely wrong for a plane coming in to land. Also the manoeuvre it performed put out of the question it was a plane, or another mundane object such as a drifting novelty balloon with lights on. Paralysis   During one night around 1:30am Thomas awoke unexpectedly. He immediately realised he was completely paralyzed from the neck down. He could only move his neck a little and his eyes. He turned his head to the right as much as he could to take a look across the room.   Over by the bedroom door in front of the closet he saw two beings standing there perfectly still, with some kind of counter in front of them. Firstly there was a pure white coloured being. Its features looked very rounded. It had a small nose and mouth. Its whole body was glowing as if it was radioactive. In the glowing white light emitting from the being there were small black flecks, about an inch long.   To its right was an orange skinned Grey. It was about five feet in height. It had large almond shaped eyes which were a pale orange colour, a very small nose and a slit for a mouth. By this point in his life Thomas had looked into contact and knew what a Grey looked like, but was not aware that they could be this colour. The counter was quite short, about waist height. In front of each of the beings resting on the counter was a foot long white coloured stick. Thomas then felt a sensation on the back of his head near his ears. It felt like two threads tied either side of his head creating stress. He felt that it was these which were responsible for the paralysis he was feeling.   The white being began emitting a loud humming sound. At this point Thomas became frightened and screamed as loud as he could several times, moving his head from side to side to try and break free of the paralysis. On his third attempt he was able to fully move his head, then his whole body. The two beings and the counter instantly vanished.   Ten days later Thomas was visiting Tomy’s restaurant with a friend. They were sitting at a table together. Suddenly he felt irritation on the back right of his head where he had previously felt the taught thread. He felt that what had happened to him had actually caused some kind of lasting damage.   This certainly sounds like it may have been a visitation experience. However there are some bizarre aspects. One of the beings was quite unusual in appearance and not one which relates to any other encounters I have investigated personally. Also the "counter" which also appeared in front of the beings is very odd. If Thomas was aware by this point of the contact phenomenon, it is possible instead that this was caused by sleep paralysis, and the beings were hypnagogic hallucinations. This would explain why they disappeared at the moment he was able to force himself to move normally. Space Shuttle Disaster Precognition   In 2002 Thomas was lying down on his bed with his eyes closed. Suddenly he had a clear vision in his mind of sitting in the back seat of a space shuttle. He could see astronauts sitting in the seats in front of him wearing pale blue one-piece jerseys. He looked out of the window to his left, and saw the left wing burning up extremely brightly. He realised the shuttle must be on re-entry to the atmosphere.   A moment later the vision ended and he found himself back in his bed. However 15 seconds later a second vision began. Once again he was back on the shuttle. This time he leaned over and looked out of the right window. Again he could see the right wing burning. But suddenly a square panel seemed to break off the wing. This is where the second vision ended.   On 16th January 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia was launched. During the launch a piece of foam broke off and struck the reinforced carbon-carbon panels on the left wing of the Shuttle. NASA became aware of the damaged panel during the mission and attempted to repair it. Photograph of the launch of Space Shuttle Columbia  However on Saturday 1st February 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia sadly disintegrated on re-entry. When he saw the disaster on television he realised that the visions he had experienced a year before were of the shuttle about to break up in the atmosphere.   You can find out more about what took place at the following page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster   The disaster occurred close to where he lived, with pieces of debris raining down only 20 miles away over the San Bernardito mountains.   Photograph of the Space Shuttle breaking up on re-entry  A couple of days later he claims to have been walking along his street when he found a strange looking wire mesh object, about 10 inches long by 4 inches wide. The mesh was twisted, diamond shaped and had burns at the ends. Thomas brought it back home and contacted the police, unsure of what he had found.   A policeman arrived at the apartment to take a look at the object first hand. He informed Thomas that if it was part of the Space Shuttle NASA would be in touch. He then left with the object.   Four hours later Thomas found a second piece of similar debris near to where he had found the first. He called the police again, and once again an officer visited him to collect it. Thomas claims to have taken photographs of both of the pieces, but says that he unfortunately lost them. He informed me that NASA did not get in touch, so he is unsure as to what the objects were.   Thinking back to the visions he had, Thomas sometimes wonders if he could have done anything to prevent what took place. However he feels certain that NASA would not have taken him seriously if he had tried getting in touch, and at the time of the visions he had no idea what Space Shuttle mission they related to. As mentioned earlier in the report, experiencers often have premonitions or precognitions of events that are yet to happen, sometimes of disasters. This could well be an example of this, especially as it occurred in his local area. It is unknown whether the mesh debris he found after the disaster was actually part of the Shuttle, this seems improbable, it was probably just waste which had been fly tipped. Once again we only have Thomas’ testimony to go on regarding this, so its up to you whether you believe these claims or not.   Bedroom Orb   In 2003 Thomas was lying down on his bed waiting for the laundry to finish downstairs. To his left he had the bedside lamp on. The TV in front of him was switched off at the time, and like usual he could see the reflection of the light in it.   