In early February, 1998, we were left a message
on our hotline by a fellow named Rod, whose friends urged him to give UFO*BC a call. He
had no idea who to speak with concerning a most peculiar experience he had just gone
through. I would have to mention that over the last two years of our hotlines operation I
have never personally heard as much urgency in a caller’s voice as I did in
Rod’s that evening. He seemed truly awestruck and was, as he stated, "at his
wit’s end at what to do and would we please get back to him?" Upon reaching him
on the telephone I was greeted by a very down to earth type. I found out Rod is twenty-six
years old and in his own description considers himself a normal working type guy and he
wanted to know why something so strange would happen to him?
On Saturday night Rod, his brother and brother’s girlfriend were
hanging out at the apartment Rod and his brother share in the South Granville-Marpole area
of Vancouver. This area is fairly dense, with three story apartments being the common
dwelling found in this particular area (70th & Hudson).
Not being much of a drinker, and on his own admission a non drug user,
after four drinks Rod was passed out on the couch at 2:00 AM. His brother packed him off
to bed and lay him down still fully clothed including his boots that he still had on from
work. His brother then went to bed himself after his girlfriend went home.
One hour later Rod
was rudely awoken by a light going on and a man standing beside him. Shaking the cobwebs
out of his head he asked the guy "What are you doing in my apartment?" in which
the fellow answered "What are you doing in my apartment?" It was then to
Rod’s utter amazement that he realized he was standing in his basketball shorts in
the middle of someone else’s living room! Understandably the owner was disturbed, to
say the least, that he was somehow awoken and alerted to the fact that a young man had
made his way through the double locked door and into his living room. After being asked to
leave he found himself in the apartment hall directly in front of his own entrance.
Turning the doorknob he realized that the door was locked and being only in his shorts,
was without his keys. Pounding on the door he awoke his brother who opened the door and
stood shocked to see Rod in front of him, clad only in shorts. Upon entrance Rod
immediately went to the living room to find his house keys where he left them….on the
coffee table. He then hurried into his bedroom and it was there that the real surprise
would come. There, lying on the bed, were his clothes laid out like he was still in them,
pants tucked in boots, socks unturned and still in his tied boots. Both he and his brother
were now completely freaked out by the early morning’s activities. It now appears Rod
was, in his own description, "sucked out of his boots and clothes, left in his
shorts, taken through two locked doors and placed in another apartment without waking
up." Quite a feat indeed!
Rod and his brother are what they term as extremely light sleepers. So
much so, in fact, that they both awaken when the other makes a visit to the bathroom
throughout the night. It was also mentioned that the floors in their place are very
squeaky and footsteps are heard very easily.
Rod also told me he had an extremely sore neck and, to his
brother’s and mother’s shock, now has what appears to be two new moles on the
back of his neck he didn’t have before! This alone puzzles the whole family.
I have talked to the witnesses on three occasions and the story remains
consistent. As well, the immediacy of the event seems to return to Rod’s voice on
each call.
Since the original hotline call, Rod’s frustration with getting an
answer, or a more precise answer, had driven him to seek advice from a psychic who told
him it was not an alien encounter although she hinted to him it could have been a type of
poltergeist activity. Rod was not impressed with the woman’s answer and still remains
puzzled, although he now says "If I was abducted I don’t remember anything! All
I do know is they brought me to the right building, but wrong apartment!" Rod asked
if I had ever heard anything like this and I told him it was indeed one of the stranger
one’s I had personally been told about, but that on a grander scale, this kind of
strangeness is not unheard of. In John Carpenter’s paper "Alien Humour" he
writes of mistakes by our friendly visitors that pop up from time to time. Clothes on
backwards, inside out, and in other cases, the wrong clothes period have shown up on the
innocent sleeper upon awakening. In a hurry or just showing that ‘hey, everybody
makes mistakes’ it is anybody’s guess what is going on.
If you know, give Rod a call. He doesn’t have a clue.
Note: Artwork by Glenn Jones
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