Somewhere in the Skies - George O'Barski and the Stonehenge UFO Encounter

Episode Date: July 14, 2024

On episode 364 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES we head to New Jersey to hear the incredible story of George O'Barski. As the 72 year-old closed up his wine shop and headed home, he decided to take a shortcut through North Hudson Park. That shortcut would change his life forever, leading an entire team of UFO investigators, police officers, and a slew of witnesses having truly experienced something otherworldly near the Stonehenge apartment complex back in 1975. Voiceover by: Andrew Sanford: https://x.com/SanfordMinusSon Amy Murphy: https://www.instagram.com/everythingamy.ca/?hl=en Brent Hand: https://www.hysteria51.com/ Research by Marcus Lowth: www.ufoinsight.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies PayPal: [e-mail] Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com Store: http://tee.pub/lic/ULZAy7IY12U YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Order Ryan’s new book: https://a.co/d/4KNQnM4 Order Ryan’s older book: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Read Ryan’s Articles by CLICKING HERE Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte Produced by LIONSGATE Copyright © 2024. Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the early hours of January 12, 1975, 72-year-old George O'Barski was driving home in Hudson County, New Jersey. As he drove past North Hudson Park, he noticed something, something that he would not be the only witness to, and something that would spark an intense investigation with twists and turns, leading down a path of extraordinary consequence for all involved. This is the incredible case of George O'Barski and the Stonehenge UFO encounter. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan Sprague. The following accounts first appeared in several newspapers at the time and was also featured in the book Missing Time, a documented study of UFO abductions by the late Bud Hopkins.

Hopkins would explain the following in his book, I had known the witness for almost two decades before he spoke to me about his encounter. He was the co-owner of a liquor store in the Chelsea District of Manhattan, opposite the studio apartment where I lived. He'd been selling me wine throughout that period. Obarsky was streetwise, astute, and also very reflective. And despite his profession in the sale of alcohol, he was a self-proclaimed strict teetotaler of sorts. It was during one evening when Hopkins stopped the store to purchase a bar. bottle of wine when he found O'Barski pacing back and forth behind the counter.

He was muttering that a man can be driving home, minding his own business, and something can come out of the sky and scare you half to death. Hopkins, not yet widely known as a UFO researcher, was naturally very interested in what O'Barski had to say, and O'Barski would regal Hopkins with the strange events of that cold night, near the Stonehenge apartment complex, and in North Hudson Park. It was around 2 a.m. when I was finally able to finish all of my paperwork, was able to shut down the liquor store. As often, then, when I was driving home, I took a short cut through North Hudson Park, where I'd usually stop at a 24-hour diner in the Fort Lee area for a bite

to eat. The drive was usually pretty uneventful, but not that night. I was driving through the park, the car radio suddenly began to pick up intense static, and the broadcast coming through was very tinny. He immediately reached for the dial, seeing if he could tune to another frequency or radio station. As he was doing so, a bright, glowing object suddenly passed his vehicle, on his left-hand side, moving in the same direction he was.

It was about 100 feet away when I first noticed it. My window was down and I could hear a low humming sound that was coming from the object. He continued to watch as it came to a stop in a field ahead of him. Now, slowing his vehicle somewhat, he began to take in details of the object's appearance. The object was round in shape and around 30 feet in length. It was just hovering about 10 feet above the ground. Had vertical windows going around the edge of it.

On the side of the object, what appeared to be a panel open between two of the vertical windows, then this ladder-like mechanism appeared and stretched out toward the ground. The craft began to lower itself even more coming to within five feet of the ground. While the craft itself was certainly a strange sight, what happened next would be even stranger. This group of small figures appeared, and one after another they walked down the ramp to the ground. These figures were no more than three feet tall,

and they each wore the same hooded one-piece light-colored garment. If I had to be honest, they look like kids in snow seats. But even more spectacular was the amount of figures that emerged from the craft. There had to be close to a dozen of these small beings. They came down this ladder thing like kids coming down a fire escape. Fast, no wasted motions. Obarski continued forward, slowly, trying everything to not draw attention to himself. They each carried a large spoon-like tool in a little bag with a handle.

They were digging and spooning the dirt into their bags. And just as Obarski witnessed the scene playing out, the figures returned inside the craft, which promptly rose and ascended into the sky. In total, Obarski estimated that the whole incident, from the object appearing to it rising back up into the sky, took no more than four minutes. After that, in shock, he headed home.

When I arrived home, I immediately made some tea, sat there on the couch for a while, thinking about what had just happened. I was terrified that whatever those figures were, they knew I was there. Turned the lights off and then my apartment, took two aspirin and headed a bed. I pulled the covers over my head like a kid would do if they thought something was outside their window. I was that scared. I figured the whole damn world was coming to an end. The following morning, unable to get the events out of his mind, Oberski returned to North Hudson Park. when he neared the spot where he believed he had seen this craft and these figures.

