Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Last Updated: 19/05/2013
For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used for some witnesses
Introduction
Paul Black first got in touch with BUFOG via phone on the morning of 28th February 2013. He was quite concerned by a strange triangular-shaped marking which had seemingly appeared on his right arm during the night. This was not the first marking to have appeared on him. On other occasions since mid 2012, he had discovered other unusual markings. He had also experienced two UFO sightings and numerous incidents around his home which potentially were paranormal in nature.
Due to his location I was not able to visit Paul directly. Thankfully he sent through some photographs of the markings for my analysis. They are viewable later in this report.
Metallic UFO Sighting
The unusual activity noticed by Paul seemed to kick off with the sighting of a UFO on a bright sunny day in July 2012. It was about 4.30pm. Paul and his wife Susan were on their way home from a friend’s house in their car. They were about 3 minutes drive from home. Susan was driving and Paul was in the passenger seat. The road was relatively quiet at the time, but there were a few other vehicles around.
Paul glanced out of the passenger side window to the East, and happened to notice a strange object in the sky visible between two houses. The object was hovering completely still. It appeared to be around 200 yards from the road and 100 feet in the air. The object was metallic silver in colour and shiny, possibly due to reflection of the sunlight. It looked quite small in size, possibly 3-4 feet in diameter. Paul only saw the object for a couple of seconds before it was lost from sight behind the houses due to the movement of the car. He was not able to accurately see the shape of the object.
Paul was intrigued by the object, and almost immediately asked his wife to pull over the car. He jumped out and ran back to where he had seen the object but it had vanished. Initially he had thought it was possibly an aerial of some kind, but the fact it was now gone meant it could not have been.
Due to the fact that the object seemed relatively small in size, I asked Paul whether he felt it could have been a balloon or other inflatable. He does not believe it could have been this, due to the fact that the object was motionless in the air. It was too high to be a balloon being held by someone on the ground, and too low down to have been an inflatable up in the sky such as a weather balloon. It is possible that the object was a remote controlled model which had flown out of sight by the time he returned, but we are unlikely to ever know for sure.
Rugby Ball-Shaped UFO Sighting
Paul’s second UFO sighting occurred in September/October 2012. He was at home at the time on Garden City Carlton, and was upstairs in the bedroom. It was roughly 11am. Paul decided to look out of the window. Outside it was a normal autumn day, still and with scattered cloud. He noticed a dark object moving in a Westerly direction over a nearby block of flats. The object appeared to be about 5 feet across, and was shaped like a rugby ball, at least from the location Paul was situated. The object was moving quite slowly, about 5-10 mph. It was travelling on a direct course and did not change speed or direction at all.
Photograph taken from the sighting location with the UFO and movement path drawn on top:
Paul watched the object for about 5-6 seconds until it had gone out of sight. Once it had gone he immediately felt on edge and found he was shaking. He thought to himself “Oh God, what the hell was that?” He called Susan upstairs and told her what he had seen. She confirmed that she had not seen the object. Later on, Paul called his local police station to ask if anyone else had reported the object. According to the police, no other reports had been made.
While this sighting sounds unusual, it is not possible to fully rule out a balloon/inflatable as the explanation. Just as with Paul’s first sighting the object was relatively small in size. It appeared to be under control and flying on a straight course. However if a balloon is caught in an air current it can travel on a straight course in this manner. The object did not perform any advanced manoeuvres which would indicate intelligence. Despite this, Paul’s reaction to the object is fully understandable, especially after seeing something else unexplained several months before.
Body Markings
Since late 2012 both Paul and his son Nicolas have woken up on several occasions with markings/lumps which have not been adequately explained. Sometimes these have seemed linked to dreams they have had around the time.
The first of these was quite dramatic due to extensive bruising surrounding it. In late October or early November 2012 Paul remembers having a strange dream. In this dream someone was doing something to his lower chest area which was extremely painful. He awoke in the morning and felt completely fine. However two or three days later Paul rubbed his stomach and felt a lump. When he checked he could see a small raised reddish lump on his stomach. He was a little concerned by this so decided to visit his GP. His doctor dismissed the lump as fatty tissue.