At one point he happened to glance round at the TV and saw a pure white round light in the centre of the screen. Assuming it was the reflection of another light in the room he looked all around but realised there was nothing. The white orb of light appeared to be hovering right in front of the television screen.   It was about one eighth of an inch in diameter. Thomas stared at it intensely, fascinated by it. The orb moved to the left very slowly over 4 minutes. It then suddenly seemed to disappear.   Experiencers often report seeing glowing orbs in their close proximity, often inside their own home. It is unknown whether these are related to their contact experiences directly, or are more paranormal in nature. Orb Video Stills   Between December 2003 to May 2004 Thomas managed to capture numerous orbs on camcorder. Unfortunately he has not yet sent me the videos to watch in their entirety, but did send some stills from them.   On 9th December 2003 at 7:02pm Thomas managed to video a pale orange coloured orb from his apartment window:   The object seems to have remained in the area for some time, as it is still present in the below zoomed in still at 7:26pm:   On 9th March 2004 he observed numerous white orbs from the window of his apartment. Below is a still from 7.26pm showing three of them:   Zoomed view of the three orbs:   Some other stills from 7:32pm, 7.33pm and 7:50pm:   On the 16th May 2004 at 8:18pm he recorded a couple of pale orange orbs at close proximity to one another:   Zoomed view of the pair of orbs:   Here is a still from ten minutes later, which now appears as a singular white coloured orb. It is unknown whether this is the same orbs as before or something different.   Two days later at dusk he videoed another brightly glowing white orb. He sent me several stills taken between 8:13pm and 8:15pm: On 29th May 2004 at 8:28pm he recorded a glowing pale orange object: It is unclear on this occasion whether it was actually cigar-shaped, or whether this is just down to camera movement when the still was taken.   Unfortunately Thomas has not provided any detailed information regarding these video stills, such as if/how they moved, whether they appeared or disappeared, or how long they were observed for. All of the objects he has recorded could easily be explained as mundane things, such as distant aircraft or drones. It is possible that some are even the moon or bright planets/stars.   Until I am sent the actual videos to analyse I cannot comment further. However I have included them in this report for your interest. Two Sightings   One evening at dusk Thomas was sitting on a bench outside a local grocery store waiting for his girlfriend. He noticed many lights in the sky which he assumed were distant small aircraft. As he watched the planes, he focused on one in particular for seemingly no reason.   Suddenly the light he was looking at ascended vertically at extremely high speed! He realised that it had not been a plane at all. When his girlfriend came out of the store he informed her about what he had seen but she couldn’t accept what he said.   As they walked back to his apartment Thomas kept an eye on the other lights in the sky occasionally halting. His girlfriend got annoyed by this and started to voice her sceptical thoughts about the UFO subject.   As they approached the apartment she suddenly exclaimed “Is that one?”  excitedly pointing towards a line of tall pine trees which align the street. Thomas looked to where she was pointing. Through the gaps in the trees he saw a round metallic coloured object flying along on a straight course. It was only visible for a brief moment before being lost from sight.   Looking back at the incident, Thomas wonders if there was a UFO wave going on in the vicinity, and whether the other small aircraft he could see in the sky were there to intercept these objects.   The sudden vertical ascent of the first orb of light puts out of the question that it was an aeroplane. That said, it could have been a drone with white lights on it, too distant to make out the precise shape. Perhaps it flew up into some cloud making it appear that it had disappeared. The round metallic object seen by both Thomas and his girlfriend could have been a drifting silver-coloured balloon, as it performed no manoeuvres which indicated it was under intelligent control, and was only observed briefly.   Low Altitude Sphere   One evening on his way home from the local library Thomas was walking down a quiet street. He looked up into the sky and saw many white vapour trails in the sky of all different shapes and lengths. The streaks looked too wide/short and low down in the sky to have been caused by jet contrails. He assumed that a meteorite shower had recently occurred.   He continued to walk home, occasionally looking up at the picturesque scene. As he looked he suddenly noticed a very brightly glowing and small object travelling from West to East in the centre of the sky. It seemed to be only hundreds of yards away from him and at relatively low altitude.   It approached until it was only 50 yards away, and he could see it was only a couple of yards in the air. It was at most the size of a basketball. Thomas believes it was metallic and brightly reflecting the evening sunlight.   The orb seemed to descend and almost land in a dirt field across the street. A moment later it swooped upwards and disappeared at extremely fast velocity. Thomas says that if it was manned it would have to have had some kind of miniature life form inside.   As with some of his previous sightings, the fast speed that this object departed puts out of the question most mundane explanations, such as a silver balloon, although the idea of it being a balloon caught in a fast air current is still a possibility.   Orbs Formation   One evening around 9pm Thomas was standing outside his apartment. In the sky visible over the roof of the building he saw two groups of five bright white orbs hovering in the East. There were also two other larger orbs nearby which seemed to be appearing and disappearing.   Thomas observed these objects for several minutes before heading back inside the apartment. The objects did not seem to move for the duration.   I am unsure what to make of this sighting, but two formations of helicopters sounds like a possibility, or even a nearby drone show taking place. In both of these scenarios the objects would have positioned themselves into a particular symmetrical pattern. Unfortunately as I have not been provided the date when this took place I cannot check online to see if there were any shows of that nature taking place in the area.   