There Are ALWAYS Hoaxers

Last year, after a local news service reported that "an alien hunter" (me -I had no idea!) was heading to Somerset I received a number of emails. 

One from a woman who claimed that she and others had seen UFOs "numerous times" over Yeovil and that her son and others were lifelong experiencers.  So I politely responded to the woman and people named. Nothing. Not a single word came back.

Hoax? Who knows.

As I explained in UFO Contact? what I termed "Ruth Syndrome" offers a lot of explanations for UFO abductions as well as Bigfoot reports and even the paranormal. Not all, though.
Another message I received last year was from a young man who claimed that he and his girlfriend were out sky-watching (looking for UFOs) at a location while watching Netflix. 

 Strange lights, carry battery running down, odd noises and even his companion seeing him walk back down a lane with several small misty figures.

It all sounded like a typical abduction scenario and I am sure that Hopkins and Jacobs would have loved this. Hey, his girlfriend was in the next room -he gave me a Face Book page link and I never got the chat to the young woman. What I did do, however, as standard practice, was run a background check on the person in question -including social media- and his girlfriend.

Well, it seems that 'his' girlfriend was actually engaged to another man and there was no mention of the reportee on any of her social media. Odd?  

Car battery died and the 'girlfriend's' phone "acted weird" when the lights appeared...then it was "we may have run down the battery with Netflix" (he means her phone was plugged in. It became more and more obvious that there was a strong fishy smell coming over the internet so, as he would not give me an address to send him a sighting report form I sent it via FB Messenger. He never completed it so, while the iron was still hot I gave it one final attempt:

The only indicator of time is when you say Karis saw you come back down the lane -4 am. I would like to narrow down the time of events. I’m assuming that the skywatch had been discussed that evening so at what time did you set off and why did you decide on that location in particular?

If you could write down what time you left and got to the location that helps. I’m guessing you decided to watch Netflix because nothing was happening so can you recall the time or what you watched as that takes us closer to when things started. Was the car engine running or was it just the phone plugged in when things started?

1) The car engine died but was it working okay when you started it to drive home?

2) Your girlfriend’s phone went “a bit weird”? Was this at the same time as the engine died and how did the phone go weird –has it worked okay since?

3) You used a torch to mimic the movements of the objects so that had no problems with functioning?

4) When the object flew over both (?) of you did you feel anything physically?

5) When you heard movement around you did you use the torch to see what was making the noise?

6) K***** was nervous but at what point did you leave her alone in the car to go into the field?

7) K**** saw you come back down the lane so the first question is when did you leave the field and walk off leaving her in the car and why did you go down the lane?

K***** saw greyish, vague shapes walking along with you thought that they might be children has she thought much about this part of the night in the hopes of recalling what she saw better?

A lot I know but I want to get as much detail as possible –writing an account of what happened that night often helps recollection of witnesses as well as the investigators.
I had kept John Hanson of The Haunted Skies Project posted throughout the exchanges and sent him a final set of notes on the case. As far as I could determine it had all been an ill-thought out attempt at a hoax as the person in question even noted the UFO abduction book he had been reading.

Unbelievably, when I checked with Ufologists in 2017-2018 I found that they were accepting similar accounts -some quoting previously reported incidents- as genuine. Some Ufologists had promoted reports that they had taken details off from other sites and declaring them genuine but never investigated and, making it even worse, the original sources tended to be internet sites that would not respond to requests.

When you consider that the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) operate almost the same way (it is a money making endeavor after all) and is outrightly dismissive and rude to serious researchers you get to realise why you can never take a reported case for granted.  At the same time highly credible cases are ignored and excuses given as to why they cannot be investigated.

In the UK there is no such thing as credible UFO investigation and research organisations. Money and personal agendas are the guiding factors.  This is a sad turn of events and makes the exceptional work of John Hanson and the Haunted Skies Project and books even more important.

Hoaxers (for one reason or other) are always out there and accepting a snippet from a newspaper or internet item is not scientific nor an investigation.  You are incapable of doing the work or do not want to...go and get involved in something else.

Hi.

A few questions that might help better than the report form. Firstly, I know there is a Vallis Road in Frome so I am guessing that is where you had the first sighting? I cannot find any “Bayleaf” in Somerset so can you give me an exact location or at least the nearest village/town.

Cheers

A few spluttery lines and that was it. No phone number to contact him and a girlfriend who was not a girlfriend and more than a few hints on social media that he was out to get some publicity for work he was doing.