By Natalie Myers
It was on the evening of 12 August 1983, when a gentleman by the name of Alfred Burtoo was walking along the banks of the Basingstoke Canal, Aldershot. He and his dog Tiny were night fishing, a pastime they regularly enjoyed. Close-by there were Army barracks and Alfred remembers the clock striking 1am.
Very shortly after this, whilst getting a cup of tea from his flask, he noticed a strange light heading towards him. He noticed it stopped around 300ft away behind some trees but he was still able to see its lights poking over the top of the tree line and through the branches.
Tiny began to growl in the direction of the lights and standing up to get a better view, 77 year old Alfred noticed what looked like two beings coming towards him. He recalls the beings stopping around 5ft in front of him, just staring.
Alfred describes the creatures as being around 4tf tall dressed in tight green overalls. Each had a helmet, which was also green with a blacked out visor. He stated that he was more intrigued by them than frightened, perhaps to do with his military background. After a while one of the beings beckoned to Alfred to follow him, turning to walk towards where the craft was. Curious, he followed with the second being then following him.
All three walked a short distance, across a foot bridge to where the craft could be clearly seen. He observed a huge 40ft shiny metallic craft, standing proud on two ski-like legs. To the side there was a port hole with a set of steps coming down to the floor.
As before he was beckoned to climb the stairs to the craft. He recalls no fear. Once inside, Alfred found himself in an octagonal shaped room. A sound was heard as if the door to the ship had closed. It was warm inside with a horrid smell of decay.
Ever the military soldier, Alfred observed his environment as much as he could, recalling that the beings moved in a ‘stiff’ manner but not unlike human gait. The metal in the room was black with an unfinished look to it. It was seamless with no evidence of nuts, screws or bolts. Suddenly a large shaft appeared in the centre of the room, bringing with it a further two beings identical to those he had already encountered.
Alfred recalls a voice speaking to him and asking him to “stand under the amber light”. He stepped into the glow and was asked a series of questions including how old he was. He was then asked to spin around in the light. The voice came through again, this time to inform Alfred he was “too old” to help them.
He was then escorted off the craft and left to wander back to the fishing spot he had left before. Then, with a sudden bright light, the craft shot off at an inhuman speed and Alfred realised that over an hour of time had passed.
Not sure what had occurred, it wasn’t until 10am the next morning Alfred saw another person. Two mounted MoD policemen were riding along the canal bank and made small talk with Alfred. He mentioned, casually, that he has seen some unusual lights the previous night. To his amazement, one of the officers replied “Yes. I suspect you did see that UFO. I expect they were checking on our military installations!” Still in awe he returned home to tell his wife about the night’s adventure.
A number of months later, still trying to fathom out what had happened that night in August, Alfred contacted a local newspaper to see if there were any additional witnesses to the events. Articles appeared in a number of publications and was eventually picked up by journalist Timothy Good who included the case in his book Above Top Secret, stating he undoubtedly believed the story.
After the events of that night, security around the MoD base rapidly increased. It was described by one person as being “secured by special ops”, stating that guards were dressed head to toe in black and were now fully armed. Signs also went up in the surrounding areas of public land that this space was now “off limits”.
Later in 2006, an investigator visited the scene of the incident and photographed a strange metal type object that was not visible with the naked eye.
Burtoo sadly passed away in 1986. His wife commented that he was convinced right to that day of what he experienced, despite rumours now circulating to the contrary.
One interesting piece of evidence shows that almost annually on the death of Albert Burtoo, an article is run in the local newspaper recounting the event, claiming that the entire story was a hoax and that Albert had made people who believed him a laughing stock. Much emphasis is put on the event not occurring. In the words of William Shakespeare- “the lady doth protest too much methinks” or in this case the local press. What do you think?