The following morning upon checking the lump Paul was shocked to see extensive bruising in a ring around it. When he touched the lump he found that the skin on the top of it was beginning to peel off. He decided to return to his doctor. The doctor had no idea of what could have caused the bruising, but prescribed him some anti-biotics.
Photograph of the lump and bruising taken on the day of discovery:
It took about 5 days for the bruising to vanish, but the lump still exists today. It is about the size of a marble. Paul feels that the doctor’s initial diagnosis was incorrect, as fatty tissue does not create bruising like that which occurred. It certainly appears that he suffered some kind of trauma which has not yet been explained.
In mid-January 2013 Paul noticed another reddish lump on the top of his lower left arm. It was about 2cm across. He had no idea of how long it had been there, whether it had occurred during that night or had been there for a number of days. Like the one on his stomach, this lump still exists today, so it is unlikely to be an inflamed spot or insect bite as this would have healed.
Photograph of the lump on Paul’s left arm:
On Friday 22nd February Nicolas was playing at a local park when he fell over hurting his head. The following morning he woke up complaining that his hip and groin were hurting. At first Paul and Susan decided not to act on this, but by dinner-time a large red lump, about 5 inches across, had appeared in Nicolas’ groin. Paul and Susan took him to the hospital. After being examined, a doctor confirmed that the lump was due to blood pooling inside his groin due to an injury. He said it would take over two weeks to heal, and would go solid before it did. However the following morning the lump had completely vanished, with only a slight itching sensation left behind.
Two days later on the morning of Tuesday 26th February Nicolas informed his parents that he had had a strange dream during the night. In this dream he said that the family were out in their car. He looked up into the air and saw a pale grey coloured pole-shaped object. He got out of the car and climbed onto it, and then went flying on it. While flying, it bounced off the wall of a local Tesco’s store near to where they live. In the dream, only he could see the object, it was not visible to Paul or Susan. It is unknown if this had anything to do with what had happened several days previously, or if it was nothing more than a dream.
For the following few days after having this dream, Paul and Susan noticed some differences in their son’s behaviour. He started to ask for his bedroom light to be left on at night, something which he would not usually do. Also he seemed to be sleeping in longer than usual. Most mornings he would be up between 5-7am, but for these days he had to be woken up around 8.30am. These behavioural changes are interesting. While they could be nothing more than coincidence, it should be noted that contactees often get a fear of going to sleep at night and of the dark. This is probably because they are aware that this is when they have been visited or taken.
On Thursday 28th February 2013 it was Paul’s turn to awake with an unusual marking. He noticed a small reddish marking, about 3cm across, in the rough shape of a triangle on the bottom of his right forearm. In the middle of it appeared to be an open puncture mark. When he touched it, it was stinging slightly like the skin had been taken off. He had been drinking the evening before so cannot be absolutely certain it was not on his arm when he went to bed, but he does not recall bumping his arm or doing anything which could have been responsible for the marking. There is also nothing sharp near to his bed which he could have accidentally struck during the night.
Photograph of the marking on Paul’s right arm:
Paul showed the marking to his wife. When he did so, she informed him that during the night she had awoke about 2am with the sense of a presence in the room. She felt like she was being watched. She sat up in bed and looked around but could not see anything out of the ordinary, and so settled back down to sleep. It is unknown whether this is relevant in any way regarding the appearance of the marking, but contactees often describe feeling like they are being watched, sometimes just prior to a contact experience.
Paul was amazed by how straight edged the marking appeared. It did not look like something natural, such as a spot or blister. Within a day the open puncture-like area had a thin scab over it. By 6th March the marking was still visible but had begun to heal.
Paranormal Activity
After seeing the metallic UFO, unusual things seemed to start happening around Paul’s home. This was interesting as they had lived at the property for several years with nothing odd taking place.
Within weeks of the UFO sighting, Paul heard two unexplained noises on the same night. The first of these occurred around 10pm, while he was in the bedroom alone watching TV. It sounded like a quiet low pitched gong being struck outside but close to the house. Paul heard it three times in succession. Susan was watching TV downstairs at the time. When Paul asked her, she confirmed that she had not heard the sound and that it had not been coming from what she was watching.
