1967.11.06
01.30
Car-stop cases in Britain
Exactly ten years after the Levelland events – in late October and early November 1967 – Britain suffered a major wave, with police cars chasing UFOs. Questions were asked in Parliament. Two classic car-stop cases occurred during the wave. The most impressive was at Sopley, right beside the secret MOD radar base involved in the August 1956 jet fighter chase.
At 1.30 am on 6 November a Leyland Comet diesel truck and a Jaguar car (driven by a local vet who had been out on a call) were both affected by a purple-red “rugby ball” that hovered in front of the two of them and above a phone booth as they waited either side of a road junction. The Jaguar lost power to both its engine and lights, while the Comet truck only lost electrical power and its diesel engine continued to tick over. The object gave off a pungent odour (seemingly ozone from ionised gases in the atmosphere) and emitted a high-pitched humming noise.
The police were called to the scene immediately, and the witnesses claim the MOD sent investigators to follow up this case.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
The British defence ministry interviewed the three witnesses at length in a local hotel.
(UFOs and How to See Them, Randles)
Next day the road surface at the location was covered with fresh bitumen, the phone booth was repainted and scientists with Geiger counters pored over the scorched grass on the embankment. Yet the MOD claim to have no record of any of this.
The truck driver was taken by police to collect his lorry from a compound in Christchurch. It had to be towed out to get it started. All the electrical circuits had burnt through and it required a new dynamo, starter motor, regulator, ammeter, batteries and bulbs.
Cases like this offer the strongest possible evidence for the physical reality behind some UFO events and tell us a great deal about the science that makes these UFOs real.