WITNESSED
IT’S NOT FOR YOO-HOO
I work for a government body in electronic engineering, specifically concerning equipment like fax machines. In 1989 I was paged over the building public address to go to my office as there was a call waiting. The conversation went as follows:
“Mr Haines?”
“Yes.”
“It’s about the order for teleprinter paper you placed at the exhibition.”
“No I didn’t. I wasn’t there.”
“That is Mr DA Haines, spelt HAINES?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s your name on the order.”
“It can’t be. I don’t deal with teleprinters, only fax machines.”
“Your telephone number is 708 2399 extension 35?”
“Yes, that’s my number alright.”
“And you are Mr Dave Haines?”
“No, it’s Dale, actually.”
“Well, it looks like Dave. Anyway that’s what it says here, 10 boxes of paper for British Telecom Stores.”
“I don’t work for BT, I work for––––––.”
“Oh! It says BT in the order, Birmingham depot.”
“Where?”
“Birmingham.”
“What number did you dial?”
“021 708 2399 extension 35.”
“You’ve got 01 708 2399 extension 35. This is south London, not Birmingham. You dropped the 2 from the number.”
“Oh, sorry. Goodbye.”
Click, buzz, whirr.
Dale Haines
Bromley, Kent 1992
CB SAVIOUR
In August 1987 I was living in St Louis, Missouri, and I had to make a trip to Indianapolis for my divorce hearing. I left right after work on a Thursday evening and was travelling eastbound on Highway 70 through Illinois and into Indianapolis, listening to the radio and singing out loud as I do when I’m driving alone. All of the sudden a very clear ‘voice’ in my head said, “Turn on the CB”.
“AS I LEFT THE PHONE BOX I SAW IT WAS COVERED WITH SNAILS”
I wasn’t in the mood to listen to the CB so I just thought, well, that was weird and shrugged it off. Not 15 seconds later the ‘voice’ said, “Turn on the CB!” with an air of urgency. Again, I ignored it. A few seconds later the ‘voice’ screamed in my head “TURN ON THE CB!!” Not sure what was causing it or what to do, I turned the CB on. The first and only thing I heard was a man’s voice saying: “We have a drunk with no headlights travelling westbound in the fast lane of eastbound Highway 70. He just passed mile marker 178.”
As this was said, I looked up and saw the mile marker 177 sign. I instantly moved to the far right lane, and not more than two seconds later the drunk flew past me, heading in the wrong direction, in the lane I had just been in. I have no doubt that the warning saved my life that night.
Rhonda L Perry
by email, 2002
SNAIL HAIL
The following incident happened when I was a student living in Walthamstow, east London. It was either in the autumn of 1985 or the spring of 1986. I was ringing my mother from an old phone box by the Shern Hall Methodist Church, on the junction of Shernhall Street and Oliver Road. It was early evening, and a light rain began to fall. Suddenly, I heard a knock on the phone box. Assuming it was somebody waiting to use the phone, I turned around, but couldn’t see anybody. A few moments later I again heard a knock, but again couldn’t see anybody. The knocks continued at intervals of five or 10 minutes, but I didn’t pay them much attention
I was on the phone for about an hour. As I left the phone box I saw that it was covered with snails. I think they were common banded snails. As a life sciences student, I could have taken a specimen home to identify, but I was too unnerved by the whole experience to be thinking logically. There were also snails on the ground in a small area (about one metre in radius) around the phone box. It looked as if the snails had fallen onto the phone box and some had crawled away. I couldn’t see any other snails in the vicinity. I wonder if the metal phone box had somehow attracted the fall of snails.
Ms KJ Kimberly,
Dagenham, Essex, 1996
TINFOIL GIANT
A friend and I had an unusual experience in June 2003 in West Sussex. The time was approximately 10pm; almost dark, but with some twilight remaining. We were coming back from another friend’s house along a section of country road we have driven individually many times before. My friend was driving and I sat in the passenger seat. We slowed for a tight left-hand bend in the road and as we turned it, driving at this point at about 20mph (32km/h), the headlights caught someone moving amongst the trees on the outside of the bend. I was about to say “Did you see that?” but my friend had already confirmed he had (with an expletive best not shared here). We only caught a brief glimpse of the ‘person’, but it was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen, for two reasons: first and foremost, the person’s size, which was staggering and, indeed, what initially made us catch our breath. The figure was at least 8ft (2.4m) tall, and while from our brief observation it was hard to make an accurate estimate, he was clearly larger than he should have been, perspectivewise.
It was all too quick to notice any particular facial features; he was virtually facing us, but looking slightly down as the lights shone on him, and seemed to be stepping sideways over something in the undergrowth, as his right leg was moving upwards and sideways. The other very unusual aspect was that the headlights reflected a large glare off his clothing, which seemed to be shiny, almost like foil.
It all happened so fast, but there was no doubt what we’d seen was very strange. My friend and I confirmed to each other what we had both witnessed and, after a couple of moments of indecision, he reversed back to the bend and pointed the headlights into the trees approximately where we had seen the figure. All appeared normal. I even got out of the car and called (to my friend’s fervent objection; I’d had some Dutch courage that night, but he was sober), but no one seemed to be moving about in the woods and there was no trace of anything. We talked excitedly about it on the way home, but it got forgotten as these things do.
I don’t personally believe in extraterrestrials, so for my own part I’ve ruled out anything like that, and being a fairly practicallyminded person I’ve come up with various explanations, such as kids mucking about. But the problem of size keeps coming back – I even checked the Internet the following week to see if 8ft-plus people were more common than I’d thought, rationalising that it was some weirdo in a foil suit. It certainly wasn’t any kind of model, because it was definitely animated. I’m still puzzling over it.
Name withheld
by email, 2003
“HIS CLOTHING APPEARED TO BE SHINY, ALMOST LIKE FOIL”
RAPTURE OF THE DEEP
As well as being my birthday, 23 August had a special significance for me in 1971. I was serving with the Royal Air Force in Malta and most of my spare time was devoted to the excellent diving club, run strictly to British subaqua rules.
