WEBVTT - S05 Episode 17: The Wondering 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.160 The following episode contains disturbing scenes of war. Parental discretion 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:18.320 is advised. It is late one January night in nineteen 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.360 seventy eight on the outskirts of the village of Mitchett 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:25.239 in the south of England. Two fifteen year old boys 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.600 Ron Hills and Ian Hoole are running home through the cold, 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:34.479 windy darkness when Ron senses something moving through the clouds 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.159 above them. Turning a corner at the sound of a 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.880 low hum, he stops and looks up to see a large, 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:46.080 oblong shape cruising through the sky, lighting up the clouds 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.000 that it goes, with two white beams of light at 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.000 the front and two red lights that pulsed on and 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:57.280 off underneath. Ian, catching up to Ron moments later, stops 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.440 suddenly by his side and looks up in awe as 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.320 the shape continues on overhead toward a small farm holding 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.840 to their left, illuminating the top of a nearby forest 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:11.959 as it passed. Then a strange feeling came over Ian, 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.080 as if he might burst into tears at any moment. 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:20.560 Ron felt it too. The boys looked to each other 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.480 and without saying a word, shot off again towards home, 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.600 keeping one eye on the strange object as they went. 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.440 It's gone, said Ron, stopping for a moment to catch 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:37.360 his breath. No it hasn't, look said Ian, pointing to 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.240 a light in the distance, just visible between two houses. 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:47.000 Then they heard that ominous hum again, getting louder and louder. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:53.400 The thing was coming back toward them. Hurry, shouted Ian, 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.760 as they shot off once more toward Ian's home on 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:01.520 the Limward Drive estate. Turning into the road, they realized 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.800 with horror that the thing was now right above them, 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.720 glowing with a misty orange light, as if it were 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:12.119 beginning to heat up. Ian screamed for his mother as 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.639 the boys sprinted toward the front door. When she opened 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.400 it moments later, she found them shaking and white and 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:24.160 looking fearfully to the sky. It was chasing us, said Ian, 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:29.880 close to tears. What was she asked with some alarm, 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.840 But when they turned to find it, the thing had gone. 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:48.480 You're listening to, unexplained, and I'm Richard McClean smith. It 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.280 was a year later when the Fisher family were driving 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.280 home to the village of Blackwood in the south of Scotland. 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.320 A light drizzle had begun to fall, pattering against the 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:03.600 windscreen like gentle attic as John kept the wheel steady. 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.760 In the back, kids Roger and Audrey valiantly fought off 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:12.800 sleep while John's wife dozed in the passenger seat. John 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.320 looked up for a moment at the few stars he 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.720 could see blinking through the gaps in the cloud, then 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:21.880 turned his attention back to the road as they continued 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:27.080 on toward Livingstone, a town eight miles west of Edinburgh. 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:31.000 It had just gone eleven pm when Roger pointed out 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:36.080 something peculiar in the distance, moving through the sky. Roger's 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:40.600 mother roused from sleep. Yes, what is that? She said. 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.200 John looked about, trying to see it too, but it 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.760 was just out of his view. What is it? He said. 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.480 It was hard to make out what it was exactly, 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.880 only that it appeared to be hovering about one hundred 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.840 and twenty feet off the ground, with an intense white 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.960 beam of lightoting out the front of it and four 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:07.520 red lights surrounding it. John looked about again, then finally 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.760 caught the faint sight of something far off to the left. 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:16.040 It's just the light from a crane, he said. But 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:21.400 it's moving, said Audrey. The Fishers continued to watch it 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:23.760 as it appeared to hover for a moment in the 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:35.839 sky before disappearing completely from view. Ten months later, on 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.200 November ninth, nineteen seventy nine, sixty one year old Robert 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.039 Taylor woke early in the morning and slipped quietly out 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.080 of bed, being careful not to wake his wife Mary. 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.800 The couple lived on Brumino Drive in Deans, on the 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.480 northern outskirts of Livingstone, barely a kilometer from where the 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.160 Fishers had been passing when they saw that peculiar object 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:03.880 in the sky back in January. Wiping the sleep from 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.400 his eyes, Bob slipped on his overalls and headed out 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.480 into the crisp dawn air, then hopped into his pickup 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:15.680 truck and drove off to work. Robert or Bob Taylor 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.159 was born in nineteen eighteen close to pit Lockery in 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:22.960 the Highlands of Scotland, the third youngest of fourteen children. 