Silver Domed Disc   During daylight hours Thomas was visiting the local International House of Pancakes restaurant. He sat in his usual table at the back near the window. It was a cloudy day as there had recently been a storm. He noticed a flock of birds flying through the clouds. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light.   The flash caught his attention and he stared in the direction it had come from. There were some long white clouds with spaces between them.   Other flashes followed at intervals of roughly ten seconds. Thomas knows one of the waitresses at the restaurant named Alice. She had previously shared details of a UFO sighting she had experienced. Thomas called her over shouting “Alice! There’s a UFO!”   Alice and another waitress both came running over and also stared out of the window. There were a couple more flashes of light, which Alice could not see properly as she was not wearing her glasses at the time. The other waitress saw them and was apparently dumbfounded. The storm had stopped a while back and they did not look like flashes of lightning.   Both the waitresses left and went back to work. Finally Thomas made out a small metallic disc-shaped object moving up and down in the gaps between the clouds. Thomas watched this object until his order was placed on the table.   When he left the restaurant he once again looked for it. He saw it again, this time at a much lower altitude. It was travelling Northward at only around 5 mph. The area of sky it was in was clearer and he could now make out additional details. It had a small dome shape on top and looked only about six feet in diameter. He watched it until it flew away out of sight.   The flashes of light initially seen could well have been caused by sunlight glinting off the surface of the metallic object. As for exactly what it was, this remains a mystery. It had the appearance of a domed-disc, one of the more commonly reported types of craft. However it was seemingly quite small in size. There is the possibility that it was a remote controlled model of some kind, or even a drifting balloon, as it did not perform any advanced movements.   Lit UFO   One night at around 11pm Thomas was finding it hard to drop off to sleep. He rolled over in his bed and briefly opened his eyes. His bedroom window was open at the time (Thomas does not draw curtains or close a blind as there is not much light pollution).   25 feet away over nearby carports he saw a strange and “beautiful” object. It appeared to be the shape of a pile of boxes and about 10 feet wide. He could not make out the colour of it, only a silhouette. However around the edges on or near the corners it had multi-coloured lights which blinked alternately.   In the centre of the object was a lit area which appeared to be made out of a glass-like material, glowing various colours from an internal light. It reminded him of a stained-glass window. In the centre of this lit area was a cross shape which seemed darker, possibly made out of wood or metal.   Witness drawing of the UFO For an unknown reason Thomas sensed that something inside of this object was angry, but not with him directly. He viewed it for about ten seconds as it slowly moved across the sky at only around two miles per hour. Eventually it was lost from sight off the edge of the window.   This is a truly bizarre sighting due to the odd appearance of the object. It certainly sounds like something man-made, possibly an unusual advertising balloon or floating decoration. I have not investigated any cases involving similar objects, so exactly what it was is still to be determined.   Multi-coloured Disc   Thomas has just picked his girlfriend up from work and they were chatting as they walked to her apartment. As they walked past Broadhurst Elementary School parking lot Thomas suddenly sensed that someone was watching him.   He looked up into the sky and saw a disc-shaped rainbow coloured object. It appeared to be about 20 feet across. As soon as he noticed it the object ascended vertically at high speed and was lost from sight, leaving behind a multi-coloured streak of light about 6 feet in diameter for a brief moment.   When he spoke with his girlfriend she confirmed that she had also seen the object. It was hard to estimate its altitude, as he only saw it for a very short period of time.   Again the stunning manoeuvre performed by the object at the end of the sighting means it cannot have been something mundane such as a distant helicopter or inflatable reflecting light. It is interesting that Thomas seemed to sense the presence of the object before spotting it, heightening the idea that it was unusual.   Dual Orbs   Grunion are small silver fish. They only spawn 3 or 4 nights after the highest tide each full or new moon for several hours. This results in what is known as a “Grunion run”. Male Grunions swim in with a wave, occasionally stranding themselves on the beach. There are numerous beaches in California where this occurs, and on these nights locals often visit the beach to collect the beached fish.   Example photograph of a Grunion Run  On a particularly high tide Thomas and his friend Al went to a nearby beach for two nights in a row in the hopes of a Grunion Run taking place. Sadly it did not but while they were out there on the beach they noticed two bright orbs of light hovering in the distance over the ocean. They seemed to be about a quarter of a mile off the coast and about 200 yards off the surface of the water.   The orbs remained for 45 minutes before slowly disappearing. Thomas feels that they could not have been distant helicopters because there was no sound heard at the time, and they seemed to be there in the same position for too long.   There are multiple possibilities for what was observed on this occasion. I disagree with Thomas and feel that the lights could have been two distant helicopters performing some kind of exercise off the coast. While 45 minutes seems a long time for them to hover, they would have had enough fuel to perform this action. Another possibility is that it was two lights on the top of a large sea vessel, which was so distant and dark that only the lights themselves were visible.   Fireballs   On a pleasant morning Thomas was walking on an Easterly course along the side of the road. About 400 yards away from him he suddenly noticed a low hovering object in the sky. It was spherical and bright, and looked like white ball of fire. The object appeared to be spinning at a fast pace. After hovering for about 30 seconds it began to slowly ascend vertically until it was lost from sight.   