That night Paul and his son Nicolas stayed up late. It was around 2.40am and they were both in the bedroom watching TV. Suddenly they heard the chiming sound again. Like earlier it repeated three times but this time it was both louder and higher in pitch. It reminded Paul of church bells. Nicolas asked him “Did you hear that dad?” Paul replied “What? The bell sound?” to which Nicolas replied “Yes”. Recently Paul asked Nicolas about the incident, and he can still remember being puzzled by the sounds. Paul does not believe that the sounds were coming from a nearby vehicle or equipment on the ground, as he has not heard anything like it before or since. They live quite close to a church, but it is extremely unlikely that the church bells were being rang in the middle of the night.
Soon afterwards, on another night, Paul and his wife were lying in bed watching TV with the light off. It was about 11pm when suddenly they both heard what sounded like deep male laughter. It sounded like it was right next to them within the room. Susan thought Paul had made the noise until she asked him and he confirmed that he had not made the sound and had heard it too. When asked whether it could have originated from outside the house, such as a neighbour, Paul informed me that there was a middle aged woman living next door who rarely had visitors, and that the noise had sounded too close to them to have come from outside.
Later in the year, between mid-October and early November, on 6 separate occasions Paul heard what sounded like a young boy speaking. It always occurred upstairs, sometimes in the evening when he was lying in bed and at other times during the day. On one occasion Paul was in the bathroom and heard what sounded like talking coming from elsewhere in the house. He assumed it was Susan talking with Nicolas. After he exited the bathroom he asked Susan if Nicolas wanted him, to which she replied that he was asleep in bed and had not been making any sounds at all.
On all the other occasions Paul heard a voice exclaim “Dad!” It always seemed to come from the landing, but when he went to check there would be nothing there. Nicolas always denied making the sounds. The voice sounded a little similar to his son, but not identical. Paul wonders to this day what caused these voices and why they occurred for several weeks but then ceased.
On intermittent occasions since September 2012, Paul’s main bedroom light has dimmed by itself for a couple of seconds before returning to normal brightness. Paul asked his neighbour if she had been experiencing any electrical disturbances to make sure there was no problem with the electrics in the area. She confirmed that all the lights in her property were working fine. This could of course be down to a fault in the wiring, however it is interesting that it began after Paul’s UFO sighting, and had never occurred before.
One night in late 2012, Nicolas awoke in the early hours of the morning absolutely terrified. He came through into Paul and Susan’s room with wide eyes. He was clearly very agitated and kept staring at the bedroom door saying that there was a shadowy figure staring at him with outstretched arms. Neither Paul or Susan could see anything, but for a good while Nicolas was adamant it was there. In the end they were able to settle him back off to sleep. After looking online, Paul and Susan came to the conclusion that he had experienced a night terror, something which I would fully agree on as the most likely explanation.
Because of the unusual incidents the family had been experiencing, in early February 2013 Paul and Susan decided to set up a webcam in their bedroom while they slept. Each morning Paul would skip through the footage to see if anything unusual had been captured. One morning when he played back the footage he heard some brief chuckling sounds. They sounded very similar to the male laughter they had previously heard in the room but were not as loud. On a different night the webcam picked up a glowing orb of light which only lasted a couple of seconds before vanishing. At present the footage is uncompressed and is too large for Paul to send it me directly, but I hope to find a way to obtain it soon so it can be analysed and added to this report.
Black & White
One day in early February 2013, Paul was alone in his bedroom. He looked out of his bedroom window at the local neighbourhood. It was a very cold but clear day, and there was snow on the ground.
He then noticed something white fluttering in the air. It was about 10 feet from the window and appeared to be about 4 inches across. He initially thought it was a white butterfly, and turned around. As he did he asked himself “A butterfly in this weather?” He turned back round to see if it was still visible. He happened to look down towards the road at this moment.
The white object was nowhere to be seen, but down on the road Paul caught sight of a dark shape. He briefly saw what appeared to be a large black animal of some kind cross the road and enter a neighbour’s garden. It looked too large to be a cat or badger. Paul says there is the possibility that it was a large black dog roaming freely, but he has never seen one in the neighbourhood before or since.
