“A group of schoolboys saw something like a stick man, black with a round head, jolting along without making any noise, 150m (490 ft.) away, behind a hedge. No investigation took place”.
Bearing in mind that the Anders report was from 1977, when I read this and the entity description I had a rush of excitement mixed with disbelief. As far as I was concerned the entity described by Mr Anders was unique, if similar to others but it was early days and I had not collated all the material at that point. My mind was expecting to find enough differences to avoid having to face two reports that matched –and neither party involved knowing of the other.
Above: Bardney from the air
It turned out that the quoted source was Nigel Watson and I had corresponded with him on UFO cases back in the 1980s so we at least knew each other. I tracked down Nigel’s current contact email and wrote to him to explain that the report is very similar to another from the UK report as well as one from France and the US around the same period it would be interesting to try to find out more.
Nigel responded quickly:
“I mention the case in Portraits of Alien Encounters but I don't think there is much further info to add. I remember it was provided by one of the boys in a short letter”.
I checked the book in question but nothing on this case so I wondered whether there was a later edition and got another copy but the contents were exactly the same. I went through the book line-by-line four times. Not a mention of the report. So I got back to Nigel and asked what page the account was on; he checked and got back to me: “I just checked and couldn't find it either! I'll check elsewhere it might have been in an article I did for Strange magazine - I'll check that out”.
Prior to final editing of this work I thought I would try and see whether Nigel had found the missing report –he had. It was, in fact, in a BUFORA publication and what made me want to bang my head repeatedly into a wall was that I had a PDF of the very publication! Here is what was written to Nigel by a ‘UFO investigator’ and included in his article in which he looked at attitudes toward children as witnesses in UFO sightings:
“Concerning the reference made by the schoolboy to a 'stick man: I dismissed it partly because there was only one person who saw it, and secondly…that the lads had claimed to have seen so many UFOs in that area" (Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire) .
"Anyway I'11 quote from the letter I received from the lads.
'On Sunday afternoon boys are allowed to go to Bardney. In the summer term, 1976, about mid-June, we saw a "stick man" jolting along. It was black with a round head, not making any noise. It was about 15O yards away from us, and it was quite hard to see’.
"In my letter to Ken Phillips (BUFORA National Investigations Coordinator) I said that if the 'stick man' had been seen by more reliable people, and also if these young boys had not seen so many 'UFOs' (and many of them sounded like phantoms) I might have felt that the report justified an intensive investigation. However, even if the report was investigated little could be achieved because (a) it took place (allegedly) in summer 1976, (b) its value is very limited as I certainly would not hope to have to resort to reports made by young boys who; (i) could not be bothered to report the incident in 1976, (ii) probably have very strong imagination”.
In the case cited by Nigel Watson it is quite obvious the alleged ‘investigator’ had a few credibility problems of his own. Firstly, only one of the boys had seen the “stick man” but then we have a quote from the letter: “we saw a ‘stick man’” which seems to suggest that there was more than one observer of the figure. Just what exactly were these “phantoms” –light phenomena?
If the witnesses were youngsters then it was probably not easy for them at that time to find out to who they should report these things. It is even possible that if they told their parents they might have been told not to say anything for fear of ridicule or worse. The ‘investigator’ seems to have put a lot of work into “why I cannot be bothered” to even talk to the witnesses.
The Anders case was 1977 so could it be that these boys saw a similar entity but there was associated UFO activity?
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