The case occurred at the Memorial School playing field, Montvale, New Jersey, USA, on January 31, 1978, and February 1, 1978, at about 6:15 PM on both evenings, with a duration of less than 15 minutes on both occasions. The witnesses were John, age 10, age Eddy 8, Michael, age 10, and attendant witness Hilton, age 12.
The best is to hear what investigator Ted Bloecher had to say:
"On February 1, 1978, about 8:30 PM, I got a telephone call from Robert Gribble, veteran UFO researcher from Seattle, reporting a CE-III that had occurred on the previous night (January 31) at Montvale, N.J., that involved four boys. The mother of two of them, Mrs ..., had called Gribble earlier that day to report the incident, having obtained his number from the FAA at Newark Airport. Her two boys, John (10) and Hilton (12), and their friends Eddy (8) and Michael (10) were all in a state of great excitement when Mrs ... returned from shopping at about 6:30 PM or shortly thereafter. They had seen, they said, at least one UFO on several flybys, as well as a number of strange figures, from the school playground a half a block north of the back yard."
"Gribble gave me Mrs ...'s telephone number and I called her right away. She provided additional details based on her understanding of the stories she had obtained from each of the four children whom, she emphasized, had been extremely upset by what reportedly had occurred. (The two boys, in fact, were afraid to go the short distance home along, and had to be accompanied by Mrs ... and her children.) Mrs ... was very helpful and she agreed to a meeting with the children, arranged for Sunday afternoon, February 5. She wisely suggested that if I had some associates that could come along, we might save time and obtain independent accounts by interviewing the children on a one-to-one basis."
"I called Budd Hopkins, Pat Huyghe, and Jerry Stoehrer to find out if they could assist in the investigation. Hopkins and Huyghe agreed, but Stoehrer had a work and school conflict which prohibited his participation. We met at the ... home in Montvale at 2 PM as planned, and Mrs ... arranged with the to have both Eddy and Michael present for the interviews. The three of us chose one boy apiece. I interviewed John, and the following narrative is based essentially on the story I obtained from him. I also spoke to his brother Hilton, regarding his part in the January 31 incident. Pat Huyghe questioned Michael and has submitted his own report based on Michael's account; and Budd Hopkins spoke with Eddy, as well as the other boys. In addition, the children took us out to the playground for an on-site examination of the sighting area."
"Budd Hopkins is collecting all the various bits of information we have obtained, not only at the February 5th inquiry, but in subsequent telephone conversations with all parties since then. Using all these sources of information, he will prepare a final comprehensive report on the incident."
"John and his friends, Eddy and Michael , were "bootskating" on the frozen ice of the Montvale Memorial Elementary School playing field, situated about a block north of the back yard of the home. It was shortly after 6 PM and the last traces of twilight had disappeared. The playing fields were illuminated by floodlights that line the perimeter of the fields. The first incident in a series of increasingly strange events was the passage overhead of a "plane-like" object that came from the south and moved toward the west in a straight line. It was noticed chiefly by the youngest member of the trio, Eddy, and by John's own description, he seemed to have paid little attention to it. Shortly after this (within minutes at the most) there appeared a second object which they all saw and described similarly. The directions given by each boy seem to be contradictory, and I view John's testimony as being probably the most reliable. He said it appeared from the "direction of the park(?) lake" or to the east of the school and playing field; it came directly over the. field, apparently circled and hovered briefly, and then moved south toward Park Ridge, disappearing into the distance. Their descriptions and drawings are quite in agreement with one another; It was a square object with large yellow lights on each side (or at each corner), with a slight dome on top, and a red light underneath, which emitted a red beam of light that played downward toward the ground but stopped short of it. John estimated its altitude at between 500 and 1,000 feet. In an attempt to get an idea of the object's angular size, I had John hold a pencil at arm's length and measure off the diameter of the object as it might appear in the sky. John measured off nearly two inches from the end of the pencil. Then I asked him to compare the object's apparent size to that of the full moon, and he said the object was not quite as large. The two estimates are, of course, contradictory, and I would suspect that his comparison to a full moon is the more accurate. The appearance of the object caused some excitement and apprehension among the three boys. At some point during the observation, which John said lasted 5 minutes, they moved across the field toward a shed on the north side of the field. The open front of the shed (a ball team's dugout) faces generally toward the west. The final portion of this part of their experience took place from the vicinity of the shed. Almost immediately after the object's disappearance, their attention was attracted to first one — then a group — of strange figures, seen moving about, on Memorial Drive, which runs generally north-south on the eastern perimeter of the playing fields. The figures were to the north of the Public Works Garage, on the east side of the road, and they were generally moving south along Memorial Drive toward the garage."