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:26.680 Having been infused with the love of the great outdoors 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.800 from an early age, he would often neglect to complete 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.360 the four mile walk to school, preferring instead to spend 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:37.520 the day ambling through local woods along the Sparkling River Tunnel. 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:41.359 At the outbreak of the Second World War, at the 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.560 age of twenty one, he joined the Armored Fife and 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:49.120 fourth Yeomanry Division as a tank driver. It was a 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.400 job he described as being little different to driving a 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.000 big lorry, as long as you remembered to keep your head. 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.919 Five years later, on June eleventh, at the age of 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.680 twenty six, Bob and his tank crew arrived in Normandy 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:09.479 as part of the eleventh Armored Division. Over the next 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:13.240 ten months, the division pushed further into France and then 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.280 up through Belgium and the Netherlands as they fought back 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.920 the German armed forces, eventually making it as far as 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.880 Leebeck in the north of Germany in March nineteen forty five. 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:29.240 A few months previously, as the German Army continued to 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.440 be driven back from every direction, Heinrich Himmler, who was 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.159 in charge of running the German government's program of extermination 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:43.119 and concentration camps, made a characteristically brutal decision, in part 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.920 due to his fear that his prisoners would fall into 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.000 the hands of the opposing forces, but also in an 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.240 attempt to hide what had been happening in his camps. 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.599 He ordered many of the outlying camps to be evacuated. 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.400 As a result, tens of thousands of prisoners were led 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.760 out on forced marches to internal camps, often walking for 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:09.200 miles in harsh freezing conditions, with many dying en route. 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:15.280 Bergen Belsen concentration camp in the north of Germany had 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.160 been built to house a few thousand inmates at most. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.360 By the end of March nineteen forty five, this number 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:26.200 had swelled to sixty thousand as more and more prisoners 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:30.240 coming from as far away as Auschwitz, Neuen Gammer, and 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:41.040 Dora Mittelbau were forced inside it. With the Third Reich 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.200 on the brink of collapse, an agreement was made between 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:48.400 Heinrich Himmler and the advancing British and Canadian forces that 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:54.360 the German army would vacate bergen Belsen. On April fifteenth, 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:58.240 Robert Taylor and what remained of the eleventh Armored Division 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.520 arrived at the camp to liberate it. What they found 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.480 there was as close to a vision of hell as 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:10.760 you were ever likely to find on earth. Emaciated figures 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.960 stared out of vacant eyes from behind the barbed wire 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:19.840 fencing as the soldiers approached, some in striped pajama like clothing, 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.720 others in nothing but rags and bare feet. The stench 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:31.120 of excrement was heavy in the air. Inside thousands of corpses, 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:35.160 little more than skin stretched across bone in various states 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:39.840 of decay littered the ground. Many had been stripped of 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.920 their clothes and thrown on top of each other in 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:47.000 piles as much as five or six high. Some had 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:51.719 turned green. As described at the time by the BBC's 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.040 Richard Dimbleby, who accompanied the soldiers into the camp, among 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.760 the living and the dead, you could not see which 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.760 was which. Living lay with their heads against the corpses, 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:08.040 and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.400 aimless people with nothing to do and with no hope 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:16.960 of life, unable to move out of your way, unable 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:21.720 to look at the terrible sights around them. Inside the 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.080 various huts that lined the camp where the tangled remains 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:29.480 of numerous others who died from starvation, lying in puddles 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:35.040 of urine and feces. Some of the bodies had been cannibalized, 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:42.080 their flesh removed and internal organs knived out. Many women 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.280 had given birth in the camp, two with sometimes as 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:49.680 many as seven babies being born. A day, a woman 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.960 screamed out to a passing soldier to find milk for 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:57.080 her newborn. As he drew near, she handed him something 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.720 bundled up in a filthy blanket, then and away in 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.600 a flood of tears. The soldier opened the blanket to 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:11.040 find the baby, long since dead inside it. It was 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.240 estimated that there were as many as thirteen thousand dead 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:19.000 among the sixty thousand living prisoners. Many more thousands would 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.600 