He brought his car to a stop and continued on foot. And that's when he saw it. In the field where that object had hovered, there were a little over a dozen small holes in the ground. Exactly where those things had been digging the night before. At this point, he got back into his car and immediately returned home to try to come to terms with the events of the past 12 hours. Although he did his best to forget about the encounter.

Over the course of the following weeks, he happened upon people who had also seen something strange that same January night. And not only the same night, but in the same exact location, O'Barski concluded his initial talk with Bud Hopkins by offering the following possibility for the event. He told me that maybe the government or the CIA,

or perhaps a foundation somewhere, it developed a secret method of propulsion, you know, powering totally unconventional craft like the one he saw that night. However, at the same time, he reasoned rather than create such a drama, why wouldn't they simply send for the soil samples through conventional means?

What would, for example, be so secret about them performing such a task? Hopkins had his own thoughts about the account and George O'Barski, which he detailed in the book, missing time. He stated the following. No one making up a story like this would, in a fact, leave himself out of the events. George O'Barski's role in the encounter is strictly passive.

Never once does a small figure notice him, turn towards him, threaten him, or hand him a message. Anyone inventing a sensational encounter with space beings would begin by creating a weird, memorable face, huge eyes, pointed ears, or whatever, and then work down to the trivial details. However, according to George's account, he saw no details whatsoever of their faces as the, hoods or helmets they wore completely obscured them. In the same mindset, George did clearly recall that the boots the figures wore appeared to be part of the overall garment as opposed to being a separate footwear, you know, something that someone manufacturing a story might not include. But for me, perhaps the biggest sign of George's authenticity in relaying the encounter is his honesty about how utterly terrified he was during and after the ordeal, even admitting to pulling the bed

covers over his head when he returned home after the incident. Hopkins also highlighted O'Barski's choice of words regarding his descriptions of how the object moved. He said it moved as though there was a giant magnet attracting it. I just had the inescapable impression that an intelligent, careful man was trying his best to find the words to describe an incredible experience. For example, in attempting to describe the object rising into the air and taking off, he also stated that he thought there must be a big fan in there or something that, that runs this thing, even though he couldn't see such a propulsion method. It was at this point that Hopkins made the decision to contact a serious UFO organization

in order to plan how to best proceed with the encounter. He eventually contacted the New York State Director of Mufon, Ted Blocker. Intrigued by the incident, Blocker, and Jerry Storer, another investigator, along with Hopkins and Obarski himself, would all travel to North Hudson Park to the exact spot where the mystery object had landed. The alleged landing site itself turned out to be a multi-purpose athletic field that was used for football and softball and overlooked the downtown Manhattan area approximately four miles from the offices of the New York Times. The group had decided to reenact the encounter in the hope that doing so might lead to further clues for the investigators,

or even further memories from Obarski. He would take the wheel of the vehicle and drive along the same route he took that January night, driving as best he could at a similar speed. Storer recorded O'Barski's detailed recollections on his tape recorder, timing each part of the journey for his records. Furthermore, following the reenactment, Hopkins realized that a circular apartment block, known as the Stonehenge apartments,

sat at the bottom of the hill close to where they were. encounter unfolded. Moreover, in this apartment block lived a person Hopkins was familiar with, following them having purchased a painting from Hopkins, who was also an abstract painter. But of more importance, the Stonehenge apartments were staffed by a doorman 24 hours a day. Given that a doorman must have been present on the ground level at the time of the incident, Hopkins thought that maybe it was possible that they may have witnessed something on the night in question. And to his shock and amazement, he was right.

And it would crack the case wide open in the strangest of ways. Hey, everyone, Ryan Sprague here, host of Somewhere in the Skies. If you've ever thought about supporting us, we have great two easy options for you right now. If you listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, you can click the subscribe button at the top of your Apple feed. Or you can join our Patreon at patreon.com slash somewhere skies. Both of these options give you the same benefits. Early access to the main show, bonus episodes and content, and priority to ask our guests your listener questions. So to help support Somewhere in the Skies, click that subscription.

button on Apple or visit patreon.com slash somewhere skies. Thank you so much for your support and keep looking up. George O'Barski had witnessed something truly bizarre during the early hours of January 12th, 1975 in New Jersey. While driving through North Hudson Park, he had seen a landed craft and strange figures that didn't appear human. They seemed to be digging in the dirt and taking some sort of soil samples, they returned to their craft, which ascended into the skies, leaving Obarski both in awe and completely terrified. And now an entire team of investigators were on the case. Led by budding UFO and abduction researcher, Bud Hopkins, Hopkins would approach a doorman at a nearby apartment complex known as the Stonehenge apartments. I had

I introduced myself to the doorman who told me his name was Eddie Obert Bussing. I told him I was investigating an incident at the park several months earlier in January. I purposefully admitted any mention of the UFO in the figures. When I asked him if he'd seen anything unusual in January, he told me he had it. But again, without mentioning anything about the UFOs, he would tell me that another doorman at the Stonehenge apartments had indeed seen a UFO in the month of January. The doorman explained to Hopkins that one Bill Powlowski had left for another job since, but had reported an incident in the early hours of mid-January that involved one of the apartment's huge glass entrance windows.