"There was a lot of movement to and fro, and the figure walked "stiffly," and they seemed "stunned." They were all similar: about 5' 7" tall, bald, and dressed in bright yellow outfits. They seemed to have on boots and gloves. There was one who appeared slightly different, with a larger head, creased down the middle and looking something like a "hawk's head." .He wore a brown coat or cape over his yellow suit. In number there were from six or seven to ten or eleven. They were in constant motion and it was difficult to tell exactly how many there were. During this part of the experience there was a peculiar silence all around them. The boys smelled an unpleasant odor, like "sulphur." The figures were seen mostly in profile and seemed to ignore the youngsters, who were at least 300 feet away."
"The boys then left the relative security of the shed and approached about 50 to 100 feet, and then the strangest part of their experience occurred. They saw another figure, this one a woman, in the parking area on the east side of Memorial Drive, fronting on Huffs Park. She had medium-long brown hair and wore a dark suit with a blue fur around her shoulders. She walked slowly, as if in slow motion, and sat down on the low cedar fence that lines the road and parking area. Then she raised her arm and pointed to the sky (still in slow motion); the boys looked up to see the same or a similarly square-shaped object overhead. No one had seen it arrive above the playground."
"By this time the rest of the figures had disappeared, having "walked off' in the direction of the garage. The boys were so intent on watching the woman they did not see where the others went. She got up and began walking south toward the Public Works garage herself. At the same time, a police car drove north from Grand Avenue, headed for the Police Station on Memorial Drive. As the car approached, the woman disappeared abruptly from view. When the car had gone by, she reappeared and continued to walk toward the garage. Then, nearing the building, the boys saw that parts of her body were vanishing, this time gradually, beginning with her legs. By the time she reached the garage she was visible only from the waist up. Then she walked into the north side of the building, disappearing into the wall. There is no door on that side of the building. At this, the boys turned and ran back to the home in a state of high excitement."
"Hilton, John's 12-year-old brother, was vacuuming his room about this time. Leaving the vacuum running momentarily, he went to his window (on the third floor of the house, facing east) and saw the three boys running toward the house. Above their heads, at about a 45-degree angle, was an oval object several times the size of a full moon, with four yellow lights around the edge and a red light in the middle. He was uncertain as to whether the object was moving. Opening the window, Hilton leaned out and called to the boys; then, leaving the window open and the vacuum running, he raced downstairs to meet them at the back door. The family dog, who had been with Hilton, was very excited (Hilton said the dog had been acting peculiar before he saw the boys coming across the field). As the boys came into the house the siren at the firehouse, a block to the east along Grand Avenue, was sounded. The time was exactly 6:22 PM."