Two days later Thomas had a similar sighting. However this time the object was a pale orange colour, and seemed to be a little larger than the previous object had been. Once again it ascended slowly at around 1 mph.   Thomas says that it was busy on the road and he would be surprised if no other drivers also saw these objects.   It is interesting that Thomas had two similar sightings in quick succession. The only real difference between them was the colour. It is possible that they were drifting balloons brightly reflecting sunlight. Perhaps the spinning motion was caused by an optical illusion and not actually occurring. Without further information it is hard to say for certain.   Lit Winged UFO   One night Thomas was walking home from the nearby Marathon Burger restaurant. He was walking past a cul-de-sac when he noticed a high flying white light. He stopped walking to observe it. He could not see any blinking lights so did not think it was a distant aircraft.   About 100 yards away from him it silently nose-dived. Now that it was nearer he could see that the object had angled back wings. On the insides of the wings were five semi-circles.   When it was 50 yards above the ground, it suddenly turned sharply upwards and ascended into the sky until it was lost from sight. This maneuverer only took a couple of seconds so it was travelling at a very fast speed.   I have not investigated any other cases of objects with this appearance, and have no idea what this may have been. It appears to have been moving at a very fast pace, but perhaps not fast enough to put a remote controlled model out of the question.   Another White Orb   From Thomas’ apartment it is possible to see the Bank of America building on Chapman Avenue. It has a broken floodlight on its roof which reminds him of a glowing UFO.   Daylight photograph of Bank Of America  One night he was showing the light to his girlfriend from his bedroom window. After they observed it for about thirty seconds, to the right of it appeared a very small white orb of light at high altitude. The light descended straight downwards, suddenly halted then moved sideways, like an upside down L, before halting.   Thomas highlighted the object to his girlfriend. Less than a minute later the object reversed its course, ascending vertically until it was lost from sight! His girlfriend did not say anything about what they had just witnessed, but Thomas was convinced it was not a normal aircraft.   The manoeuvres this object performed sound very like those that a distant drone may have performed, with sudden angular changes in direction. Looking at the facts I feel that this is the most likely explanation for what was observed.   Comet-Like UFOs   On an evening at dusk Thomas was getting ready to leave his apartment to get some food at Anthony’s Pizza. As he was putting on his jacket he looked out of the living room window and saw what he initially thought was a passenger jet to the West.   As he watched he realised it was not a jet. It had a constant white tail behind it for approximately 40 yards, and the front was rounded. It reminded him of a comet. It travelled slowly towards a dense cloud. As it was about to pass behind the cloud it seemed to change course to ascend upward and then vanished.   Several seconds later a very small round object appeared next to the cloud. It was beautiful blue orange and violet colours. It looked like a precious stone. It remained perfectly still for ten seconds then suddenly ascended in the same direction that the previous object had disappeared.   On the way to the restaurant Thomas asked people in the Pavilion Plaza parking lot whether they had seen either of the objects. They said they had one, but someone suggested that it may have been a test missile launch.   Aerial map of Pavilion Plaza About four days later at around 5:30pm Thomas was walking home from the library. Near to a field close to where he lives he saw the comet-like object again! This time it was almost directly overhead. It travelled along the centre of the sky to the North for ten seconds, then slowly ascended and disappeared.   It is possible that test launches of missiles were taking place around that time and Thomas happened to have witnessed two of them. The appearance he describes would certainly fit with this explanation. Perhaps the multi-coloured glowing object seen at the time of the first sighting was unrelated, or was some kind of discharge emitted.   Glowing Cigar   Thomas was driving home from Newport Beach and approaching the Newport Freeway (Costa Mesa Freeway).   Aerial map of the approach to Costa Mesa Freeway  Suddenly a long cigar-shaped object passed over in front of him and other drivers. Thomas estimates it was 30 feet in length. The surface of it appeared to be corroded and glowing orange, which reminded him of lava.   Witness drawing of the UFO  The object was travelling slowly at only around 10 mph. It disappeared behind some large trees to his left. When he passed the trees it had completely vanished.   When he got back home he turned on the radio hoping that someone else had reported it. According to Thomas no sooner had he turned it on the disc jockey mentioned that there was a “UFO raid” going on in Orange County, and that numerous people were being interviewed describing small round objects which hovered and then shot away, disappearing at a very high speed. Clearly this was different to what he had seen but it was interesting to learn that other sightings were taking place.   This is a fascinating sighting, and certainly seems to have been something unusual. The object did not perform any advanced manoeuvres but its appearance does not sound like a balloon or blimp catching the sunlight. The fact that sightings of other UFOs were also taking place around the same time in the area is intriguing.   Cheek Marking   One night in 2008 around 11:30pm Thomas was just falling off to sleep when he sensed an intelligent presence in the room. He tried to ignore it but then head a loud bang sound near to his head. Although this frightened him he was still able to fall asleep.   In the morning he felt something strange on the inside of his right cheek. Looking in a mirror he could see a round circle about 3/8 of an inch across. He expected the marking to disappear but realised after a number of days that it was still present. He was not massively concerned by it at the time so did not bother taking any photographs of it or report it to anyone.   