Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 26/02/2025
In late 2024 I was contacted by a gentleman from Malmesbury named Mike via the BUFOG website. He wanted to report a stunning close encounter he had experienced in late 2018. I got in touch via phone to discuss what took place.
Sighting Details
According to Mike, the incident took place around 11-11.15pm on a night in November or December of 2018. He was out walking his pet dog around the local neighbourhood, and was on his way back home, walking towards the bungalows on Sherston Road. It was a mild, still and dry night. Due to the time there were no other pedestrians around or passing vehicles on the road.
Close to the bungalows is a large beech tree. As he walked past this tree with the dog he happened to glance up into the air. He was astounded to see a large oblong-shaped object hovering almost directly over the tree. It seemed to be at quite low altitude, no higher than 100 feet. Mike estimates it was about 30 feet long and describes the shape as “like a shoe box but cut lengthways”.
There was enough light from the nearby streetlight to see that the object was gun-metal grey in colour. It was completely silent and hovering motionless over the tree. Fascinated and puzzled by what he was looking at, Mike began to pace around to view the object from different angles. He says that what he assumed to be the rear of the object was a line of red rectangular lights.
He walked around in a circle to view the other end of the object. On what he assumed was the front was a line of white rectangular lights. Above these was a row of square windows, at least 6 of them. Unlike the lights, they did not extend right to the edges. Inside the windows it was just dark.
Sadly Mike did not have a smartphone or camera on him at the time. He continued to stare up at the object. What he assumed was the front was facing to the South. After about a minute the object suddenly moved off to the South East. However after a short distance it halted. It then moved off diagonally to the North East. It repeated this zig-zag manoeuvre a second time, stopping briefly between each change of direction.
Mike briefly glanced down at his dog to see how it was reacting to the situation. When he glanced back up the object had completely vanished! He was amazed by what had just taken place. He looked for the UFO for a number of minutes but it did not reappear. In the end he decided to continue his walk back home.
He was absolutely convinced that what he had witnessed was some kind of advanced craft. However he did not tell anyone else about the sighting afterwards for fear of ridicule. Mike claims that in early 2024 reached out to the local police force to see if they had received any other reports of the object but they informed him they had not. This was a phone conversation so he sadly has no written proof that this conversation took place.
Sighting Analysis
Mike was the only witness (at least on Sherston Road) so we only have his testimony to go on at present. However he came across trustworthy, answering all my questions without hesitation, and pointing out the precise position of the object. He has nothing to gain from sharing the details of what he saw. He has requested that his surname is not included in the report, and is not trying to sell his story to anyone, so clearly is not seeking any personal fame or fortune from coming forward.
The object that Mike witnessed is clearly extremely anomalous, and I find it hard to rationalise as anything mundane. It was clearly not a normal aircraft of any kind. It was far too sizeable to be a drone, and at the low height it appeared to be at Mike would have heard the noise of the propellers. It was also far too large to be a novelty balloon of some kind.
It could not have been a novelty rectangular-shaped hot air balloon for a number of reasons. Firstly a hot air balloon would not have rows of white and red lights on it. At the low altitude it was at the central basket and flame would clearly have been visible to the witness. Also as the incident took place after dark, the hot air balloon owner would legally have been required to display a flashing warning light. This would have been visible hanging below it.
Then there is of course the unusual zig-zag movements it was seen to perform. The fact that it abruptly stopped before each change in direction clearly indicates it was under powered control. Lastly there is the fact that it vanished from sight when the witness looked away from for just a moment. There would have been no way for it to move behind a nearby building or cloud in this short time frame.
If the incident took place as Mike described then it is likely that this was an advanced craft of some kind, potentially piloted by a Non-Human Intelligence. I have investigated numerous cases of rectangular shaped UFOs before, and other cases where the objects have moved in a zig-zag pattern. It is also quite common for these objects to vanish from sight when people look away from them, almost like they are aware they are being observed, and use this opportunity to leave the vicinity.
I would like to thank Mike for coming forward with this fascinating sighting in order to get it down on record. If you have any additional information relating to what may have been seen by Mike I’d be interested to speak with you.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025
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