"Because of their excitement, the boys thought the siren was connected to their UFO sighting, and that the object had perhaps started a fire somewhere. Hilton called the Fire Department (the same dispatcher takes calls for both the Fire and Police Departments), and was told that he was the fifth one to call. Hilton, misunderstanding the statement, believed his was the fifth phone call regarding the UFO; his call actually followed four other calls relating to the fire alarm. The UFO report was passed on to the Police Department and Police Officer Pelsang drove the squad car around the school playground about 10 minutes later, but found nothing out of the ordinary. (Officer Pelsang could not be certain if the police car that had appeared earlier on Memorial Drive was one driven by him; he was out in the squad car at the time but was not sure exactly where he was at about 6:15 Mrs. Emily came back from shopping at 6:39 PM, just as the siren sounded a second time. She found the four boys in a highly excited state. She questioned them carefully, had them make drawings, and even called Newark Airport, hoping to obtain radar confirmation of the UFO sighting. It took several hours for the children to calm down, and even then Mrs ... had to accompany the boys to their home a few doors away. The reports of the children that they saw other objects on subsequent evenings has not yet been carefully checked out. The temptation is strong, of course, to dismiss such claims as the result of excess imagination. That may be a mistake."
"The accuracy of children's testimony regarding UFO reports is a difficult thing to determine. On the one hand, children can often exhibit an exhilarating candor and lack of guile in describing something; but they also have rich imaginations that are unconstrained by their limited knowledge and experience with the "real" world. One may hesitatingly conclude (at the risk of appearing to be an adult chauvinist) that UFO reports by children have considerably less probative value than reports by adults. This is not to say that children's reports should be ignored or thrown away. Much depends, of course, upon the children themselves and, like adults, some are more credible than others. In the case at hand, I have the impression that the one subject I spent the most time interviewing, John is an unusually dependable witness. His story was clear and quite straightforward, and he introduced very little irrelevant detail. There is no internal evidence that suggests he is making the story up or elaborating extensively on what he says he saw — despite the rather bizarre contents of his story. Regardless of other intrusive and extraneous details ("bullet holes" in the school windows, "blood" on the door, "purple clouds" at sunset, and "odd people" living in the neighborhood), the stories of all four boys contain sufficient complementary overlapping detail to suggest that they saw something quite definite; that what was seen has been described similarly and accurately to the best of each boy's abilities; and that whatever it was that they saw, it had an unmistakable effect upon them."
"The question remains: what did they see? Was it something ordinary that, in their excitement, they mistook for something remarkable? I cannot answer this with any certainty. Without the independent testimony of other witnesses, I must view the report as inconclusive."
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[Ref. tb1:] TED BLOECHER:
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CE-III Report from Montvale, N.J.: Preliminary Report
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children took us out to the playground for an on-site examination of the sighting area. Budd Hopkins is collecting all the various bits of information we have obtained, not only at the February 5th inquiry, but in subsequent telephone conversations with all parties since then. Using all these sources of information, he will prepare a final comprehensive report on the incident. NarrativeJohn and his friends, Eddy and Michael , were "bootskating" on the frozen ice of the Montvale Memorial Elementary School playing field, situated about a block north of the back yard of the home. It was shortly after 6 PM and the last traces of twilight had disappeared. The playing fields were illuminated by floodlights that line the perimeter of the fields. The first incident in a series of increasingly strange events was the passage overhead of a "plane-like" object that came from the south and moved toward the west in a straight line. It was noticed chiefly by the youngest member of the trio, Eddy, and by John's own description, he seemed to have paid little attention to it. Shortly after this (within minutes at the most) there appeared a second object which they all saw and described similarly. The directions given by each boy seem to be contradictory, and I view John's testimony as being probably the most reliable. He said it appeared from the "direction of the park(?) lake" or to the east of the school and playing field; it came directly over the. field, apparently circled and hovered briefly, and then moved south toward Park Ridge, disappearing