Months later the marking was still present. He happened to be visiting his GP so decided to point out the marking to him. His doctor did not know what it was and suggested having it removed. However Thomas said it was not causing him any bother.   Over the next few years he showed it to a second doctor as well as two dentists. They all thought that it was a scar that had been caused by him accidentally biting the inside of his cheek. However Thomas was not so sure as he had done this at other times, and it always caused an extremely sharp pain, and also healed up within a couple of days.   In 2014 he was watching cable TV when it started to show a program about Dr Roger Leir, a contact researcher who used to remove alien implants from experiencers. This really concerned him, and he wondered if the round mark was a sign of an implant inside his cheek. However since that point the marking has slowly healed up and is now barely visible, so he feels sure that this is not the case.   Another researcher he spoke with suggested that it may have been a tissue sample that was taken during the night, but looking at the details Thomas has provided I feel that the accidental bite damage sounds more probable. It is possible he did this while in deep sleep so did not wake up at the time.   Telepathy   It was an evening in May 2014. Thomas was video recording a glowing orb to the East using his camcorder. After a while it seemed to vanish.   He turned around and saw a big bright light hovering about 50 yards away from him. He was shocked by the presence of the light and exclaimed out loud “What the hell is that?”  He lifted up the camera in an attempt to film it, feeling both excited and frightened at the same time. Immediately he sensed a telepathic communication between him and whatever was causing the light.   In his mind’s eye he saw several Grey beings inside the light. One of them had huge black almond-shaped eyes. Thomas sensed that he was a doctor. The other two had smaller egg shaped eyes. The doctor spoke to the two other beings asking “What is he doing?”   Then the light retracted away from him becoming smaller. It halted for a couple of seconds. The doctor spoke again, saying “He’s not doing anything.”  Then the light travelled slowly northwards going behind some trees.   At this point Thomas lifted up the camera and took some footage. He apparently was so excited he could not hold the camera still, but he sent me the below single image which according to him shows the glow from the object coming from around the edges of the trees:   Unfortunately it is impossible to make out much at all from this, and it is a shame that he did not manage to capture footage of the object closer before it went behind the trees. Cloud-Like UFO   Even though Thomas has owned a video camera for many years he rarely brings it out with him, despite the number of UFO sightings he has had. However on Friday 26th September 2014 he was at International House of Pancakes and happened to have the camera on him.   It was around dusk when he looked out of the restaurant window. He saw a strange cloud-like object in the sky. It appeared to be about 40 yards in length. The base of it was dark-blue and grey colours. Thomas got his camera out and filmed it for around 5 minutes as it slowly dissipated and vanished.   Unfortunately I am yet to receive this video footage from Thomas so cannot comment on what it may or may not have been, although it does sound like it may have just been an unusual cloud, possible a lenticular cloud which are sometimes mistaken for disc-shaped UFO/UAPs.   Small Black UFOs   Later in the same month Thomas was once again at International House Of Pancakes sitting outside and enjoying the sun. He looked over to his left and noticed two very small rounded black coloured objects moving towards his location. They were positioned diagonally to one another and were only about 2 feet off the ground.   The closer of the two objects appeared to be pulsating almost as if it was alive. They travelled closely towards him before heading into a shadowy corner of the eating area and seemingly vanishing, almost like they had “disappeared into another dimension”.   The very small size of these objects suggests they were probably airborne debris drifting in a breeze. They could even have been unusual insects, although it is likely that at close proximity Thomas would have been able to identify them as this. Crows   In late 2014 Thomas was walking to the library through the Pavilion Plaza parking lot. As he approached the field near to his apartment he looked up. He initially saw what he thought was three crows flying ahead of him. However he realized that one of the crows was actually a strange object further back from the position of the two birds.   Photograph of Pavilion Plaza parking lot  It was flying at very low altitude, perhaps only 5 yards off the ground. Thomas estimates it was 20 feet long and 6 feet wide. It was dark brown and black in colour. The strange object had wings on either side which made it look like a rectangle. These wings each had a semi-circle cut into them at their tips.   Witness drawing of the UFO  The object slowly travelled down the field towards a main street. It crossed this street and then continued across a second field. It flew out of his sight and disappeared into haze.   The unusual object seen in this incident sounds somewhat similar to what Thomas previously reported seeing while walking home from Marathon restaurant. The rectangular shape, and presence of wings with semi-circular shapes cut into them. A highly unusual object to which I can offer no straightforward mundane explanations.   Staring Grey Face   In January 2015 Thomas was watching television in his living room. He could see the reflection of the window reflected in the screen. When he glanced at it he suddenly saw the face of a Grey being staring back at him. It was wearing green coloured wrap-around goggles over its eyes. The vision was visible for several seconds before dissipating.   While it is possible that this was some kind of visitation, or even a flashback to a being he had previously seen, there is also the possibility that this was caused by pareidolia, the brains tendency to pick out recognisable shapes out of patches of light and dark. Faces are particular prevalent with this as we are hard-wired to detect and observe facial features. A good example of this is the “Man in the Moon”. The fact that the face quickly dissipated would support this theory.   