The
original title to the published report by Argentinean Ufologist Jorge
Eduardo Catoja was “Entities Reported Inside A Shop In Argentina.”
Gordon Creighton in his introduction to the article ("Entities
Reported Inside a Shop in Argentina", Flying Saucer Review
vol. 28, no. 4, March, 1983) wrote:
“We are indebted to the
Editorial Committee of our French companion-journal Lumières Dans La
Nuit, from No. 198 of which (October 1980) we have translated the
curious item. Though many will find the report hard to swallow we
think it worth recording, because it seems to smack very strongly -
as so many "UFO stories" do - of the classical poltergeist
phenomena familiar to us from the annals of psychical research.
It is admittedly difficult to
recall any good "poltergeist case" in which the witnesses
actually claimed to have Seen the causative agency. Consequently,
most parapsychological investigators nowadays tend to veer away from
the idea that any external intelligent factor (i.e. other than the
human subject or subjects present in the case) can be involved with
poltergeists, and they prefer to seek other less bizarre
explanations. Note, however, that in the present case the two
causative entities allegedly vanished temporarily from sight a
feature that sounds extremely ‘poltergeistic’."
Sadly, “New Ufology” had
made it quite acceptable to start citing anything in odd reports as
being of a paranormal nature and Creighton was very well known for
his belief that evil paranormal entities were behind “much of”
the UFO phenomenon. I will come back to this further on.
In this instance, Jorge
Eduardo Catoja visited the scene of the phenomena and interviewed the
witnesses.
It was approximately 1640
hours on Sunday, 10th September, 1978, in the small town of Las
Salinas, near San Miguel de Tucuman in northern Argentina. Miguel
Angel Carbajal, aged 18, and his friend Miguel Ledesma, aged 23, were
sitting in Carbajal’s home watching television, when the picture on
the screen began to shrink and so they decided to switch it off.
There was still the record player and putting on a record found that
it was turning very slowly “as though at 16 r.p.m.” and they
concluded that this along with the TV problem meant that there was a
drop in the mains current supply. Then the duo tried to use a
portable transistor radio to listen to a local game of football, but
was also of no use due to interference.
The parents of Carbajal owned
the shop adjoining the house but they were away visiting relatives;
Carabjal and Ledesma were both employed in the shop. Miguel Carbajal
has had three years of primary school education, and one year of
secondary. The extent of his daily reading does not go beyond the
local newspaper, La Gaceta, and he is not a UFO buff or an addict of
Science-Fiction. As for his companion, Miguel Ledesma, the latter is
quite illiterate. There was nobody else in the house apart from one
disabled member of the family.
They were about to give up on
getting the portable radio to work when they heard noises coming from
the adjoining shop. Their first thought was that thieves had taken
advantage of the owners being away and had broken in; the young men
first got the disabled relative out of the house and once this was
done they opened the connecting door which led directly into the
shop. The first thing they saw was a smashed bottle of wine and some
broken jars of mayonnaise strewn about on the floor. Moving further
into the shop, they came upon a pair of scales thrown down onto the
floor, with the glass smashed: they noted that the electronic till
had been shifted some distance from its normal position. At this
point they saw standing at a distance of about six metres from them,
of two entities.
In the words of Miguel
Carbajal told La Razon (12th September, 1978): "I was thoroughly
scared... for I suddenly saw them. I was unable to speak... I thought
they must be Martians, because I had read in La Gaceta that there had
been UFO sightings in the district."
According to the young men the
two entities were about one metre in height, and “dressed in bright
blue one-piece suits like frogmen wear” and on their heads they
had dark blue helmets. Their faces were brown and freckled and the
eyes were straight and level. Their noses seemed to be flattish,
although it was noted that neither man could give a very precise
description – not surprising since they were obviously taken aback
by the sight., The hands, arms, and legs all seemed 'normal' by human
standards but the witnesses were unable to judge sex for sure. On
their feet the entities had what seemed to be bright blue high-boots
and shiny black elbow length gauntlets on their arms.
Above:
illustration of what the entities looked like based on witness
descriptions (c)2024 respective copyright owner
According to the young men one
of the entities was holding a “weapon” of some sort which he was
pointing at them in what they thought was a threatening manner.
Carbajal stated that this “weapon” looked like a hair-drier. At
this point both men heard the words: "Do, not shout, or we will
take you to the saucer!" This seemed to come from the entities
although they saw no lip movement from either of the two entities “so
that the message was probably given telepathically.”
At this point one of the
entities raised a hand and put the index finger to his nose,
whereupon they both promptly vanished from sight. Carbajal dashed
over to the till to get out the keys to the doors of the shop but as
he did so the entities reappeared in precisely the same position as
before.
Ledesma grabbed a knife and an
iron bar and he and Carbajal, with the store keys in his hand, made
for the door. Again the entities vanished, Ledesma told the
reporters:
"I stepped over lightly
to the store-room and there they were again, in there. And they threw
a crate of cigarettes at me. It missed, passing in front of me. At
once I made a dash for the exit, which Carbajal in the meantime had
managed to open."
