The Minnesota Cop who drove into a ufo

I did a search but nothing came up about this most interesting of ufo cases. I am reading the book " The Close Encounters Man", which is the story of Dr. Hynek famed UFO Investigator, and it has many really interesting older ufo case studies, encounters within, and this is one of them. Back in 1979 Marshall County Minnesota Cop Val Johnson was on patrol and driving down a highway when he drove into a ball of white light. I saw this case on the show " UFO Files" which has been on the History channel in the past.

Johnson is driving down the highway when he sees something:

I noticed a very bright, brilliant light, 8 to 12 inches in diameter, 3 to 4 feet off the ground," Johnson said in a taped police interview. "The edges were very defined."

Johnson continued to drive towards the light. Next thing he knew he was in the ditch with burns around his eyes. His windshield and one headlight had been smashed. The car antenna was bent back.

The incident turned Johnson into a local legend and national media sensation. And years later, people are still talking about it. Johnson's squad car is preserved in the Marshall County Museum with a plaque that says: "U.F.O. Car." People still come from miles around to see it. It's an annual display at the Marshall County Fair. Sometimes former Marshall County Sheriff Dennis Brekke gives talks at the museum about the car and the night his deputy drove it into a ball of light. Police investigated and never drew any conclusions.

This encounter has been called one of the top 10 most influential ufo encounters in history according to Jerome Clark who wrote about it in his book " UFO Encylopedia.

But the incident's enduring fame has lingered far beyond Marshall County. What's known as the "Val Johnson Incident" remains one of the top 10 most influential UFO encounters in history, according Jerome Clark, who wrote about it in his 1998 book, "The UFO Encyclopedia." Paranormal TV shows like "UFO Files" and "Mysteries at the Museum" filmed reenactments. Even now, people debate the legitimacy of the encounter on online forums.

This case has evidence:

It was an extraordinarily important case," Clark said. Plenty of people have strange experiences on back roads late at night, Clark explained, but very few of them yield any tangible evidence. Fewer still are ever investigated.

What was it????

To this day Johnson won't speculate on what happened to him in 1979. He doesn't think the light he saw was an extraterrestrial — but also won't rule out the possibility. For years, he said, it just hasn't crossed his mind.

I saw a ball of light," he said. "I drove toward it, and suddenly it was in the car with me. It's unexplainable, and will remain so. I'm happy with my mental stability."

source

a reply to: data5091

If it was a "BOL" (ball of light), either of the atmospheric variety (ball lightning)
or of the piezoelectric-generated variety (earth light), then yes, they are
often attracted to a source of electricity like a car, and can "materialize"
inside of a car.

They do disrupted car engines, cause radiation burns, etc.

It sounds like an "IFO" (identified flying object) to me.

but would that type of lightening be capable of putting a crack dent in a windshield and breakout a headlight?

a reply to: KellyPrettyBear

Have you ever tried bending a car's radio antenna? No amount of light can do that...JMO

a reply to: data5091

There are a few threads and posts on this incident, but that isn't to say it isn't interesting.

A few years ago, I emailed a couple of forensic labs the images on the off-chance somebody would take the bait. The labs were experts in identifying causes and dynamics of vehicle impacts and were particularly focused on windscreen damage. No replies lol. They probably (righteously) thought I was a wack job and who can blame them?

I was actually hoping they'd recognise something that would 'solve' the case so we could have an explanation.

Sounds to me like he ran into a ball of lightning. I know a guy who saw one come into his house through a window opening in the house he was building, moved around the house making burns on the ceiling and walls, went down the basement steps, then singed some of the joists then shot through the hole blowing apart the block where the wire trench went to the garage and singed the wall and damaged the foundation block in the garage six feet from the house and bounced around the garage a bit and left through the open garage door. The insurance claim from that ball lightning was in the thousands of dollars. On a shell of a house.

I saw the damage, it was unbelievable, when it went down the steps to the basement it just browned the wood and steps a bit. He said it traveled around as if it were looking for something.

originally posted by: donktheclown
Have you ever tried bending a car's radio antenna? No amount of light can do that...JMO

Most cars don't even have antennas like that anymore, but yeah, they're designed to be flexible and most bends in them ended up as curves, not angles. The bend looks like it came up against something.

EDIT: Although... the antenna bent back, and I wonder if it was struck by something from the front, wouldn't it bend forward? In order for it to be bent back, there would have to be something backing it up at the point of the angle, and it would be from the back. Just pondering. That's always kind of bugged me about this case.

a reply to: rickymouse

so you think if it was ball lightning that would be capable of the car damage? That would be a first for me, for ball lightning to be able to do such physical damage to something metal like a car.

originally posted by: data5091
a reply to: rickymouse

so you think if it was ball lightning that would be capable of the car damage? That would be a first for me, for ball lightning to be able to do such physical damage to something metal like a car.

