Around 5.50 pm Feb 1993 L.A California. My friend Kelly and I are driving to see a friend.
The freeway is rushing away below me, I’m on the off-ramp of the 405 freeway at the Brentwood exit just outside Hollywood, Los Angeles. I’m sitting waiting at the traffic lights. UCLA is to the right of me with the Holiday Inn just in front of me to my left.
I feel strange… very strange. My stomach feels unnerved – like a horrible version of butterflies. It’s hot outside and my driver’s side window is down and I recall feeling the nice breeze. But something’s not right. Both of my hands are suddenly gripping the steering wheel like glue and I’ve never felt a feeling in my stomach like this before.
There is an eerie, dead silence everywhere around me. Then I see it. I can see the silver tip of something very solid moving from my driver’s side door moving slowly to in front of my windscreen. It’s so close I feel I can almost touch it but it’s probably about 5 to 6 metres away from me. I’m just staring at it as it’s gliding slowly in front of me. It’s around 10-12 metres long, saucer shaped, shiny silver, no wings, no exhaust. There is no noise – either from the object or from anything around me.
I’m looking underneath this “thing”. Its underneath has a rim that is silver but on the inside of that it’s glowing a bright red / orange in the middle. I follow it with my eyes, my nose now glued to the windscreen, my hands still glued to the wheel. I’m in awe!
I break the silence, “What the f**k is that” I manage to say out loud to Kelly. We’re both looking underneath this very low flying object. My brain is racing. I’m thinking this object must have stopped the traffic lights from working as we are there for what seems like a long time. It’s moving towards some trees in front of us towards UCLA college area. I’m watching it but for how long? I don’t have any idea.
Finally the lights change and the car in front of us moves. I can’t take my eyes off the object as I move. I turn to my left to go over the freeway bridge. I slow down and look behind me. In my rear window I can see the back end of it going over the tops of the trees. I confirm… no wings, just a totally silent, saucer-shaped object gliding through the trees.
‘I have to get high up’, that’s all I hear in my head. I drive behind the Holiday Inn to a cul-de-sac. I don’t know how I know to do this as I don’t know the area well. I put my foot on the gas and head up to the top of the hill. I say to Kelly “we’re both going to get out of the car at the same time and point in the same direction where we thought it went”.
We both get out and point in the same direction. I feel sick and my eyes are watering. The object however is nowhere to be seen. What does this all mean? What has just happened? I am in a state of total confusion. Once back in the car we don’t talk. I continue driving to my friends house which is about five blocks away.
Once there I pull into her drive and try to get out of the car, I feel drunk (I’d never drunk alcohol before at this point in my life). I cannot focus on anything. I almost don’t want to look at anything in fear of what I might see next. I hold onto the car to steady myself and head towards the front door. I ring the bell, and hear her voice come over the intercom. I ask her to come down. I’m still looking at the floor. Dazed, I say that something very strange has just happened to me and I have to go. I return to the car.
As I’m exiting her driveway there in front of me is an old 50’s style gangster car in showroom condition. It’s wildly out of place and all the car windows were no more than a foot high and blacked out so no one could see in. I was so scared. Why this? Why now? What next?
A black car similar to the one we witnessed
All I could hear in my head were the words “so I never forget”. I felt like it is just staring at me… like stagnant dark green/black eyes. It moved into the line of traffic ahead and I followed, but not immediately behind it. I don’t remember thinking about this car after that.
Within minutes I am going down the off-ramp heading towards the valley at the same spot where I had lost sight of the object. Just then I hear a roaring noise. My window is still wound down and we’re still not talking in the car. I look up again and there in the sky heading towards UCLA are 4-5 unmarked black, military-style helicopters. Were they trying to intercept the object? Were they looking for it?
We drove home in total silence, my mind still racing trying to find an explanation to what had just happened. When we arrived back at my apartment in the Valley my partner was home with a friend. I placed down my bags and tried to say “you’re not going to believe what just happened”. It was being said in my head but my mouth wouldn’t open. I knew that I could talk to him about this because we had a close encounter together many years before. I said nothing though. I just asked for him to put the news on TV to see if any reports came up. Just afterwards, I caught Kelly’s reflection looking at me in the mirror. That was the last time I ever saw her. Days later she left L.A and so did I. I don’t think either of us could cope with what had happened.
On 10th March 2010 at 7.10am I had another close sighting with 7 or 8 large silver balls that appeared to move intelligently. I watched them for about 3 minutes in front of me whilst at work. I went home then went to bed as I had worked a night shift. I woke to the news about the death of the actor Corey Haim (of “Lost Boys” fame). I was stunned as I read where he died – the very same apartment block that I had lived in when I had my L.A encounter back in 1993.
Budd Hopkins later regressed me to the 405 Freeway Encounter and revealed much more than my conscious memory could recall.
