Truth or Out-of-This-World Hoax? Florida Man Says 'Short' Aliens with 'Claw-Like Arms' Abducted Him
In 1973, a man from Florida was abducted for 30 minutes with his truck by perpetrators he believed were aliens, according to local news outlets. Decades after the incident in Pensacola, neither the man nor the world has gotten any answers regarding the spaceship he insists took him from Interstate 10 on that fateful day of October 17, Pensacola News Journal reported.
The man told authorities that he and his pickup truck were moved into a hovering UFO above Interstate 10, Pensacola News Journal reported. After 30 minutes, the man was returned along with his vehicle near Pine Forest Road.
The man shared with officials that six suspects were involved in the abduction and described them as "short" with "claw-like arms," Pensacola News Journal reported. There have been no follow-up reports about this incident by private parties or government agencies.
The abduction incident could not hold the attention of UFO experts at that time because, in a few years, the notorious Gulf Breeze UFO incidents of 1987 and 1988 took place, Pensacola News Journal reported. A man named Ed Walters shared pictures with the Gulf Breeze Sentinel featuring a UFO, he captured near his home. He also claimed to have had a conversation with the aliens in the UFO, using telepathy.
Later on, most experts came to believe the Gulf Breeze UFO sightings to be a hoax, Pensacola News Journal reported. After Walters moved from his residence, the new tenants found a foam-model UFO hidden in the attic.
During the 1970s, there was a slew of UFO sightings all over the country—numerous reported sightings of flying saucers and UFOs, from South Alabama through Northwest Florida. Most of them were explained by authorities as cases of helicopter maneuvers in mobile, atmospheric testing at Eglin Air Force Base, or a weather balloon flying near Jay at the time.
Just six days before the Florida incident, two men were abducted by alleged aliens in Mississippi, WLOX reported. Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson were fishing, near Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula on October 11, 1973, when they suddenly heard a piercing sound. The piercing sound was reportedly coming from a large UFO hovering behind them. The men later told officials, that three beings came out of the spaceship and took them inside.
For about 30 minutes, the beings allegedly examined the men and then returned them to their original position, WLOX reported. After that, the UFO reportedly took off, leaving the flabbergasted men behind. The pair immediately went to Keesler Air Force Base, to report the incident. They were redirected to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
The men claimed to the officials that the aliens paralyzed them during the abduction, Pensacola News Journal reported. The creatures had "robotic slit mouths" and "crab-like pincers," according to the men.
The pair agreed to a polygraph test, which they eventually passed, The Washington Post reported. Officials repeatedly questioned them about their stories, trying to find holes in them, but the men stuck to their claims. "We did everything we knew to try to break their stories," Jackson County Sheriff’s Capt. Glen Ryder stated. "If they were lying to me, they should be in Hollywood."
Both men wrote books about their encounters and appeared in various shows, Pensacola News Journal reported.
On October 18, 1973, a woman in Milton reported that a "flying saucer had landed at her house" and "little green men were walking around on the house's roof,'' said Escambia County Sheriff's dispatcher Larry Pearson, Pensacola News Journal reported. By the time officials arrived at her house, the men and saucer were gone.
Despite technological advances and more than ever before interest in extraterrestrials, the Pensacola incident remains a mystery, Pensacola News Journal reported.