This window had been shattered under bizarre circumstances. Although this doorman that Hopkins was currently talking to didn't know any more details about the incident, he did provide Hopkins with contact details for Paulyowski. After several failed attempts, Hopkins finally was able to get in touch with Pallowski. And did he have a story to tell? At some time between 2 and 3 a.m., he had noticed bright lights shining in his direction from up the hill in the park. He looked in that direction and saw an object with 10 to 15 lights. all spaced evenly apart, hovering above the ground.

He rushed over to the window to be certain that he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing. And sure enough, there it was, clear as day. He quickly called up one of the tenants in the building to see if they could also see it. But as soon as the tenant picked up, and he started to explain the situation, he heard a high-pitched vibration and a cracking sound. When he realized where it was coming from, he turned to see that one of the lobby windows was cracked at the bottom. This crack got bigger and bigger, and then it just shattered into a million pieces with a huge burst. Powlowski took cover behind his desk.

By the time he looked up and out the broken window, he attempted to try to find where the lights had been. But they were gone. and whatever the object was, it had completely vanished into thin air. Paolarski picked up the phone again, only this time it was to call the police. They would send out an entire unit to investigate. When they examined the broken window, the situation became even more perplexing. Whatever it struck the glass had not come through, meaning it was an extremely intense and high vibration or shockwave of sorts that must have shattered the window.

Furthermore, upon examining the outside at the window frame, they discovered what appeared to be some sort of indentation, as if a marble of glass had been gouged out of the surface. The police quickly concluded that whatever caused the damage had likely come from above. But not only that, it had come from the direction, of the North Hudson Park. The police conducted a quick search around the perimeter of the building,

and then they went back on patrol. Several hours later, though, Palowski would inform another police officer, one who actually lived in the Stonehenge apartment complex, about what had happened. Police Lieutenant El Del Guadio returned home from a late-night shift to his apartment. Paolowski immediately told him

of the night's events. Several days later, Bud Hopkins managed to speak with Del Guadio himself and asked him if he could recall what Paulowski told him. Hopkins recalled the following about that conversation. Officer Del Guadio told me that upon arriving home, Poloski had approached him with a wild story about the big thing with the lights on it that came down in the park. He told the officer that the lights were part of some sort of object, that it was somehow connected to the broken window. But even though Del Guadio believed the doorman to be a stand-up individual, he offered to me that Polowski must have been drinking or something that night. Hopkins, though, thought otherwise.

In fact, he was starting to see that Paulowski's version of events was lining up almost perfectly with that of Obarski. And at least to Hopkins' knowledge, neither man knew one another. Hopkins would write the following in his book. What had begun is an almost incredible story, which I believed, told to me by a man I had known for 17 years, had also turned into something more complicated, more certain, and more disturbing. An unknown craft of some sort had landed, a crew had disembarked, and had taken soil samples. Why? And why from this spot? It was decided that the investigative team would speak with as many of the Stonehenge apartment residents and staff as possible.

and as the investigation progressed, further witnesses would be found. By chance, when speaking with an employee of the Stonehenge Apartments, the team learned of another doorman who worked opposite to Polowski on his nights off, one Frank Gonzalez, who would go on to tell them of his own strange encounter.

Unfortunately, Gonzalez had also since left the company and now worked in nearby Riverdale. But again, investigators were able to track him down. And they would end up meeting with him and his teenage daughter, who acted as a translator to Gonzalez, who was not fluent in English. The meeting would take place at his apartment. In a strange coincidence,

Gonzalez's encounter happened exactly six days to the hour before O'Barski's encounter. at somewhere between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on January 6, 1975. Gonzalez offered that he was standing inside the apartment building in the main entrance when he noticed a strange light hovering a short distance above the ground of one of the fields in North Hudson Park. Intrigued, he opened the apartment building door and stepped outside. What happened next, Hopkins would describe in his book. Gonzales told me that he saw something round and very bright that had windows and made a strange sound that was not like a helicopter or a plane, but something different.