Conclusions   As you can see Thomas has had a large amount of varied experiences throughout his life. While some of these experiences clearly may be misidentifications of mundane objects, others are harder to explain.   It is unfortunate that I only have limited information at present based on his original notes he sent to me. There are many unanswered questions regarding these incidents which may shed further light on potential explanations. Unless Thomas decides to get back in touch it is unlikely that this report will be updated going forward.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Ian Jones Release Date: 18/06/2025 Introduction Steve Partington contacted BUFOG and reported he’d seen an unusual object in the sky on Friday 28th February 2025 from his house on Field Road, Nether Stowe, Lichfield. He reports that they see many aircraft flying over them on the way to/from Birmingham Airport, as well as military jets on their way to/from Wales for training flights. He is also a keen astronomer and often observes the night sky and is familiar with most stars and has never seen anything this unusual before. Steve’s house is indicated on the below image. North is towards the top of the picture, so the rear of the house faces almost due West. It is at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, with no sounds from nearby roads audible: Sighting Details Steve was looking out of the bedroom window at 16.40. He reports the sky was clear, except for a single, small cloud, which was not moving. This side of the house faces west and at about 35 degrees above the horizon he saw a white object in the distance. Photograph indicating the initial position of the object It was about a hand-width above the cloud, sharply defined. He estimated that it’s size was equivalent to the width of his thumb with his arm at full stretch. It wasn’t possible to estimate how far away it was. At first the object was stationary.  He could tell this was the case, because the bare branches of the trees at the far end of the garden were also stationary and it was visible above them. The object was described as a thin/faint white sharply defined line, at a slight angle with the left end being lower than the right. There was no trail left behind the object as it moved slowly and smoothly in a downwards direction. There was no sound at all. The object did not dissipate, or begin to break up, but remained as a white line, not increasing or decreasing in length. The object appeared to slowly drift downwards and he couldn’t tell if it moved in front of the cloud, or behind it, because the two were the same colour. After about 30 seconds, it returned to its original position. When he tried to take a picture of it with his camera, it failed to focus on the object. He went downstairs and outside and then it just faded out of sight. About 25-30 seconds later, the object reappeared, now about 45 degrees above the horizon, still tilted at the same angle, slightly further to the north of where he had seen it originally. Photograph indicating the position the object was now visible at Then, almost instantaneously – Steve emphasised it was "in much less than 1 second"  - the object performed a zig-zag manoeuvre and faded out of sight. Steve said the object  looked like “a tear or split in the sky”, the movement is shown in the diagram below. Movement path of the object After that he said it faded out, and he did not see it again. Steve has no idea what it was, because it is something the like of which he hasn’t seen before. He has looked in the local press to see if anyone else had reported this, but apparently not. He would like to know if anyone else did see it. Sighting Analysis Using the online timeanddate resource for historical weather information for Lichfield, showed that for the period between 12.00 and 18.00 on that day, it was fairly settled. In mid-afternoon the temperature was between 6-8 degrees Centigrade, with passing clouds from the Southeast and a wind speed of 4 mph. Sunset was at 17.44, so that was a good hour after Steve’s sighting. It was too early in the day to be anything astronomical such as mis-identified stars, planets, etc. There were no meteor showers, or comets noted around the end of February / beginning of March period. Equally, the movements of the object rule out anything in orbit, such as satellites, which move in straight lines. At that time of day they would not have been visible.   From Steve’s description of the object’s unusual movements and it’s single, white colour which did not blink, is interesting. It’s “wake” does not suggest it was a typical condensation trail, because these usually continue to stretch out for some distance directly behind the aircraft and start to dissipate and become wider and less well-defined as time passes, before completely dispersing and fading from view as the aircraft continues to fly onwards. Sometimes that process takes place quickly, at others it is much slower, depending on the atmospheric conditions. In this case the thin white line left behind the object was always at a fixed length and did not change in appearance. Helicopters, drones, balloons, gliders, etc do not perform in the ways described here. Nor was it a laser-display light, because it did not shine from the ground upwards and the other reported movements were incompatible with one.     Key Points 1.    It was stationary for some time initially. 2.    It was a non-flashing white light, which jets / aircraft do not show up as. 3.    The trail left behind the object was not typical of that from jets / aircraft. 4.    The zig-zag movement is an unusual aspect, which is most puzzling. 5.    The speed at which the object carried out the zig-zag manoeuvre is also puzzling. 6.    Mr Partington does not know what this object was and is curious whether anyone else saw it. 7.    I have not been able to track down any other reports of this, but some may come to light in future. Conclusion The most logical explanation is that this object was a jet aircraft. However, it did not move in the way a jet / aircraft usually moves, as discussed above, so has to remain a puzzle. Therefore, this has to be logged as a UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon). If anyone else thinks they may have seen this object, please contact BUFOG. Copyright Ian Jones 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2015 Last Updated: 16/06/2025   Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used for some witnesses   Sighting Details   On the evening of Sunday 1st November 2015 Dan went out with his son “Lewis”. Later on after returning home they met with his wife “Sandra”, and the three of them decided to go out into the back garden to sit down and star gaze.   