into the distance. Their descriptions and drawings are quite in agreement with one another; It was a square object with large yellow lights on each side (or at each corner), with a slight dome on top, and a red light underneath, which emitted a red beam of light that played downward toward the ground but stopped short of it. John estimated its altitude at between 500 and 1,000 feet. In an attempt to get an idea of the object's angular size, I had John hold a pencil at arm's length and measure off the diameter of the object as it might appear in the sky. John measured off nearly two inches from the end of the pencil. Then I asked him to compare the object's apparent size to that of the full moon, and he said the object was not quite as large. The two estimates are, of course, contradictory, and I would suspect that his comparison to a full moon is the more accurate. The appearance of the object caused some excitement and apprehension among the three boys. At some point during the observation, which John said lasted 5 minutes, they moved across the field toward a shed on the north side of the field. The open front of the shed (a ball team's dugout) faces generally toward the west. The final portion of this part of their experience took place from the vicinity of the shed. Almost immediately after the object's disappearance, their attention was attracted to first one — then a group — of strange figures, seen moving about, on Memorial Drive, which runs generally north-south on the eastern perimeter of the playing fields. The figures were to the north of the Public Works Garage, on the east side of the road, and they were generally moving south along Memorial Drive toward the garage. There was a lot of movement to and fro, and the figure walked "stiffly," and they seemed "stunned." They were all similar: about 5' 7" tall, bald, and dressed in bright yellow outfits. They seemed to have on boots and gloves. There was one who appeared slightly different, with a larger head, creased down the middle and looking something like a "hawk's head." .He wore a brown coat or cape over his yellow suit. In number there were from six or seven to ten or eleven. They were in constant motion and it was difficult to tell exactly how many there were. During this part of the experience there was a peculiar (Continued on next page) |
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(CE-III, continued) silence all around them. The boys smelled an unpleasant odor, like "sulphur." The figures were seen mostly in profile and seemed to ignore the youngsters, who were at least 300 feet away. The boys then left the relative security of the shed and approached about 50 to 100 feet, and then the strangest part of their experience occurred. They saw another figure, this one a woman, in the parking area on the east side of Memorial Drive, fronting on Huffs Park. She had medium-long brown hair and wore a dark suit with a blue fur around her shoulders. She walked slowly, as if in slow motion, and sat down on the low cedar fence that lines the road and parking area. Then she raised her arm and pointed to the sky (still in slow motion); the boys looked up to see the same or a similarly square-shaped object overhead. No one had seen it arrive above the playground. By this time the rest of the figures had disappeared, having "walked off' in the direction of the garage. The boys were so intent on watching the woman they did not see where the others went. She got up and began walking south toward the Public Works garage herself. At the same time, a police car drove north from Grand Avenue, headed for the Police Station on Memorial Drive. As the car approached, the woman disappeared abruptly from view. When the car had gone by, she reappeared and continued to walk toward the garage. Then, nearing the building, the boys saw that parts of her body were vanishing, this time gradually, beginning with her legs. By the time she reached the garage she was visible only from the waist up. Then she walked into the north side of the building, disappearing into the wall. There is no door on that side of the building. At this, the boys turned and ran back to the home in a state of high excitement. Hilton, John's 12-year-old brother, was vacuuming his room about this time. Leaving the vacuum running momentarily, he went to his window (on the third floor of the house, facing east) and saw the three boys running toward the house. Above their heads, at about a 45-degree angle, was an oval object several times the size of a full moon, with four yellow lights around the edge and a red light in the middle. He was uncertain as to whether the object was moving. Opening the window, Hilton leaned out and called to the boys; then, leaving the window open and the vacuum running, he raced downstairs to meet them at the back door. The family dog, who had been with Hilton, was very excited (Hilton said the dog had been acting peculiar before he saw the boys coming across the field). As the boys came into the house the siren at the firehouse, a block to the east along Grand Avenue, was sounded. The time was exactly 6:22 PM. Because of their excitement, the boys thought