When asked by reporters
whether they had heard any sort of sound when the entities were
materializing and dematerializing Carbajal responded; "There
was a sort of sound like TIN ...TIN ...TIN .." but only when
they were vanishing."
Once out of the shop, they
secured the door with padlock and chain and dashed off into Tucuman
in the firm's van to find Manuel Carbajal Senior and tell him that
thieves had broken into the shop. The trio then returned to the shop
and went to the local police station, at El Timbo. Police
Commissioner Miranda at once proceeded with them to the shop, but
when they got there, the entities were not to be seen. It is not
stated that Carbajal senior had seen the entities. The contents of
the till were checked and it was found that no money seemed to be
missing. The witnesses estimated that the episode had lasted about
5-10 minutes.
Jorge Eduardo Catoja having
visited the site made a number of interesting discoveries when
questioning people living in the neighbourhood. Two weeks
previously, there had been sightings of two strange lights over a
near-by salt mine which was the only local industry. Also, the
occupants of a house near there had recently been the victims of a
mysterious plague of stone-throwing. Other people whom the
investigator questioned re-called that three years ago there had been
UFO landings at a place known as Ramadeda de Abajo, lying to the east
of Las Salinas.
Creighton jumps straight in
here with the comment:
“And here we have the most
characteristic and typical of all the features found in cases of
poltergeistic infestations - namely "stones throwing!"
-G.C.”
Sadly, FSR has sunk into the
mire of silly reporting and theorising having dropped its attempted
stance of “scientific reporting.” Let’s look at the facts here
with a clear mind. Yes, the radio and TV problems are reported in
UFO encounters and there are reports of entities seen inside
buildings so there we have no real problem. When it comes to the
manner of clothing of the entities, again, not dissimilar to other
reports but when I read brownish skin with freckles and a “weapon”
that looked like a hair dryer my first thought was that this was a
novel way to cover up a robbery -dress as aliens and carry a
converted hair drier to look like a weapon. Would the police believe
“My store was vandalised and robbed by aliens”?
The odd aspects are that the
men both heard that line: "Do, not shout, or we will take you
to the saucer!" which, if it had been spoken I would have
suggested were two thieves dressed up and using flying saucers as a
cover since the subject had been in the newspapers. Both men were
adamant that neither entities lips moved. Also, if the entities
vanished and then re-appeared onm the same spot in plain sight of the
witnesses...that is a pretty good trick for thieves!
The strange lights over the
mine could well have been anything since there is no description or
narrative as to what made them, “strange” in the first place. It
could have even been a natural phenomenon so a connection to the shop
encounter is very weak at best. Even if UFOs were in the news
locally the same thing applies; unless thoroughly checked a light(s)
reported are simply that and can be anything. Remember the only UFO
connection in the shop encounter was the threat of taking both
men to “the saucer” which still raises questions.
Of course, the money still
being in the till and no goods seemingly missing tends to rule out
the idea of thieves. But,
as always, everything depends on whether the two men were telling the
truth about what happened. The disabled young man was not spoken to
as it seems permission was not given and we know nothing about his
disability. The fact that no one mentions him after Carbajal senior
and the police became involved seems to indicate that he had been
moved.
The damaged items in the store
are from evidence of any poltergeist activity being involved and, in
fact, it is hard to say how Creighton came up with; “Note, however,
that in the present case the two causative entities allegedly
vanished temporarily from sight a feature that sounds extremely
poltergeistic” since poltergeist activity takes place over a short
or lengthy period and even sporadically but tends to have a focus of
activity and although dark shapes or (alleged) “masses” have been
seen none look anything like the two entities here and I have never
heard of two entities appearing and re-appearing on the same spot in
front of witnesses.
“And
here we have the most characteristic and typical of all the features
found in cases of poltergeistic infestations - namely "stones
throwing!" is
absolutely meaningless. The stone throwing was not
at the shop and unless it was investigated at the actual house then
stone throwing could be down to kids or an adult “having fun”
-that is not unknown. Mind
you, Creighton did once snap at me over the telephone “You are a
fool if you believe these things are alien!” I hadn’t said that
but I was unwilling
to follow his seemingly unchallengeable theory that it was all Djinn
-invisible
creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabia and later in Islamic culture
and beliefs. The term is now a “pop” term used in most fake
paranormal videos interchangeable with demon. The point is that there
was no evidence of poltergeist activity in this case only, perhaps,
clumsy aliens: the number of times I have dropped or knocked things
over by accident doess not mean a poltergeist was present!
The
investigator and, presumably, police took the young men seriously but
we have here a perfect example of believe or do not believe which,
without any physical evidence or corroboration by others I
mark as interesting but Low Strangeness.
Other
references
Cronica,
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 29th September, 1978.
MUFON
UFO Journal, no. 130, September 1978. page 15
UFO
Newsclipping Service, Lucius Farish, USA.
HUMCAT:
Catalogue of Humanoid Reports", compiled by David Webb and Ted
Bloecher, USA, circa 1979.
"Deux
Humanoïdes à Las Salinas", by Jorge Eduardo Catoja, Lumières
Dans La Nuit no.198, October 1980. pp 28-30,
.JPG)
