High Strangeness in the California Desert

[PCarr]

This was reported to us, but is not really a UFO case. I am wondering if any other Paracast listeners are aware of similar cases. We went public with the story last week on API Case Files.

The summary: two witnesses were stopped at a service station/convenience store along US 8 in Southern California (from what I can discern, it was about 100 km East of San Diego at the tiny town of Ocotillo, CA near 32.730854°,-115.994433°). They saw what appeared to be military vehicles parked outside. One of the witnesses went in and saw a number of soldiers lined up at the counter. Their appearance and behavior was very odd. The witness had grown up an Army brat, so tried to get a look at their patches out of curiosity, but saw none. He observed that they were all the same height and appearance and their skin appeared to be poreless. He went outside and told his friend to go in and have a look, and he agreed it was strange.

The Convoy departed on a road that paralleled Interstate 8 for a short distance, and our witnesses were behind them on 8 watching them. It appeared to them that the convoy drove straight into a hillside and disappeared. I'm not sure which hill it was, perhaps the one at 32.729458° -116.047289°, or possibly at 32.725790° -116.075772°, just a little further West. They stopped their car and just stared at the hill for a moment, shaken.

Ring any bells?

 

[manxman]

what do you make of it ?, who were the guys ?, doesnt sound very credible.

 

[PCarr]

what do you make of it ?, who were the guys ?, doesnt sound very credible.

It should go without saying, we can't reveal the witness identities.

Admittedly, it's just a story at this point, but corroborated by a second witness. I was just wondering if similar stories were around.

 

[Tyger]

This was reported to us, but is not really a UFO case. I am wondering if any other Paracast listeners are aware of similar cases. We went public with the story last week on API Case Files.

Exactly where - minute/second - does this story appear in the podcast you have linked to? Would help so that one doesn't have to listen through the entire podcast.

The summary: two witnesses were stopped at a service station/convenience store along US 8 in Southern California (from what I can discern, it was about 100 km East of San Diego at the tiny town of Ocotillo, CA near 32.730854°,-115.994433°). They saw what appeared to be military vehicles parked outside.

Why did they appear to be military rather than either being military of not? Why the ambiguity?

One of the witnesses went in and saw a number of soldiers lined up at the counter. Their appearance and behavior was very odd.

Nothing concrete being relayed here - one man's 'odd' can be another man's 'normal'. So what was 'odd'? Details needed to assess what the 'oddness' was.

The witness had grown up an Army brat, so tried to get a look at their patches out of curiosity, but saw none.

At this point they could be janitors in overalls - or sanitation workers - not sure why the military keeps getting mentioned.

Also, not sure that 'army brat' denotes an 'expert' in military bearing.

He observed that they were all the same height and appearance and their skin appeared to be poreless. He went outside and told his friend to go in and have a look, and he agreed it was strange.

From this I am going to assume that the suggestion is being made that these 'men' were 'artificial'.

Sorry - don't buy it - for a whole raft of reasons. Interesting way to start a rumor, though.

The Convoy departed on a road that paralleled Interstate 8 for a short distance, and our witnesses were behind them on 8 watching them. It appeared to them that the convoy drove straight into a hillside and disappeared. I'm not sure which hill it was, perhaps the one at 32.729458° -116.047289°, or possibly at 32.725790° -116.075772°, just a little further West. They stopped their car and just stared at the hill for a moment, shaken.

Well, we know they didn't drive into any hill that didn't already have a hole in it - like a tunnel - or they went between hills. Given the position of the witnesses how they saw the convoy 'disappear' is purely a function of the terrain and where they were in relation to that terrain.

Sounds to me like the two got themselves spooked and started overreacting - if this happened at all.

Ring any bells?

Twilight Zone episode about the mannequins who became 'human' for one day to experience being alive.

 

[boomerang]

I have listened to the audio. All I can say is that the witnesses come across (again, on audio) as coherent and sincere. Has anyone suggested questioning others who happened to be in the store at the same time for additional impressions? Might be interesting.

 

[Tyger]

I have listened to the audio. All I can say is that the witnesses come across (again, on audio) as coherent and sincere. Has anyone suggested questioning others who happened to be in the store at the same time for additional impressions? Might be interesting.

So where is the story told in the audio? Do you have the time marker? Would be nice to have.

 

[PCarr]

I have listened to the audio. All I can say is that the witnesses come across (again, on audio) as coherent and sincere. Has anyone suggested questioning others who happened to be in the store at the same time for additional impressions? Might be interesting.

Good idea. Might be worth checking out.

 

[PCarr]

So where is the story told in the audio? Do you have the time marker? Would be nice to have.

It's Episode 3, starting about about 6:30.

 

[PCarr]

BTW, the video the witness refers to is here:

 

[PCarr]

Exactly where - minute/second - does this story appear in the podcast you have linked to? Would help so that one doesn't have to listen through the entire podcast.