Dan and Sandra were looking up at stars to the South of their location. Suddenly they saw a fantastic bright light with sparks flying off it. They assumed it was a meteorite so did not bother mentioning it to Lewis.   The three of them sat there a while, when suddenly Lewis loudly exclaimed “Dad! Dad! Dad!”  Dan looked up to where Lewis was staring. Heading across the sky above them on a straight flight path was a triangular-shaped object. It had a bright white light at each corner, but no other lights.   Mock up based on witness description  There was no audible sound coming from it. Dan estimates it was flying at around 2000 feet up and was quite large in size, about the size of a large aeroplane, but it was hard to accurately say for sure. Lewis felt that it was larger than this.   Dan was startled by what he was looking at. He was aware of Flying Triangles and believed this to be one. He had always had a belief in the UFO subject, and he now felt vindicated. The UFO was travelling on a North Westerly course. After a number of seconds the lights on the corners of the object appeared dimmer than they had done initially. In total it was observed for 7 seconds before moving out of sight.   Sighting Analysis   Unfortunately I only have the initial details provided by Dan over the phone to go on, so no further details are known, including the precise location, time or weather conditions. However as the stars were out we can assume it was a clear night.   The object seen does not sound like a normal aircraft. Although it did not perform any advanced manoeuvres, and the lack of sound could have been down to the altitude it was at, standard navigation lights seen on aeroplanes and helicopters after dark include red, green and flashing white/red strobes, as indicated by the below diagram:   None of these were visible to the witnesses, only a white light at each of the three corners. Even if viewed at a side perspective at least one red or green light would still be visible, and it appears from the description that it flew overhead, so both colours should have been observed. A triangular shaped novelty hot air balloon can also be discounted. First of all this would not have been lit at the corners, and secondly hot air balloon pilots are legally required to hang a flashing strobe light below the basket after dark to warn other air traffic, which would have clearly been visible.   The sighting occurred before drones were commercially available, and it sounds much too large to have been a radio controlled model.   From the details provided the witnesses certainly viewed it as a singular object rather than 3 smaller lit objects flying in a triangular formation. This would certainly fit with other reports of Flying Triangles, one of the more commonly observed types of UFO/UAP. I have investigated many other cases of very similar objects to what was seen.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2014 Last Updated: 11/06/2025   In July 2014 Jay Achyara sent me a series of three images of the moon he had captured on his night camera on the night of 13th July in the area of Sutton Coldfield. In the second of these images is an unidentified object which Jay was intrigued by and wanted my commentary on.   Below are the three original images in sequence order:   The object in question only appears on the second image of the three. It is indicated below:   Enhanced zoom of the second image provided by the witness:   Close zoom of the object from enhanced image. The colour of the object may be caused by it being silhouetted against the bright moon: As Jay sent me the original images extracted from his camera it is possible to conduct metadata analysis on them. This is additional hidden information behind the images which can be viewed using various software/websites. Below is the full metadata extracted from each of the three images, with important values highlighted:   1st Image:   2nd Image (Containing UFO):   3rd Image:   From the metadata, the following useful information can be gained:   - The images were taken on a Sony SLT-A58 camera - They were taken in relatively quick succession at 22:33:44, 22:33:55 and 22:34:02 on 13/07/2014   The fact that the metadata of the 2nd image matches the other two except for the time indicates that the image is genuine and has not been tampered with using computer software, as this results in a large number of metadata changes, both to values and the order that the metadata appears in.   It is unknown whether or not they saw the object captured with their naked eye, or whether it was moving or stationary at the moment the 2nd image was taken. What we do know is that 11 seconds before when the 1st image was taken the object was not present, and 7 seconds after when the 3rd image was taken the object was no longer in shot.   The object appears to be roughly cigar-shaped, but not straight edged like an artificially created object would be. It is impossible to tell from the image how far away it is, so therefore it is impossible to gauge its actual size.   It does not look like a normal aircraft or drone, and if it was a drifting inflatable you’d expect it still to be in shot (although if the wind was strong at the time it might not be). However it is entirely possible that the object is a bird in mid-flight passing in front of the moon. This could easily have carried on its course, exiting the view of the camera by the time the 3rd shot was taken. Another possibility is that it is an insect or airborne debris passing closely in front of the camera lens. In both of these scenarios the witness may not have noticed it at the time and only discovered it later on when checking the images.   Without additional information from the witness it is impossible to comment further at this point.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2014 Last Updated: 10/06/2025   Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used   Sightings Details   Around 9:45am on 28th July 2014 Paul was driving along Hobbs Moat Road, Solihull on his way to work. It was a clear and sunny morning, with very little cloud in the sky. He was travelling South past Hobbs Moat on a gradually ascending slope.   