die in the following weeks from typhus, dysentery, and tuberculosis 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.720 that was rife throughout the camp. It was an experience, 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.560 like most people who were really there, that Robert Taylor 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.160 seldom talked about, but one that had acquainted him all 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:39.080 too closely with some of the coldest realities of the 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:50.559 material world. After the war, Taylor found a job working 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:55.240 the roads for Perth City Council before eventually relocating to Livingstone, 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.400 where in nineteen seventy nine he was working as a 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:04.079 foreman forester for the Livingstone Development Corporation. By all accounts, 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.920 he wasn't a man prone to exaggeration, and he cared 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.320 little for much beyond his family and his work, save 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.400 for the odd pint of beer and a cigarette. Certainly, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.720 encounters of the strange were the furthest thing from his 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.160 mind when he set off for work that chilly November day, 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.440 but soon it would be all people would want to 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:32.079 talk about. That morning, Taylor headed first to the Forestry 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.880 Commission's depot at Rosebank Nursery to pick up a crew 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:40.000 to complete a quick job in nearby Belle's Quarry. But 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:44.559 about the same time, local resident Graham Kennedy was heading 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.600 to work along the A eighty nine, just past the 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.240 village of Deckmont, about a mile north of Bob Taylor's 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.840 home in Deans, when he saw a bright orange colored 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.880 object moving quickly toward him in the sky. Kennedy swerved 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.560 car to get out the way, nearly colliding with another 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:09.079 vehicle in the process. Moments later, only a few hundred 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.160 meters away, nurse Anne McGregor, who worked at the nearby 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.920 Banguwa Hospital, was just stepping off the bus when she 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:19.880 heard a hissing sound coming from somewhere to the south. 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.439 Looking up, she saw a bright yellow light that appeared 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.760 to be descending into the Decmant Woods, a small area 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.839 of woodland covering Deckmant Law, a low lying hill that 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:38.040 rose up between Deckmont Village and Dean's. About two hours later, 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:42.160 Bob returned home for breakfast after a quick stop off, 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.520 who said by to Mary once more, then whistled for 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.160 their red Irish setter Lara to accompany him out to 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:53.120 the truck. The pair of them jumped in and drove 0:12:53.160 --> 0:13:02.680 back out to work, heading for the decmant Woods. Most 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.560 nights I share a bed with a pro Bowl quarterback, 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:09.960 an Olympic swimmer, and a national soccer star. I should explain. 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.320 When I heard how many elite athletes sleep on a 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.880 molecule mattress and call it their best sleep ever, I 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.960 ordered one for myself and soon found they were spot on. 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:24.920 Molecule sleep scientists literally created the world's most perfect mattress. 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.120 It's unlike any other mattress in a box. It's cool 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.600 to the touch, unlike other foam mattresses. It has six 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.439 times the airflow of my old mattress, so it keeps 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.800 me cool or night. It has sown reflex layers that 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.600 are just with me in all my weird sleep positions, 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.160 so I never awaken with a stiff neck or saw back. 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:49.280 And it's antimicrobial. Molecule mattress is how elite athletes and 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.760 I get the best sleep ever. Sleep on your Molecule 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.640 mattress risk free for a hundred nights. If you don't 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.840 have your deepest, most restorative sleep ever, return it, visit 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:05.200 onmolecule dot com and save twenty percent with promo code unexplained. Again, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:10.200 save twenty percent with promo code unexplained at onmolecule dot com. 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:18.600 That's O n molecule dot com. A few years previously, 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.840 Bob had been called out to decmant Law to help 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.160 search for a young girl who'd gone missing. The night 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.160 had been especially wet and cold, making it all the 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.080 more vital that they found her as quickly as possible. 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.440 After hours of searching through the bitter weather, the girl 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:40.000 was eventually found under a tree, strangely warm and dry, 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.160 having claimed to have followed a sheep into the forest 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:48.880 before getting lost. As it happened that morning, Taylor, who 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.000 was responsible for the general management of the forest, was 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:54.920 also on the lookout for some sheep that had apparently 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.280 strayed into the area. Bob parked his truck at the 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.720 bottom of the hill, then continued on foot with Laura, 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:07.680 bouncing happily beside him. Up above a pale sun shone 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.920 in the sky, as a few broken clouds began to gather. 