“Leonard Thomas” was sixteen and this was his first night doing a job that had
a pay cheque attached to it. He and “Peter Ingram” worked for a major oil
company that was responsible for re-fuelling construction vehicles. Their
destination was a parking lot at Cypress Bowl where a new road had just been
built to facilitate the development of an additional ski run in the Grouse and
Seymour Mountain area. The year was 1974, the month July.
Peter was very familiar with the procedure having done the job on numerous
occasions previously. The routine was to head straight to the top parking lot
where the majority of the heavy duty vehicles were parked. Unlock the gate,
(vandals had damaged equipment at earlier times) then systematically top up
all the trucks and cats at that site, which usually took about an hour. Lock
the gate once again then move on down the mountain to the next parking lot and
repeat the process and so on until all contractors vehicles had been attended
to on that particular mountain. By that time dawn was very evident and they
simply returned to their company’s base on the Barnett Highway. But this
particular night was going to be very different.
On arriving at their destination and whilst unlocking the first of the parking
lot gates they noticed a tent placed on an elevated surface overlooking the
parking lot. The tent appeared to be illuminated from the interior. As this
was in no way unusual the two men began to attend to the night’s work. As they
slowly completed the job in hand the diesel fuel truck began to slowly turn
back towards the entrance gate. As its headlights gently moved across the rock
face opposite them they were surprised to see that the vehicles light
reflected off the tent! Very surprised and puzzled at viewing what to all
intents and purposes was a metallic object they temporarily ceased their
re-fuelling activities, drove down to the entrance gate and parked. Exiting
the truck, one picked up a tire iron, the other a thick piece of wood. However
Leonard wasn't able to explain why they did that as no discussion took place.
The man and his young companion then cautiously climbed up the sloping and
uneven rock surface towards the “tent” that had attracted their attention.
When they got within 25 - 30 feet of the object several things suddenly
happened. Just as they became aware that what they were looking at was like no
“tent” they had ever seen before, but more like a craft of some kind. It was
about 15 feet in diameter, 8 feet high, flat on top and had a dome and
appeared to be about 4 feet off the ground. It was totally silent. What also
held their attention was a black ball that moved around the interior of the
dome at a dizzying speed. The two men also had the impression that “people”
were walking around inside the craft. As they attempted to take all this in,
and at the same time seek a rational explanation, they were suddenly startled
by a loud foghorn type sound that halted them in their tracks and clearly
implanted the instruction to ”STOP” in their minds. Without any exchange of
conversation they both immediately dropped the weapons they had been carrying,
turned round and calmly walked back to the diesel truck. The foghorn continued
to sound loudly every four seconds but they still had no accompanying sense of
fear. Only upon re-entering the truck did an acute sense of fear overcome
them, whereupon they voiced an unanimous “let’s get out of here” and promptly
drove back down the mountain to their base without stopping at the obligatory
additional sites to complete the night's work.
As they drove the two compared notes on what they had encountered. When they
first observed it from the lower level of the parking lot it seemed to be
about fifteen feet above them and resting on the surface of the rocky outcrop.
But when they got up close it clearly was above the ground, at least it was at
that point. Neither Len nor Peter could agree as to the material it was
constructed from. One thought chrome, the other polished steel. Neither could
recall seeing either doors or any other type of opening on the craft. The one
thing they did agree upon was the fact that what they had encountered was
certainly neither a helicopter nor any other aircraft they had either ever
seen or even read about.
The early morning return to their fuelling base evoked initially concern for
this unexpected arrival, which quickly irrupted into much laughter and corny
leg pulling as they recounted what they had seen and experienced when they had
investigated. One thing was abundantly clear to all those listeners present,
these two service people weren't returning to that location in the immediate
future. Strangely enough no one else seemed interested in going back either,
if only to prove them wrong.
Peter later phoned his father who was not only a pilot but had strangely
enough also seen a UFO when he was a youngster. This gentleman apparently knew
some UFO researchers and accompanied by them visited the site the next day.
They reported that they had found what appeared to be burn marks on the
surface of the rock under the power lines.
After much discussion and soul searching Peter and Len agreed to continue with
the customary re-fuelling routine. Neither of the two men were readily
prepared to admit that what they had seen was really a UFO and yet they had no
other logical rational explanation. But for Len it was a first night in his
career that he would vividly recall for the rest of his life.
(N.B.) The foregoing account was taken from a taped interview with “Leonard
Thomas”, who, like “Peter Ingram”, has had his name changed to protect his
identity.
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