UFOs in the daily Press:

Going to his work, at 2:30 a.m.

A worker of Saint-Remy (the Vosges) is said to have talked - in Russian - to the pilot of a flying saucer

From our special envoy Maurice Goffinet: If one takes the statements made to us by Mr. Lazlo Ujvari of Saint-Remy (the Vosges) seriously, there will soon be no mystery anymore as of their origin, at least, the secret of their functioning may be, too, lifted, some day or night, since it is known that these craft preferably land in the darkness, even if they suddenly appear before the hood of an amazed car driver or trouble the quiet pedaling of an innocent cyclist.

The adventure is at the edge of the wood

So, Thursday evening, he was pedaling on the vicinal domain that links the Basses-Pierres to Saint-Remy. It was a morning like the other mornings. "The sky was cloudy," Mr. Ujvari told us, "there were quite frequently glows of the moon that allowed distinguishing the country to some extent. My dynamo was buzzing. But I soon had to put feet on the ground. At about 30 meters of my home the road is under repair and I was disturbed by pointed stones. I went around the wood that is on the edge of the road when a silhouette stood before me. The man was of average size and rather "chubby" (sic). Dressed of a jacket with a warm collar, long pants and shoes with hard soils certainly, because his steps sounded hard on the ground. On his head, he wore a helmet, of the motorcyclist helmet kind, but that must have been covered of a matte matter because it did not shine. What was brilliant however was a kind of stripe that the man had on each shoulder. He came to me frankly and "Halte" ["Stop"], an almost international word, was his first word. The rest was told in a language incomprehensible to me. Mr. Ujvari also specifies that the voice of the character was high-pitched "like a woman's voice."

Where are you going, man?

"I stopped short", Mr. Ujvari continues. I did not expect much to meet someone on my road at such an hour. The being advanced more to me and was at about 1m50. It is then that I saw that he had a pistol in his hand (and Mr. Ujvari, insists on this). I still did not understand anything to what he was saying, and I told him". Here a parenthesis is necessary: Mr. Ujvari was born in the Czech Republic forty years ago. He speaks our language almost perfectly and also most of the Eastern languages, in addition to German and Spanish. This is because he was in the Foreign Legion for ten years where he met men of all nations.

But let's hear the continuation of his story:

"Decided to know what this armed character wanted from me, I told him in Russian: I speak Russian".

- Me too, he answered to my great amazement, immediately adding in the same language: "Where are you going, man?"

I explained to him that I was going to my workplace in Etival. He asked me what time it was. I took out my pocket watch: 2:30 a.m., I answered. The man took his pistol in the other hand to take out, also, a watch.

- it is not true, it is four.

I had to explain to him that it was really 2:30 in our country because I started to work at 3 a.m..

- Where are we here? In Spain or in Italy?

Mr. Ujvari does not hide that this question first really puzzled him. He thought he was confronted to a stalled foreign car driver. The first idea - funny - that came to his mind, was that the man must have been seriously lost!

- We are in France, he answered.

- Where in France?

- At 100 kilometers of the German border, at 100 kilometers from Strasbourg.

- Is it far from Marseilles?

- 900 kilometers, Mr. Ujvari, who was not in the famous "Marseilles jokes" mood.

- Go away now, said the man showing the road to Mr. Ujvari.

The latter did not need this to be repeated.

But some curiosity made him ask still in Russian language to his strange interlocutor, where he was coming from. But the man did not seem to be ready to waste any time in useless confidences. Go, he did not cease to tell me, pushing Mr. Ujvari with the tip of his weapon.

This is when having walked - bicycle at the hand - for about thirty meters, Mr. Ujvari suddenly had a shock at the heart.

The saucer on the road

The narrow road was barred by a craft that Mr. Ujvari first thought to be an automobile. "But I did not see wheels, and the more I approached I distinguish what must be called a saucer on the background of the sky: a hull in the shape of a plate or rather two plates touching by their edges. The whole in a slightly tilted position. I did not distinguish feet. In the vertical axis above the craft, stood a rod with winglets".

"The saucer had at first sight a diameter of 2m50 and a height of 1m60. The rod with the winglets, thick like a broom, was about 60 centimeters long". About the color, Mr. Ujvari is not much informed. It was in the night. The craft seemed metallic to him and dark grey. Anyway, no light came out of it.

"I went at one meter, one meter fifty, of this "thing" Mr. Ujvari told us and the character did not want me to stick around. He went with me at 30 meters beyond the road. His last word was "sbogen". ("Goodbye" in Russian)."

Having walked on for about 200 meters, Mr. Ujvari stopped and looking back he saw a vertical luminous beam like that of a powerful headlight pointed at the sky, rise from the place where he had seen the saucer.

"I heard, he goes on, the craft "purr like a cat" that is to say louder than a scooter engine heard at such a distance. Then I saw it, thanks to its projector, rise vertically at a tremendous speed and the projector went off while it disappeared to the South". Mr. Ujvari does not hide that he pinched himself to make sure he had not been dreaming. Even at the risk of being late at work, he came back to the place of the saucer. Nothing was left of the passage of the strange craft. He then thought to alert someone at the village: "But, he said, I was afraid to be taken for a fool, for waking people up at such an hour."

Needless to say that his story, a bit late, got some success among his workmates.

The witness has a sense of reality

From gendarmerie to squad section, from squad to central station, the message of the gendarmes of Raon-l'Etape made its way.

"Another saucer story" scoff the phone standard employees. We have to say in all impartiality that in Saint-Remy one laughs a lot less now.

Mr. Ujvari, father of family, is known there as sober, hard worker and not subjected to illusions, moreover not compatible with his military past.

The gendarmes investigated very seriously on the saucer phenomenon. On the road, they unfortunately found no landing trace.

During a long interrogation, Mr. Ujvari did not vary at all in his statements. "If only we had been two people", he repeats.

There is by the way a secondary element - very secondary - that has a big importance as of the credibility that can be given to Mr. Ujvari's statements. The cow of this brave man is very sick since a few days and its owner is quite obsessed with this annoyance, insomuch as to state that his encounter with the Russian-speaking "Martian" (!) is of lesser importance...

"Do not waste my time once again with this saucer. I was with the gendarmes long enough this morning. I have to take care of my cow. If it dies, this is 120.000 francs lost... you understand?"

This was how Mr. Ujvari greeted us when we were going to interview him, with Mr. Cunin, mayor of Saint-Remy. We managed to soften him nevertheless and this got us the strange story you just read.