Nothing concrete being relayed here - one man's 'odd' can be another man's 'normal'. So what was 'odd'? Details needed to assess what the 'oddness' was.

I was just summarizing. If you listen to the audio, the first witness details a number of things that he found odd, and this is someone who had grown up around soldiers, so it wasn't just a cultural thing.

 

[manxman]

BTW, the video the witness refers to is here:

you need to be talking to that lady yourself paul, i think he went over the top abit, however if she says the same thing to you personally, if her body language, and your intuition, tell you she is honest, it's gonna cause you great conflict, as a rational man.

 

[trainedobserver]

What a great story, told in a very believable manner.

You have to wonder what they were up to. Were they sent out to get water or was that just a pit stop along the way? It makes me think of the men described in Swann's Penetration.

 

[PCarr]

What a great story, told in a very believable manner.

You have to wonder what they were up to. Were they sent out to get water or was that just a pit stop along the way? It makes me think of the men described in Swann's Penetration.

This is one of my big questions - what were they doing at the store? The witness doesn't detail what the men were buying (edit, not true. They were each buying a gallon of water). However, one of the common threads of high strangeness stories is elements that don't makes sense, almost like a dream. You could interpret that a couple of different ways.

 

[trainedobserver]

This is one of my big questions - what were they doing at the store? The witness doesn't detail what the men were buying. However, one of the common threads of high strangeness stories is elements that don't makes sense, almost like a dream. You could interpret that a couple of different ways.

I thought the witness said they were each buying a gallon of water for just under $2 a piece.

If you take this story literally, it sounds for all the world like an incursion by a foreign power into U.S. territory. However, why risk detection by making such a bizarre public display? Public? I went to the street view on google for those coordinates. Middle of absolute nowhere. I guess the location was remote enough that it didn't matter. Maybe that was why it happened there. Where is the hill they are talking about exactly?

The only other known witness was the clerk. I would love to know if those guys showed up on a regular basis or if that was just a one time concurrence. 2001? What are the chances that person could be located now? Pretty slim I bet.

Pairing this with the Men in Black video really fired my imagination. A truck load of MIBs in training? Just back from a mass abduction operation? Sent from the secret underground base to the 7-11 to get snacks? "Did you get my Cheese-whiz boy?" LOL.

 

[PCarr]

I thought the witness said they were each buying a gallon of water for just under $2 a piece.

If you take this story literally, it sounds for all the world like an incursion by a foreign power into U.S. territory. However, why risk detection by making such a bizarre public display? Public? I went to the street view on google for those coordinates. Middle of absolute nowhere. I guess the location was remote enough that it didn't matter. Maybe that was why it happened there. Where is the hill they are talking about exactly?

The only other known witness was the clerk. I would love to know if those guys showed up on a regular basis or if that was just a one time concurrence. 2001? What are the chances that person could be located now? Pretty slim I bet.

Pairing this with the Men in Black video really fired my imagination. A truck load of MIBs in training? Just back from a mass abduction operation? Sent from the secret underground base to the 7-11 to get snacks? "Did you get my Cheese-whiz boy?" LOL.

Yes, I think you're right about the water.

Of course, a foreign power isn't going to send a handful of uniformed soldiers into the US without permission. You'd want to be sneaky about it.

I'm willing to take the story literally as a working assumption, but not much about it makes sense. Of course, stories are just that, even if they form a pattern, since stories tend to draw elements from each other. What I would love to see is a security video, but it is almost certainly too late for that.

One speculation (and it is just that), is that the black world is way further ahead on robot soldiers than anyone realizes....

 

[Tyger]

One speculation (and it is just that), is that the black world is way further ahead on robot soldiers than anyone realizes....

Pretty big jump from such thin 'evidence'. Doesn't hang together. Too many holes. Swiss cheese. Good yarn, though.

I've listened to the video of the 2001 'event' - and besides everything else that jumps out at one as being wonky with the tale, the very year of 2001 - so far back - makes this suspect imo. It is so long ago it would make it next to near impossible to assemble all the relevant people - if anyone was so inclined to check this story out.

Also, the road the 'convoy' is reported to have been traveling on does indeed 'disappear' into the hill - as in - it goes between two hills and continues on through them. The road does not 'peter out'.

The area being indicated is very close to El Centro and the Calexico/Mexicali Mexican border crossing. If any of this is even remotely true a whole raft of possibilities opens up to explain a lot of this - doesn't have to be robots. Occam's Razor may apply here.

Plus the man has had other ufo experiences.....hmmm........red flag imo...........

Then there's the hotel video of two MIB - that looks like it was posted on YouTube in 2012 - two years ago. Where is the detailed analysis of the two men? Where are the blow-ups of the faces of these two men? Again a 'ufo experiencer' - very fishy.

A house of cards is being assembled here in more ways than one way methinks. JMO.

