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Speaker 1: Encounter in Detchmont Woods by Charles Lear. When a single

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witness reports an episode of high strangeness involving a UFO encounter,

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having physical evidence in the form of traces left on

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the ground or on the witness really helps when arguing

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for the witness's credibility. This was the case in the

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nineteen seventy nine report by a forestry worker in Scotland

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who said he not only saw mysterious domed objects sitting

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on the ground, but that he was assaulted by two

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spherical objects with spike like protrusions that rolled towards him.

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The case got the attention of Flying Saucer Review editor

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Charles Bowen, who made arrangements to have it investigated by

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members of the UFO Investigators Network, an organization funded by

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f SR and formed in nineteen seventy seven with the

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help of Jenny Randalls, who had proposed the idea. The

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resulting three part report by EUPHOIG investigators Martin Keatman and

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Andrew Collins appears in the November December nineteen seventy nine,

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Spring nineteen eighty and September nineteen eighty issues. The case

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was also investigated by employees of the Livingston Development Corporation

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and local police from two stations. The case is the

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cover story in the nineteen seventy nine issue. According to

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the report titled physical Assault by Unidentified Objects at Livingston

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Part one LDC, forestry foreman Robert Taylor of Livingston, West Lothian,

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Scotland reported that on Friday, November ninth, nineteen seventy nine,

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he encountered a mysterious domed object sitting on the ground

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in a forest clearing. According to him, as he watched,

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two spherical objects with spikelike protrusions came towards him rapidly

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and rolled over on to his sides, at which point

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he went unconscious. When he came to, he heard a

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wishing noise and then saw that the object was gone.

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He was extremely thirsty, had a headache, pain in his

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chin and legs, and couldn't walk or speak. He crawled

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back to his pickup truck, which was three hundred meters away,

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found himself incapable of driving it, but was then able

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to make his way home on foot. Upon returning with

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others the next day, there were physical traces seen that

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gave support to his claims. According to Keapman and Collins.

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They made arrangements on Monday with Taylor's superior, Malcolm Drummond,

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to meet with Taylor the next day, who would take

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them to the site. They also established contact with all

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the other authorities in the area, including the local police

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and newspapers, in order to pave the way ahead. When

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they got to the area on Wednesday, they went to

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the l d C, met with Drummond and Taylor, and

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were taken to the site, an area known as Dutchmont Woods.

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The sight was covered with snow, but LDC workers had

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put up a fence to protect the trays evidence. There

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were footprints all around as a result of people coming

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to look at the sight out of curiosity, and the

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readers told you can imagine our feelings when we were

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greeted with the sight of a large snow man built

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in the center. Because it was getting dark, they were

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unable to thoroughly investigate the site and instead went with

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Taylor to Livingstone, where they interviewed him, his wife, one

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of his sons, and his daughter. They interviewed Taylor under

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rapid questioning for more than three hours and then over

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the next three days, and he never feared from his

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original story nor did the others involved in this bizarre saga.

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The report then goes into the finer details of Taylor's story.

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According to Keapman and Collins, Taylor sixty one, was making

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his rounds in his Bedford pickup truck with his six

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year old Irish setter Lara, and arrived at Detchmont Woods

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at approximately nine to fifty five hours, an area he

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went to virtually every week. He went through two gates

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and drove up the unpaid forestry road to Deer Hill.

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He parked three hundred meters from where he said his

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encounter took place. Let Larra loose to roam freely and

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chase small animals in the forest, and checked on the gates,

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fencing and fire paths, searching for anything untoward. He made

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his way to an intersection of three fire paths. There,

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in a clearing to his right, he saw a large

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object quite out of context with the area as he

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knew it. He described it as a top were dome

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shaped and said it had a flange around it with

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evenly spaced vertical cylindrical bars sticking up from it that

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had horizontal bars, not unlike propellers on top of them.

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He said that between the vertical bars, there were what

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could have been portals, but he couldn't see through them,

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so he thought they might have just been markings. Keapman

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and Colin describe the structure beneath the upper part as confusing,

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and say that Taylor recalled it as being like the

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upper part, giving the impression of a sanern shape overall, or,

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as he put it, a child's top. This sounds more

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like a spherical object than a dome, and the illustration

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reflects this. Based on measurements taken at the site, they

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estimate that it was about seven meters wide at the

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flange and about eight meters away from tailor. Tailor is

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said to have described the surface as rough, with no

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apparent joints or seams, dark gray like carborundum, and to

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have said it didn't seem to be metallic. He added, however,

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that after looking at the object for about thirty seconds,

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parts of the upper section disappeared, allowing him to see

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what was behind it, and would then become opaque, first

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on the left, then on the right, and then in

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the center. It's at this point that the spiky spherical

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objects are said to have hurtled towards the startled witness.

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According to the report, they seemed to have come from

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in front of the lower section and to have moved

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in unison on a parallel course before falling onto his sides.

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Taylor recalled an overpowering smell, a bad taste in his mouth,

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and feeling something tugging on his pants as he was

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dragged forwards. It is assumed that he went unconscious and

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fell head first on the ground. The additional details of

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the aftermath are Taylor having an intense headache centered over

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his forehead, pain in his chin as if it were burned,

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and itch in his left thigh, and feeling sick. He

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tried to talk to Lara, who was near by and

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barking furiously, but his jaw seemed to have ceased to

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function and he was unable to speak. He was able

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to get to his knees and saw that the objects

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had gone. Taylor crawled about one hundred meters towards the truck,

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staggered to his feet and was able to walk, but

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fell repeatedly. When he got to the truck, he called

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the LDC, but was still unable to talk. He then

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started up the truck tried to turn it around lost

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control and reversed it into a shallow ditch. At this point,

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he got out and decided to walk one point five

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kilometers through woods fields and on roads to get to

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his home. He said he was slightly dazed and confused,

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and still feeling the physical effects of the encounter. Next week,

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The Investigation and the Evidence. Charles Lear is the author

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of The Flying Saucer Investigators, available in its second edition

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at Amazon dot com.