Exeter incident

The Exeter incident was a highly publicized UFO sighting that occurred on September 3, 1965, approximately 5 miles (8 km) south of Exeter, New Hampshire, in the neighboring town of Kensington. Although several separate sightings had been made by numerous witnesses in the weeks leading up to September 3, the specific incident, eventually to become by far the most famous, involved a local teenager and two police officers. The November/December 2011 edition of Skeptical Inquirer offers an explanation of the incident, based on details reported by the eyewitnesses.

At approximately 2 am on September 3, 1965, Norman Muscarello was hitchhiking to his parents' home in Exeter along Highway 150. Muscarello, 18, had recently graduated from high school and was about to leave for service in the U.S. Navy. He had been visiting his girlfriend at her parents' home in nearby Amesbury, Massachusetts; since he did not own a car he would catch a ride to and from his girlfriend's home. However, at that time of night there was little traffic on the highway, and as he walked he noticed five flashing red lights in some nearby woods. The lights illuminated the woods and a nearby farmhouse. (The farm belonged to the Dining family, who were not at home at the time.) The lights soon moved towards him, and Muscarello became terrified and dove into a ditch. The lights moved away and hovered near the Dining farmhouse before going back into the woods. Muscarello ran to the farmhouse, pounded on the door and yelled for help, but no one answered. When he saw a car coming down the road, he ran into the road and forced it to stop. The couple in the car drove him to the Exeter police station.

At the station Muscarello told his story to police officer Reginald Toland, who worked the night desk at the police station. Toland, who knew Muscarello, was impressed by his obvious fear and agitated state. Toland radioed police officer Eugene Bertrand, Jr., who had earlier in the evening passed a distressed woman sitting in her car on Highway 108. When Bertrand stopped and asked if she had a problem, the woman told him that a "huge object with flashing red lights" had been following her car for 12 miles (19 km) and stopped over her car before flying away. Bertrand considered her a "kook" but did stay with her for approximately 15 minutes until she had calmed down and was ready to resume her drive.

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