 

[PCarr]

Pretty big jump from such thin 'evidence'. Doesn't hang together. Too many holes. Swiss cheese. Good yarn, though.

I've listened to the video of the 2001 'event' - and besides everything else that jumps out at one as being wonky with the tale, the very year of 2001 - so far back - makes this suspect imo. It is so long ago it would make it next to near impossible to assemble all the relevant people - if anyone was so inclined to check this story out.

Also, the road the 'convoy' is reported to have been traveling on does indeed 'disappear' into the hill - as in - it goes between two hills and continues on through them. The road does not 'peter out'.

The area being indicated is very close to El Centro and the Calexico/Mexicali Mexican border crossing. If any of this is even remotely true a whole raft of possibilities opens up to explain a lot of this - doesn't have to be robots. Occam's Razor may apply here.

Plus the man has had other ufo experiences.....hmmm........red flag imo...........

Then there's the hotel video of two MIB - that looks like it was posted on YouTube in 2012 - two years ago. Where is the detailed analysis of the two men? Where are the blow-ups of the faces of these two men? Again a 'ufo experiencer' - very fishy.

A house of cards is being assembled here in more ways than one way methinks. JMO.

Well hold on - I clearly labelled that as a speculation. Of course I can't make a compelling case for it. In fact, no conclusions at all can be drawn from this story, only more questions.

And no, I did check GE again, and the paved road (W. Even Hewes Hwy, or S80) transitions onto a dirt track at about 32°43'43.43" N 116°01'24.40" W just before I8 splits off from the eastbound lanes and heads through the gorge. The dirt track runs for a little way into the desert and splits off into multiple unimproved tracks - I think that qualifies as "petering out" (just a metaphor anyway). One of the tracks goes alongside an arroyo south of the hill. Also, the witnesses never said that they saw the convoy stay on a track or that the track runs into the hill (which it doesn't).

As for the hotel security video, no analysis has turned up anything useful. There are no real features discernable, and in any case it would not be meaningful to compare them. The observation that the men looked the same and looked "strange" can't be confirmed from the video. The video served its purpose of partially corroborating what the witness said about the two men. I still have some unanswered questions about that case myself. The only relevance of the hotel video here here is that it somehow stimulated the California witness to report his story to us.

 

[Tyger]

As for the hotel security video, no analysis has turned up anything useful. There are no real features discernable, and in any case it would not be meaningful to compare them. The observation that the men looked the same and looked "strange" can't be confirmed from the video. The video served its purpose of partially corroborating what the witness said about the two men. I still have some unanswered questions about that case myself. The only relevance of the hotel video here here is that it somehow stimulated the California witness to report his story to us.

That's if you assume 'Event A' happened before 'Event B'. What I mean is - I could more easily believe that the two men entering the hotel were seen on tape first and then the 2 or 3 hotel employees - seeing the video of the two men - decided to concoct their story about MIB. Or they even saw the two men in the hotel lobby and worked backwards from there - going to the security tape, concocting their story, etc.

There are religions that have their male members dress in black with black hats.

The California witness has proved nothing to my mind. If the hotel video 'stimulated' the California 'witness' - it may have been to concoct something. That seems just as reasonable and possible as it being true. 50/50. Las Vegas odds.

What's curious about it all is it's following a particular story-line: that 'ufo experiencers' have additional 'high strangeness' events happen subsequent to a ufo sighting. (Such a claim is a red flag imo - and is playing into a story-line). That the MIB might be military robots - or aliens in disguise - or whatever along those lines - is a story finding evidence rather than solid evidence of anything imo.

It's all too pat - too concocted for my taste. Too far in the past. It's how a series of speculations over time create an illusion of 'facts' that lead to 'inspiring' others to make similar claims - and before you know it, one has a book in the making regarding one's 'research' into the phenomenon. Human nature.

 

[Wade]

@Tyger what is it about a high strangeness experience subsequent to a ufo sighting that sets off your red flag? Is it that you think a person may be unconsciously setting themselves up for an experience and maybe imagining it?

 

[PCarr]

That's if you assume 'Event A' happened before 'Event B'. What I mean is - I could more easily believe that the two men entering the hotel were seen on tape first and then the 2 or 3 hotel employees - seeing the video of the two men - decided to concoct their story about MIB. Or they even saw the two men in the hotel lobby and worked backwards from there - going to the security tape, concocting their story, etc.

There are religions that have their male members dress in black with black hats.

Calm down, no one is claiming that this is anything definitive. Where did you get the idea that anyone did? Of course alternative explanations are possible, although we have more information not discussed in that video, and we are pretty sure it's not a hoax by the hotel employees.

This and the California case are just an effort to share information so that we can all look for patterns together. No one case "proves" anything (I hate the word "proof"), and you can't make an evidential case for anything unless you have a hypothesis, which in our case we have not got.