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.160 As they headed on up the hill, Bob reveled in 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.720 the relative silence, with little to be heard save for 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.000 the gentle crackle of frost breaking under foot and the 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.720 rustling of the pines. As they neared the edge of 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:29.120 the woods. Slipping through the tree line, Laura bounded on 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.200 ahead as Bob kept an eye out for any sign 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:36.200 of the sheep. He'd walked about half a mile when 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:41.240 he heard Laura barking frantically. Catching sight of her up ahead, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.000 Bob jogged after her down the slope toward a break 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:49.640 in the trees. As Laura ran on ahead, he followed 0:15:49.640 --> 0:16:00.520 her into the clearing. Bob's wife, Mary, was busy doing 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:03.120 the washing up when she looked out at the kitchen 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:07.200 window to see a pale and exhausted looking Bob staggering 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:11.680 toward the house. His face and clothes were caked with mud, 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.640 and his trousers badly ripped. Mary ran to the door 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:21.080 and wrenched it open. What's happened? Did you have an accident? 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.920 She asked in shock. I've been attacked, replied Bob stumbling 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:30.640 into the kitchen by who said Mary following close behind. 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.280 Bob staggered to the sink, ran some water into a 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.120 glass and gulped it down, and took a moment to 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:45.000 gather his thoughts by a spaceship, he said, I'm sure 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.040 what to say. Mary told her husband to sit down, 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.360 then went upstairs to run him a bath. Having been 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:56.680 summoned by Mary, Robert's boss, Malcolm Drummond, arrived at the 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.280 house a few minutes later to find Bob still in 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:05.399 the bath in a deeply disorientated state. Concerned by his 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:09.280 nonsensical story about a spaceship attacking him in the forest, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.640 Drummond suggested they called their doctor immediately, thinking he might 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:18.040 be suffering from some kind of head injury. By the 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:22.240 time doctor Adams arrived fifteen minutes later, Bob was out 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.639 of the bath and settled on the sofa. After having 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.480 his blood pressure checked and nothing obvious found to be 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:32.360 wrong with him, Bob gave them his version of events, 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.360 as Taylor went on to explain, after stepping into the clearing, 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:47.119 he was startled to find a large dome shaped object 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.920 about thirty feet high sitting in the middle of it. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.160 Around the object was a ring that he described as 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.000 being like the flange of a pipe that had small 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.680 propeller like things sticking up from it. The object appeared 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.640 to have no seams or joins on its surface, which 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.880 was comprised of a rough gray colored material, with several 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:11.679 dark spaces above the ring that he took to be 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:16.680 windows that were all completely blacked out. As he continued 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.840 to stare at it in disbelief, it seemed almost to 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.920 disappear right in front of him, becoming translucent, so much 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.280 so that at one point it was as though he 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:30.080 could see right through it to the trees beyond. The 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.400 next thing he remembered, Laura began barking furiously as two 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.120 metal spheres with spikes sticking out of them dropped out 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.200 at the bottom of the object and headed straight toward him. 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.280 Before he could even move, they'd rolled up his leg 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:49.399 and attached themselves to him. All of a sudden, he 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.439 felt them pulling him down to the ground when he 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:56.040 was overcome by a hideous, noxious smell, the coret at 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:59.800 the back of his throat, and then everything went black. 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.919 He came round twenty minutes later to find the object 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:09.359 and Lara had gone. Finding his legs too numb to 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.640 move and feeling deeply nauseous, he eventually succeeded in crawling 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.840 back to the truck. He tried to use the radio, 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.840 but his throat was too dry to speak. In a panic, 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.560 he threw the car into gear and slammed on the 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:28.360 accelerator pedal, only to drive straight into a ditch with 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.240 nothing left for it. He got back out and stumbled home. 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:43.200 Drummond and doctor Adams looked to each other in confusion 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.680 as Bob's story came to an end. Adams gave Bob 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.520 another look over and found two red marks like burns 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.359 on his thighs, where he claimed the strange objects had 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.920 attached themselves to him. There was also a graze under 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.400 his chin, which Adams assumed was where he'd fallen onto 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:05.320 the ground. Suspecting he may have had a heart attack 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.800 or an epileptic fit, Adams suggested he go right away 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.480 to hospital to get a proper examination. A short time later, 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.840 Drummond and Adams headed out to the woods, where they 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.959 found Bob's truck stuck in a ditch with the engine 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:25.280 still running. Just like he'd explained, an unharmed Lara was 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:30.480 also there, thankfully waiting by it. The pair then headed 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.480 out to inspect the clearing where the incident was alleged 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:38.680 to have occurred, but found nothing untoward Down at the hospital. 