the siren was connected to their UFO sighting, and that the object had perhaps started a fire somewhere. Hilton called the Fire Department (the same dispatcher takes calls for both the Fire and Police Departments), and was told that he was the fifth one to call. Hilton, misunderstanding the statement, believed his was the fifth phone call regarding the UFO; his call actually followed four other calls relating to the fire alarm. The UFO report was passed on to the Police Department and Police Officer Pelsang drove the squad car around the school playground about 10 minutes later, but found nothing out of the ordinary. (Officer Pelsang could not be certain if the police car that had appeared earlier on Memorial Drive was one driven by him; he was out in the squad car at the time but was not sure exactly where he was at about 6:15 Mrs. Emily came back from shopping at 6:39 PM, just as the siren sounded a second time. She found the four boys in a highly excited state. She questioned them carefully, had them make drawings, and even called Newark Airport, hoping to obtain radar confirmation of the UFO sighting. It took several hours for the children to calm down, and even then Mrs ... had to accompany the boys to their home a few doors away. The reports of the children that they saw other objects on subsequent evenings has not yet been carefully checked out. The temptation is strong, of course, to dismiss such claims as the result of excess imagination. That may be a mistake. CommentaryThe accuracy of children's testimony regarding UFO reports is a difficult thing to determine. On the one hand, children can often exhibit an exhilarating candor and lack of guile in describing something; but they also have rich imaginations that are unconstrained by their limited knowledge and experience with the "real" world. One may hesitatingly conclude (at the risk of appearing to be an adult chauvinist) that UFO reports by children have considerably less probative value than reports by adults. This is not to say that children's reports should be ignored or thrown away. Much depends, of course, upon the children themselves and, like adults, some are more credible than others. In the case at hand, I have the impression that the one subject I spent the most time interviewing, John is an unusually dependable witness. His story was clear and quite straightforward, and he introduced very little irrelevant detail. There is no internal evidence that suggests he is making the story up or elaborating extensively on what he says he saw — despite the rather bizarre contents of his story. Regardless of other intrusive and extraneous details ("bullet holes" in the school windows, "blood" on the door, "purple clouds" at sunset, and "odd people" living in the neighborhood), the stories of all four boys contain sufficient complementary overlapping detail to suggest that they saw something quite definite; that what was seen has been described similarly and accurately to the best of each boy's abilities; and that whatever it was that they saw, it had an unmistakable effect upon them. (Continued on next page) |
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(CE-III, continued) The question remains: what did they see? Was it something ordinary that, in their excitement, they mistook for something remarkable? I cannot answer this with any certainty. Without the independent testimony of other witnesses, I must view the report as inconclusive. |
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Montvale, New Jersey, on January 31, 1978, at 1815, three young children were playing on the ice on a field of the local elementary school, it was dark, and floodlights illuminated the field. The boys then noticed a "plane" like object that passed slowly over the field. Moments later a second object arrived, it was described as square shaped with large yellow lights on each corner with a slight dome on top and a red light underneath. The object emitted a red beam of light towards the ground, which stopped short before touching it. They then noticed several figures moving stiffly along, around the park area. These figures were humanoid and were dressed in bright yellow outfits with boots and gloves. They were of average height and bald headed. One of the beings appeared different since he had a larger head which seemed "creased" down the middle and was wearing a brown cape over the yellow suit. As the witnesses watched the figures they noted and uncanny silence and an unpleasant sulfur like odor in the area. The figures walked away towards the nearby Public Works Garage. The boys then noticed another figure, this one a woman standing in the parking lot. She had medium long brown hair and wore a dark suit with blue fur around her shoulders and when she walked, she did as if in slow motion. She sat down on a low fence then raised her arm very slowly and pointed to the sky, apparently at another hovering square shaped object. The woman then also walked towards the Public Works building and at one point seemed to appear and disappear as a police vehicle drove by near her.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "IUR Vol. 3 #3, April 1978."
