extraordinary%20encounters

176 Mince-Pie Martians
Midlands, on January 4, 1979, to star in what
may well be Britain’s most bizarre close encounter
of the third kind.
At 6 A.M., Jean Hingley, forty-five years
old, had just sent her husband off to work
when she noticed a light outside. Thinking
the carport light was still on, she went out to
check. She was unsettled to see a large orange
sphere hovering over the carport roof. She
hurried back inside and, with her dog Hobo,
watched the UFO. As she was doing so, she
noticed that the dog seemed to be frozen as if
paralyzed. Suddenly he fell over sideways and
lay there motionless.
At that moment, three winged figures
zipped past her, leaving Mrs. Hingley feeling
cold and weak. She managed to follow them
into the living room, where two of them were
shaking the Christmas tree so hard that the
fairy atop it fell to the floor. The figures themselves
looked almost fairylike. Three and a
half feet tall, they were humanoids with wide,
white faces, big, dark eyes, no noses, slitlike
mouths, and large oval wings covered with
glittering dots of various colors. Each wore a
transparent helmet on its head; at the top of
the helmet a light shone. There were no fingers
on the hands or feet on the legs; each just
tapered to a point. The wings did not move
like a bird’s but fluttered gently or folded in
like a concertina.
Hingley found herself paralyzed, unable to
speak or move, until the beings spoke to her,
saying, “Nice?” They spoke in unison with
what sounded like a gruff, masculine voice.
Then she could move and talk again. When
she asked where they were from, they were
silent. They sailed around the room, then
landed and bounced up and down on the
couch. She shouted at them to stop, and they
did, though this would be the last time they
did what she asked them to do.
The episode lasted for an hour. It was often
difficult, trying, and even painful. If they did
not like what she had to say, a beam would
shoot from the light at the top of their helmets
and hit her on the forehead just above
the bridge of the nose. Sometimes she would
be blinded. At other times she would be paralyzed.
And at yet other times, when she had
addressed them with a seemingly inoffensive
question, the light would not hurt her. They
would not tell her why they shot the light at
her, or why they would quote back to her any
question she asked them. The experience
made her eyes sore, and when she complained,
the beings insisted they did not intend
to harm her.
When she inquired again about their place
of origin, they replied this time, “From the
sky.” Seeing a picture of Jesus on the wall,
they flew up to it and engaged her in a conversation
about him, then went on to banal
subjects (a British entertainment figure, the
Queen, the role of the housewife, children)
before returning to Jesus. Then they floated
slowly around the room picking up small objects,
including cassette tapes. Hingley told
investigators, “They touched all the Christmas
cards and all the furniture. . . . I think
they had magnets in their hands, ’cause they
kept lifting things that they touched.” They
asked for water. In response she filled four
glasses and put them on a tray, along with several
mince pies. She lifted a glass, and the beings
lifted theirs, but when they saw her
watching them, they blinded her with the
light beam. The next thing she knew, they
were putting empty glasses down. Next she
thought of offering them cigarettes and cigars
that they were looking at. When she lit one,
however, the beings recoiled in fright. She
thought they were afraid of fire.
A loud noise brought her to the window,
where she saw that the orange UFO was back.
The beings “put their hands to their sides,”
she recalled. “They lifted themselves up,”
pressing buttons on their chests, and “they
glided themselves out.” Each was holding its
mince pie. They sailed out the back door and
entered through an opening in the UFO,
which flew away and was soon lost to view.
At that moment, Hingley suffered “a g o n y,
p u re agony. . . . My legs, I couldn’t feel them,
and then I was wobbly, and ve ry, ve ry weak. I
grabbed the table. I slid my feet along the