Photograph of the sighting location with the black thing drawn on top:
The entire incident seemed very odd indeed to Paul. First of all he’d seen a white flying object which he could not identify. And then moments later seen a black shape cross the road which looked like nothing he had ever seen before. There is no evidence that the two were related, but is interesting that they occurred directly after one another.
Face & Small Being Photograph
On 1st March 2013 between 10-10.30pm Paul’s wife Susan was dropping Kerry, a family friend, back to her home on Cross Street in Carlton, Nottingham. It was a cloudy evening and quite cold. Kerry was in the passenger seat of the car. When Susan pulled the car into the drive of Kerry’s house, Kerry got out and walked round the front of the car heading towards the gate. Suddenly she stopped and looked in the direction of the hedge in front of her. She beckoned to Susan who was about to drive off. Susan got out of the car too and walked to where Kerry was standing.
Aerial map showing the location on Cross Street where the photograph was taken:
Daylight photograph showing the hedge which Kerry was staring at:
Kerry asked Susan if she had a camera on her to take a picture. Susan got out her Sony Xperia Tipo mobile camera phone and took a photo in the direction Kerry was looking. When Susan looked she could see what appeared to be a small creature of some kind standing in the grass below the hedge. It wasn’t moving and she was not frightened by it, just curious. She assumed that this is what her friend was also looking at. They stopped looking towards the hedge and said goodbye to each other.
When Susan arrived home she checked the photograph and could see that the small figure was visible. She showed the photo to Paul. He was intrigued by what the photo may show. He also noticed something else above it. It appeared to resemble a face peering out from inside the hedge. Soon afterwards decided to contact me about it to hear my thoughts.
The original photograph:
Photograph with face and small being ringed:
Enhanced and zoomed view of the face:
Enhanced and zoomed view of the small being:
Although it is not outside the realms of possibility that there was a small being, ET or otherwise, standing in the grass, and another peering out from the bush, it is more likely that the being and the face are simulacrums. This is where light and shadow causes the brain to make shapes and see things which are not really there. The fact that the face was not seen at the time, and the fact that neither witness saw the small being move increases the likelihood of this. Neither the being or the face are clear enough on the photograph or of a distinct enough colour to say with certainty that they are separate entities and not just vegetation.
That said, below is a comparison between the area of interest in the photograph and a daylight equivalent:
As you can see, there does not appear to be anything in the left hand photograph which is obviously responsible for the small being in the grass or the face in the hedge. This may be due to the fact that the daylight photo was clearly taken at a different time of year (as indicated by the presence of white flowers on the hedge). It should also be noted that the two witnesses were standing in different positions on the drive, yet both could see something down in the grass, tending to suggest there was something really there. For these reasons the possibility that the being and face are simulacrums is not an absolute certainty, which is why the photograph has been included in this report.
Conclusion
It is unknown whether any of the unusual incidents and strange markings that have appeared are related to contact. While there are certainly many interesting aspects to the experiences of Paul and his family, some of which do fit in with aspects commonly reported with contact, neither Paul or Nicolas actually remember seeing any beings or of finding themselves in unfamiliar surroundings. Also neither of them felt in any way unusual on the mornings when they discovered the markings, and in seeing them did not have any flashbacks to an abduction, which one might sometimes expect in such circumstances.
Paul’s UFO sightings may have been genuine craft sightings, but also have the possibility of being mundane objects such as inflatables or remote controlled models due to their relative small size. While aspects of the markings do seem unusual, such as the bruising which appeared on Paul’s stomach, or the strangely triangular shape of the marking on his right arm, this is not really enough evidence to suggest that they are the result of repeated abductions. Perhaps they were just the result of local infections or accidental damage. The fact that Paul had been drinking on the evening before he found the triangular marking increases the probability that it was the result of accidentally bumping his arm into something sharp.
The photo possibly showing a small being and face of another entity was not taken by Paul, so is unlikely to be directly related to his other experiences. Due to the fact that neither of the witnesses saw anything actually move or run away while taking the photo it is inconclusive.
This case is certainly interesting, and there are signs that contact may be involved, but at present there is not enough evidence to say that is the definitive explanation. If Paul decides to keep in touch this report may well be updated with further experiences as and when they occur.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2013
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