The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Est Républicain, Nancy, France, page 7, on February 13, 1954.
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JŒUF (from our editorial team). -- Mr. Jean Hofmockel, originally from Germany, is married in Homécourt, where he lives with his in-laws at 104, Cités de la Gare. He is a 26-year-old man, dark-haired, with a serious demeanor. He weighs each word carefully when he speaks, no doubt because he is still not very skilled in handling French. Until recently, he worked for an assembly company on a Sidelor construction site. He was laid off, along with several colleagues, due to economic reasons. This young man, soon to be a father, has just had, according to some, an extraordinary stroke of luck, while for others, he is seen as the author of a good joke. Indeed, he claims to have photographed a flying saucer.
Of course, such a thing has, it seems, been done before. But there is also the precedent of that Italian who built a model of a flying saucer with his own hands, photographed it, and... fooled quite a few people—until experts uncovered the hoax.
This does not mean at all that Mr. Hofmockel took inspiration from that imaginative and clever Italian. If that were the case, he would have done much worse than him.
For our part, not being experts in flying saucers (we humbly confess never having detected the slightest suspicious light in the sky), we will refrain from drawing conclusions and will simply recount the story of our Homécourt resident. Surely, some of our readers will confirm or refute it.
The whole affair took place last week. Mr. Hofmockel, feeling unwell, took advantage of the pale winter sun around 1:15 PM to go for a walk near the slag heap of Sainte-Marie-aux-Chênes, behind the coke ovens of Homécourt.
"Suddenly, I saw a craft descending towards me, gliding like a falling leaf. It was about twenty-five meters in diameter and very close to the ground. I had my camera with me and managed to take three shots. But just as I was about to take the fourth, the 'saucer' suddenly ascended vertically and disappeared very quickly."
Our witness admits that he was very scared, though not enough to prevent him from photographing his vision, but sufficiently so that his pictures turned out mediocre.
Most of the few people to whom he told the story remained skeptical, including Mrs. Hofmockel, who at first was doubtful but now seems convinced. Some even go so far as to claim that the "saucer photographer" merely used a simple lid thrown into the air to take his pictures.
Interesting document or hoax? At present, it is impossible to favor one hypothesis over the other.
[Photo caption:] The document presented by Mr. HOFMOCKEL in support of his story.