It blew apart the cement blocks surrounding the plastic pipe where the wire went into the garage and sizzled and melted the subfeed box in his garage before singing the trusses. Where the plastic pipe was, the block on both the garage and house were blown apart. I don't know how much energy they got, but it seemed it didn't run out of energy, makes me wonder about the explanations of ball lightning they have about it in science. I can see it centering itself and moving around by repulsion of the energy field it had from the walls, and I can see it following the wire to the garage ground wire, but it blew apart the blocks, it could not go through that tube.

I would say a ball of lightning could take out a car, it has enough energy to overload the bonds holding the glass and metal together easily, causing things to explode or warp.

in the description of the light Johnson said the "edges were very defined" which would still lead me to think this was not ball lightning. Cannot say offhand I have ever heard of any description of ball lightning that fit that description for what its worth.

a reply to: data5091

BOL also have psychoactive effects, so a person could see almost anything.

Note:

I'm 100% on-board with a variant of the IDH, so I'm not saying that some really
strange stuff isn't out there.

But to quote Freud -- "sometimes a cigar is just a BOL (cigar).

if not done by the object, be it ball lightning or whatever, I'd think the damage to the car was likely done by running into the ditch

a reply to: data5091

About 40 years ago, lightning fell on the CB antenna fixed to the house of one uncle.
It ran down the antenna, became a lightning ball as it passed through the first glass of a double glassed window without causing damage, but it blew a hole on the second glass, the size of the lightning ball it had become.

It bounced a few times on the walls before hitting my cousin in the back, burning him a little.

And that sums up my knowledge of lightning balls.

I know a guy that had a "ball," presuming it to be ball-lightning, come through an open door, blast through his television and then hook upward, through the ceiling, and destroyed the upstairs neighbor's television.
Wouldn't want to get popped in the ass by whatever it was.

originally posted by: KellyPrettyBear
a reply to: data5091

If it was a "BOL" (ball of light), either of the atmospheric variety (ball lightning)
or of the piezoelectric-generated variety (earth light), then yes, they are
often attracted to a source of electricity like a car, and can "materialize"
inside of a car.

They do disrupted car engines, cause radiation burns, etc.

It sounds like an "IFO" (identified flying object) to me.

someone hasn't done their research into this case I see. to many other unexplained occurrence's here to rule it an identified object. just saying, but nice try........

actually, not even a nice try, you overlooked a bunch of things in this case. so back to the drawing board with you.

originally posted by: KellyPrettyBear
a reply to: data5091

If it was a "BOL" (ball of light), either of the atmospheric variety (ball lightning)
or of the piezoelectric-generated variety (earth light), then yes, they are
often attracted to a source of electricity like a car, and can "materialize"
inside of a car.

They do disrupted car engines, cause radiation burns, etc.

It sounds like an "IFO" (identified flying object) to me.

Except ball lightning isn't solid and wouldn't have impacted his car like a lead ball giving him a concussion. Must have been something else.

a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Ball lightning/earth lights/plasma balls and other such effects
not only blow holes in things one moment with great IMPACT,
but the next moment can float right through a wall or
windshield and not disturb a flea.

It's interesting stuff.

You will note that various other people in this thread agree
with me.

However of course, there could be OTHER also viable
explanations.

But this one is the least exotic, so it deserves consideration.

Kev

originally posted by: KellyPrettyBear
a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Ball lightning/earth lights/plasma balls and other such effects
not only blow holes in things one moment with great IMPACT,
but the next moment can float right through a wall or
windshield and not disturb a flea.

It's interesting stuff.

You will note that various other people in this thread agree
with me.

However of course, there could be OTHER also viable
explanations.

But this one is the least exotic, so it deserves consideration.

Kev

I just read a bit more about ball lightning thinking beforehand that it must be just electricity, but have read that it also is thought to give off ultraviolet radiation which does match what happened to Val Johnson. You might be right on the money.

But according to the story, it is still being claimed there is no explanation for this case as to what actually happened. I was also never looking for an exotic explanation, just one that doesn't have so many unknowns as this case has. There was also allegedly no known weather that night to account for ball lightning.

I don't have much to add, but with all the talk of ball-lightning, I thought I'd share this video for those who have never seen it, it's a beyond interesting subject;

a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

if you study the topic in-depth, you will discover that there are recorded incidents
of ball lightning with (apparent) clear blue, cloudless sky!

It's the same with "earth lights". The piezo effect of deep tectonic stress can
generate them.. even in areas with no, or very little earthquake activity.

As for "not confirmed" -- it's hard to confirm anything in this world, and most
people (me included) battle confirmation bias.. and many people don't even
try, and become victims to their biases.

Kevin