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.479 After waiting two hours to be seen, Bob grew bored 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.200 and headed back home, where Drummond was waiting for him. 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.679 After telling Bob that he and doctor Adams had failed 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.160 to find anything strange, Taylor demanded they head back there 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:57.680 immediately so he could see for himself. With the pair 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.119 back up at the clearing, Bob called Drummond over to 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.720 look at something he'd found on the ground, A clear 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:09.160 pair of markings like caterpillar tracks, about ten feet long 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.480 and seven feet apart, and dotted all around them were 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:18.120 about forty holes in the ground, exposing fresh earth, almost 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.440 as though something spiky had been rolling about in the mud. 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:26.760 Drummond looked on in complete bewilderment, though they didn't look 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:29.800 too dissimilar to the markings of some kind of heavy 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:42.600 forest machinery. They began and ended inside the clearing, with 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.840 Mary concerned that Bob had been attacked by someone. She 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.200 suggested he called the police to begin a formal investigation. 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:54.960 That afternoon, d I McDonald, along with six colleagues from 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.879 the local constabulary, visited the scene and took photos of 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:03.120 the peculiar markie. As they inspected the long grass, they 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.440 also found two lines of impressions in the space where 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:10.879 Bob claimed to have been dragged across the ground. The 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:15.000 following Thursday, Bob's clothes were given to forensic experts in 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:20.080 Edinburgh for further examination. Both Bob's work trousers and the 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.199 long John's he wore underneath them had been ripped on 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:28.240 both sides, exactly mirroring the marks on Bob's legs. The 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.000 forensic scientists concluded that the rips had been caused by 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:38.360 something pulling upwards with considerable force. The next day, as 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.119 word of the strange encounter began to spread, two UFO 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:46.560 enthusiasts from the British UFO Research Association came up to 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:51.240 visit the site after running a guideer counter across the clearing. However, 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:56.200 they found no evidence of radiation or any other anomalous readings. 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:02.200 Over time, Bob would get picked up by numerous papers, 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:05.480 and though he was happy to pose for a few photographs, 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:08.359 he was not the type to revel in his sudden 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:13.760 moment of fame. The event remains the only apparent UFO 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:19.719 incident in Britain to be officially investigated by the police. 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:28.800 Though Robert Taylor was called on many times to recount 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:32.720 his peculiar tale, he never once deviated from the original 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.600 narrative and remained convinced by it right up until his 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:41.240 death in two thousand and seven. In the months following 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:45.760 his account, more apparent UFO sightings were unearthed that were 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:48.719 also said to have occurred in the same area around 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:52.560 the same time as the Taylor incident. One event from 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:56.159 the night before, involving the sighting by school children of 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:59.720 a strange object descending into the forest at Deer Hill, 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:03.240 just across the main road from where Taylor claimed he 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:08.200 was attacked, was also reported to the police, and there 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:12.119 was one final coda unearthed a few years later, according 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:15.280 to Malcolm Robinson, who wrote about it in his book 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:20.359 The Decmant Woods UFOE Incident. A week or so after 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:24.399 the incident, a ufologist named Alan Price was at a 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:28.159 social event when a man approached him, having heard about 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:31.560 his interest in U foes. The man was said to 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:34.399 have been a former police officer who had also heard 0:24:34.440 --> 0:24:39.159 about Robert Taylor's strange encounter. It was all the more peculiar, 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:42.240 he said, since only a few days before it, a 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:45.960 former colleague had told him about another strange encounter that 0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:51.399 also apparently occurred near the Decamant Woods. Just like Bob's story, 0:24:51.880 --> 0:24:54.840 this too had begun with a dog being walked by 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:58.440 a young boy shooting off after an object was seen 0:24:58.520 --> 0:25:03.040 descending into the nearby countryside. The boy had then seen 0:25:03.080 --> 0:25:06.480 the object shoot off into the air, leaving no sign 0:25:06.480 --> 0:25:11.320 of the dog behind. The following morning, after the incident 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:15.320 was reported to the police, an officer conducting a search 0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:19.119 of the area in question stumbled upon something buried in 0:25:19.160 --> 0:25:22.960 the long grass. It was the ripped off hind leg 0:25:23.680 --> 0:25:31.960 of a dog. 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