Aerial map of Hobbs Moat Road indicating the position Paul was at Photograph of Hobbs Moat Road in the direction Paul was driving  Something suddenly caught his eye in the sky visible ahead of him through the windscreen. He saw a large oval-shaped object in the distance. It was silver in colour and reflecting the sunlight. It appeared to be very large in size, at least 2-3 times as big as a passenger jet. It appeared to be a number of miles away, around the size of a 5 pence piece from his perspective.   Witness drawing of the UFO  Paul leaned over the steering wheel watching it as he continued to drive up the hill. He did not stop initially as there was another car directly behind him. The UFO seemed to be moving about twice as fast as an aircraft going from right to left and away from him.   After watching for about 10-15 seconds it suddenly massively increased in speed and shot away in the blink of an eye! Paul found somewhere to pull over by the side of the road. He got out and checked all around but the object had gone. There was no indication that anyone else in the area had seen it.   Witness drawing showing the movement path of the UFO initially and when it departed  Paul’s father works as a delivery driver in the Solihull area. After Paul confirmed that the UFO had disappeared he decided to contact him by phone. When he informed him about what he had just seen, his dad burst out laughing, and then said “I’m so glad somebody else saw that, I thought I was going mad!”   Paul was amazed to find out that his father had also seen the UFO from the location he was at (Not yet confirmed). After discussing the object together, Paul told him to search online when he finished work to see if anyone else had reported it.   Later on his dad apparently confirmed that there had been a similar sighting in the USA earlier in the week, but there were no other reports from the local area.   Sightings Analysis   The details and drawings Paul has provided are very interesting indeed. Although we do not yet have a statement from his father, the fact that he also saw it from a different perspective means that it was clearly a solid object in the sky, rather than an optical illusion or reflection in the windscreen.   In terms of appearance, the object was clearly not a normal aircraft. It was too rounded to be a distant plane, and the wrong shape for a drone or remote controlled model. A silver coloured blimp or novelty hot air balloon would have possibly been an explanation, however the extreme increase in speed observed at the end of the sighting put these possibilities out of the question.   Therefore there is a definite possibility that this was a genuine sighting of an advanced craft of some kind. The incident clearly left a lasting impression on Paul. Summarising how he felt about the object he says the following:   “From the off I knew it wasn’t anything normal which I why i was so fixated on it, but when I saw it shoot off I was excited and baffled like the thought of seeing something created by a whole new life form was amazing. It definitely wasn’t anything we know of anyway.”   If you have any further information regarding this sighting please get in touch.   Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

Birmingham UFO Group Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 08/01/2014 Last Updated: 10/06/2025 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used Sighting Details At 4.30pm on the 12th December 2013, Karen and her friend were leaving the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. They were on the New Fosse Way which leads to Selly Oak. Aerial map of New Fosse Way indicating the position of the witnesses Due to the time of year it was already getting dark and the moon was visible in the sky. Karen looked out of the window to her right and noticed an unusual object in the sky. To the right of the moon at about the same height as it was what looked like a long flattened disc shaped object. It was glowing an orange-gold colour, which Karen assumed was due to it catching the light of the setting sun. Photograph from New Fosse Way in the direction the disc was seen At first she thought it was a cloud, but it had a very regular shape and there were no other clouds in the sky. She then wondered if it was a plane reflecting sunlight. But the strangest thing was that it was tilted at an angle of approximately 15 degrees rather than completely horizontal. Its length appeared twice the width of the moon in the night sky. Karen and her friend observed the object for about 90 seconds as they drove along the road towards Selly Oak. The object did not move or change shape for the duration of the sighting. After this it was lost from sight behind buildings. Sighting Analysis I am convinced that Karen saw what she described. In her initial E-Mail to me she wanted to make it clear she was a retired professional and semi-sceptical of the UFO subject, not someone who would just believe anything at face value. But she cannot think of a mundane explanation for what she and her friend saw. I do not believe it was a reflection of light in the window of the car due to the length of the sighting, it was observed for over a minute. It could not have been a sliver of the setting sun as there were no clouds surrounding it. Could the object really have been a large disc-shaped craft hovering in the sky? If so surely other people would have also seen and reported it, or even taken photographs or video footage of it. There are numerous mundane possibilities for what was observed. The first of these is a lenticular cloud reflecting the setting sun. These are often similar in shape to what was described, and usually appear separately from other clouds, sometimes in a clear sky. This can make them look very unusual, especially if sunlight is reflecting off them. Below is an example of a lenticular cloud caught in the setting sun: The slight angle in the above photograph is just a result of the angle of viewing. So perhaps this is precisely what Karen and her friend witnessed. Another possibility is that it was a mirage in the sky caused by the lighting conditions, although the lenticular cloud seems more probable. It is unknown at present if there were any other witnesses to the object. Perhaps there are some who have yet to report their sighting. If you feel you may have seen this object too, please get in touch. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025