The Alfred Burtoo Encounter: "Too Old and Infirm"

Alfred Burtoo was a retired ex-serviceman from North Town, Aldershot, Hampshire. He was 77. On 12 August 1983 he left home at 12:15 a.m. with his dog, Tiny, to fish the Basingstoke Canal. He set up on the towpath about 115 yards north of the Gasworks Bridge on Government Road, pushed his fishing umbrella pole into the soil and tied the dog to it.

At about 1:00 a.m. he was pouring tea from a flask. A vivid light came over North Town. At first he took it for an army helicopter from the nearby Para base. Then it went into a falling leaf motion over the Aldershot to London main railway line. It blacked out for a few seconds. It came on again and seemed to land on the embankment.

Two figures came towards him out of the darkness. They were around four feet high and thin, in pale-green coveralls moulded to their bodies like plastic. No buttons. No zips. Their helmets had blacked-out visors, and he saw no face at all. They walked with a stiff gait and motioned him to follow.

The craft was 40 to 45 feet across and looked like burnished aluminium. It had portholes, a dome like "an oversized chimney cowl" and two ski-type runners. Steps came out with a telescopic handrail. Burtoo climbed aboard.

Inside was an octagonal room lined with black material like unfinished metal, with rounded-off corners and no seams. It was warmer than outside. It smelled "not unlike decaying meat". A voice with a sing-song accent, "similar to a mixture of Chinese and Russian", told him to stand under an amber light. It asked his age. He said he would be 78 on his next birthday. He was told to turn around. Then came the verdict. "You can go. You are too old and infirm for our purpose."

He climbed down, went back to his pitch and drank his cold cup of tea. Then came a whining noise, like an electric generator starting up. The craft lifted and left at very high speed, out over the military cemetery in the west. A little later he saw the light going over the Hog's Back. He carried on fishing. Two mounted Ministry of Defence policemen rode up. When he told them, one replied: "Yes, I dare say you did see that UFO. I expect they were checking on our military installations."

In October 1983 Burtoo contacted the Aldershot News, hoping to find other witnesses. Local investigator Omar Fowler checked the story and drew a blank. The policemen were never traced. In November 1983 Timothy Good interviewed him at length and later told the story in Above Top Secret in 1987. Good believed him. The Ministry of Defence replied that it had "no record of corresponding reports which might support this story." Hilary Porter of BEAMS later wrote up the case.

Burtoo was the only witness. There was no trace, no photograph and no radar. Sceptics point to the small hours, the water, the strange dismissal and the fact that he asked his hosts nothing. He reported none of the usual close encounter effects, no paralysis and no missing time, only mild weight loss and disturbed sleep. Rumours said he called it a hoax before he died in 1986. His wife denied it. She said he had the look of a man who had seen a miracle happen. He gained nothing from the story, told it the same way to the end, and remains the man the visitors sent home.