[Ref. dj1:] DONALD JOHNSON:
Donald Johnson indicates that on January 31, 1978 at 6:15 p.m, John C., age 10, and his friends Eddy and Michael H., 8 and 10 years old, were playing on the ice in the playing field of the Montvale Memorial Elementary School in Montvale, New Jersey. It was dark, and the school's floodlights illuminated the field. The boys then noticed a "plane" like object that passed slowly over the field. Moments later a second object arrived, which was described as shaped like a square with large yellow lights in each corner, with a slight dome on top and a red light underneath. The object emitted a red beam of light towards the ground, but stopped short before touching it. They next noticed several humanoid figures moving around the school park, walking stiffly. These figures were of average height and bald headed, and dressed in bright yellow outfits with boots and gloves. One of the beings looked different, because he had a larger head which seemed "creased" down the middle and had on a brown cape over the yellow suit. As the boys watched the figures, they noted an uncanny silence and an unpleasant sulphur like odor in the area. The figures walked away towards the nearby Public Works Garage. The boys then noticed another figure, this one a woman standing in the parking lot. She had medium long brown hair and wore a dark suit with blue fur around her shoulders and when she walked, she did as if in slow motion. She sat down on a low fence then raised her arm very slowly and pointed to the sky, apparently at another hovering square shaped object. The woman then also walked towards the Public Works building and at one point seemed to appear and disappear as a police vehicle drove by near her.
The following sketch is provided:
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The source is indicated as the International UFO Reporter, March 1978, page 36, and April 1978, page 3.
[Ref. ud1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on January 31, 1978, at 18:15, "in Montvale, New Jersey, USA, two square objects with yellow lights at each corner, slight dome on top, red light underneath,red beam of light downward. 6-10 beings, 5'7" tall, bald, wore yellow outfits, boots, gloves. Odor of sulphur. Explanation: Coincidence."
"An object was observed. Electromagnetic and gravity effects were noted. Telepathic phenomena were said to have occurred."
"One dark cigar-shaped object was observed in icy weather by more than three male witnesses, typical age 10, at a school for ten minutes (Clarke). Six humanoids, each wearing a yellow suit and boots, were seen."
The web site then says that "Three young children were playing on the ice on a field of the local elementary school, it was dark, and floodlights illuminated the field. The boys then noticed a "plane" like object that passed slowly over the field. Moments later a second object arrived, it was described as square shaped with large yellow lights on each corner with a slight dome on top and a red light underneath. The object emitted a red beam of light towards the ground, which stopped short before touching it. They then noticed several figures moving stiffly along, around the park area. These figures were humanoid and were dressed in bright yellow outfits with boots and gloves. They were of average height and bald headed. One of the beings appeared different since he had a larger head which seemed "creased" down the middle and was wearing a brown cape over the yellow suit. As the witnesses watched the figures they noted and uncanny silence and an unpleasant sulfur like odor in the area. The figures walked away towards the nearby Public Works Garage. The boys then noticed another figure, this one a woman standing in the parking lot. She had medium long brown hair and wore a dark suit with blue fur around her shoulders and when she walked, she did as if in slow motion. She sat down on a low fence then raised her arm very slowly and pointed to the sky, apparently at another hovering square shaped object. The woman then also walked towards the Public Works building and at one point seemed to appear and disappear as a police vehicle drove by near her."
The sources are indicated as Webb, David, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports; MUFON UFO Journal, MUFON UFO Journal, MUFON; International UFO Reporter, International UFO Reporter, CUFOS; CUFOS, J. Allen Hynek; Eberhart, George M., A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980, ISBN:0-313-21337-2; Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002; Smith, Willy, UNICAT computer database; Rosales, Albert, Humanoid Sighting Reports Database.
Ted Bloecher is right, the case poses the questions of reliability of children witnesses, and is thus not conclusive.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Severe | December 6, 2008 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Final report not available. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 2 | Data | Severe | December 6, 2008 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Reports from the other investigators not available. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 3 | Ufology | Severe | December 6, 2008 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Witnesses are children. | - | - |
| 4 | Ufology | Severe | December 6, 2008 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Repeated sightings. | - | - |
| 5 | Ufology | Severe | December 6, 2008 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Lack of information on next sightings. | Help needed. | Opened. |
Extraterrestrial beings.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 6, 2008 | Creation, [tb1], [dj1], [ar1], [ud1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 6, 2008 | First published. |