He said it sounded like a heavy sound that hurt his ears. He was very afraid and stepped back inside the building. He turned around just in time to see the object go straight up into the skies and disappear. As if the two doorman weren't enough in terms of corroboration, Hopkins would find even more witnesses. after publishing an article about the incident in the March 1976 edition of the Village Voice, a very popular newspaper in New York City and the surrounding areas. Part of the reason Hopkins wrote the article was to see if any further witnesses would come forward. And with this in mind, he purposefully left out minor but important details,

so as to be able to judge the credibility of any potential witnesses. such things as the precise date, the color of the object, and perhaps of most importance, the unseasonably warm weather on the night in question. Several weeks after the Village Voice article appeared, Investigator, Storer, was giving a talk on UFOs in the North Bergen area of New Jersey. At the conclusion, he was approached by a young woman, Alice Wamsley, and her 12-year-old son, Robert.

They wish to inform Storer of their own sighting in the North Bergen area, specifically one that occurred close to North Hudson Park and the Stonehenge Apartments. According to Storer, Alice Wamsley would state the following. One Saturday in January of 1975, my son Robert and I were watching the Bob Newhart show at home. Robert happened to glance out of the window. That's when he saw a round, domed craft that was glowing brightly, hovering a short distance away. Robert immediately alerted myself along with my husband, Joseph, and our younger children, Joseph Jr., and Debbie.

That's when Alice and her entire family decided to go outside to get a better look at what Robert had said he'd seen. And that's when they ended up seeing it too. It was so large. It was moving so slow. Had to be about 50 feet off the ground. It had to be about 50 feet off the ground. It had rectangular windows along the side, it appeared to be moving at an angle as if it was looking in people's windows. We followed it on foot for a minute or so, trying to keep it in view. Then it began to speed up and head closer to the Stonehenge apartments where we soon lost sight. It was, however, a throwaway detail that to Hopkins would prove crucial in determining the credibility of the account by Alice. She would recall that in her haste to get outside, she had

and gotten fully dressed, and ventured onto the street in just her robe and bare feet. When she realized this, once the object was out of her sight, she remembered noting how warm the evening was, certainly much warmer than a typical January night in New Jersey. It was a detail about the weather that night that matched up perfectly. I believed her to be telling the utmost truth about the event, and it once again solidified that something truly extraordinary, extraordinary had been in the skies and on the ground in North Hudson Park that night.

While this sighting and close encounter is indeed extraordinary to begin with, there was something nagging at Hopkins that he just couldn't shake about this entire case. He would explain the following in his book. If this UFO incident spanned only three to four minutes and George arrived at home roughly at 3 a.m., then he couldn't have left his Manhattan store until 215 to 2.30 a.m. The drive to North Hudson Park was around 20 minutes, especially at that time at night with less traffic. The issue is that George regularly closes the store at midnight before taking his dog for a walk and doing paperwork. It would be extremely unlikely for him to ever stay behind for two and a half hours.

So what happened between midnight and 2.30 a.m.? And why couldn't he remember leaving Salih? So had Obarski actually suffered an instance of missing time? And if so, what truly? did happen during that missing time. Ultimately, this wasn't the only strange thing. O'Barski would also tell Hopkins the following. I had this feeling of having been told something by those figures that night.

Something that I just couldn't grasp or remember. Hopkins suggested that O'Barski attempt the very controversial hypnotic regression approach to possibly retrieve memories from the alleged missing time. and also maybe to understand what it was the figures had possibly told him. However, O'Barski, afraid to relive the event and know these answers, adamantly refused, leaving the question open, had O'Barski perhaps had an alien abduction experience, that he both couldn't and perhaps wouldn't remember. In the face of the public eye, George O'Barski didn't once change his version of events.

Indeed, as Bud Hopkins wrote in his report of the case in the book Missing Time, it was clear to all who ever met George O'Barski that he had unmistakable integrity. And O'Barski, the other witnesses, the investigators, and all who learned of this case, would be left with more questions than answers. Hopkins would conclude with the following. The North Hudson Park incident could easily be a more complicated scenario than any of us imagines, though it will forever remain speculation. And that speculation leaves this case a complete mystery, a mystery that we continue to search for answers to somewhere in the skies. This episode was co-researched by Marcus Loth. To learn more, visit UFOinsight.com.

A very special thanks to our voiceover talent in this episode, Andrew Sanford, Amy Murphy, and Brent Hand. You can find links to all of their work in the show notes. Please take a moment to rate and review Somewhere in the Skies on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get the show. It truly does help us gain visibility and find new listeners. You can follow us on Twitter at Somewhere Skies. and on Instagram at SomewhereSkiespod. If you would like to contact us, we have our email in the show notes as well.

Thank you so much for listening. And remember, keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching somewhere in the skies. The Somewhere in the Skies podcast is part of the Lionsgate Sound Network. Please take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever possible. you for listening.