Somewhere in the Skies - The Elmwood UFO Incident: A Police Officer’s Terrifying Close Encounter

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Starting point is 00:01:05 My God, it's one of those UFOs again. Well, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just another tinfoil hat. Welcome to my show. Today, we are going to be discussing the absolutely fascinating case of the infamous Elmwood UFO. Before we begin, I'm going to offer this disclaimer. I have offered this disclaimer before.

Starting point is 00:01:37 And again, I'm using it here because the term UFO is going to come up like countless times. I know it's pronounced UFO. I know it stands for an identified flying object. I know it's an acronym, not an actual, like, word. And I know that currently now it has been changed to UAP. However, I really like that pronunciation because, well, it's kind of a double-edged reason.

Starting point is 00:02:00 The first, I'm a major Keelian, and John Keel pronounced UFO, UFO, if you listen back to any of his recordings. So, you know, yes, I'm kind of a dork about that. But the other thing is, you know, the term UFO or even now a UAP, these are both acronyms for something that is unidentified and aerial, you know, or in the sky or flying. And in a weird sense, I kind of have a problem with that because these are simply anomalies. The fact that they happen to be in the sky makes them really no different than an anomaly that happens to be in a house or in the woods or whatever. And so to me, to state it as UFO is something more evocative. of, you know, I don't know, again, like kind of this retro mid-century mystery, which that's the

Starting point is 00:02:45 era that I really love researching. So, you know, instead of like something that stands for something, which the phenomenon isn't really anyway. So that's my reasoning behind it. That's why I like the term UFO. And yes, I know better and decide against it. So with that long and kind of wandering explanation out of the way, let's get to the case. Now, this case begins in the very early morning hours of Monday, April 7, 1975, and involves Officer George Wheeler of Elmwood, Wisconsin. Now, Wheeler had served as a combat pilot in World War II, and at the time of the incident, he had been on the force in Pierce County for 20 years, after 10 years as a New York Highway Patrol officer.

Starting point is 00:03:27 Wheeler was in his squad car just outside of Elmwood at a quarter to one in the morning when he saw a huge, fiery object in the sky. He told the papers that his first thought was that it was a plane about to quote, crash and wipe out the town of Elmwood. He immediately stopped his squad car and dove recover in a nearby ditch. And after waiting for a moment, you know, no crash ensued, decided to look up and the fiery object was gone. Confused by this turn of events, Wheeler drove to higher ground and spotted, presumably the same something in the sky. However, now pretty sure that this was something much weirder than a plane about to crash, he now saw that the object was, in fact, this

Starting point is 00:04:08 bright orange cigar-shaped object, which was emitting blue flames or lights out of one end. It passed overhead and disappeared in about three seconds. Wheeler then drove to the top of Tuttle Hill to get a better view to see if he could still see this object. There, all he claimed he could see was this terrible orange glare from what he believed was the same orange object, about five miles away. By this point, Wheeler was so frightened that he said he felt paralyzed. He claimed that it hovered for about 15 seconds and then launched off in the direction of Ellsworth. He claimed that it was performing these very quick angular maneuvers at ridiculously high rates of speed. Now, Wheeler was not the only witness to see something strange in the sky those dark early morning hours.

Starting point is 00:04:55 Rural Elmwoodians, Nancy Thice and the Kohler family, as well as deputies sent to investigate the numerous reports coming in from Elmwood, Ellsworth, and the Maiden Rock communities, claimed to see up to four strange objects in the sky, three smaller objects and then a larger object similar to that which Wheeler had described. In all reports, the objects were totally soundless. One woman from Plum City and Mrs. Gibson claimed that this was old news. She and her neighbors had been seeing such disturbances for about three weeks. Another notable account came in Monday night when a man called authorities to report an object which he described as a felt tip pen with lights underneath. Wheeler claimed that this citing changed his life. In a later newspaper article from October of 1975,

Starting point is 00:05:40 he stated, I'm dying to get another chance at seeing one. He had put field glasses and two cameras in his squad car, one specifically for night photography, and just knew that next time he was going to be ready. If only things worked out that well, in people who researched paranormal anomalies, UFOs, whatever you want to call it, as you may have guessed, this was not the case.

Starting point is 00:06:02 there was absolutely a next time, but George Wheeler was not exactly what you would call prepared. April 22nd, 1976. George Wheeler was yet again on patrol around 11 p.m. when he spotted an orange glow at the top of Tuttle Hill. Believing that it was a fire, Officer Wheeler drove out to Tuttle Hill to investigate. Instead, he saw what he described as a silver object hovering between a limestone quarry and a nearby farmhouse, about 500 feet away and 100 feet off the ground. The silver object had six bluish-white lights and portholes on the side, and he could see shadows through the portholes as though someone was moving inside of the craft. Also on the object was what he described as a panel, which had a revolving turbine-like apparatus.

Starting point is 00:06:49 He described legs coming from the bottom of the object, as well as a hose-like thing, which descended into some nearby trees. He claimed that the top of the craft glowed orange-white and was so brilliant that he could look at it. He said that it looked like he was staring at the sun when he tried to look at it. He radioed the sheriff's department and said, my God, it's one of those UFOs again. He began describing what he was seeing. He felt as though this part of the sighting lasted for about 45 seconds when the object began to ascend quickly into the sky at like a very high rate of speed, emitting a whooshing noise and a blue flash. At this point, his car, the lights,

Starting point is 00:07:28 radio, everything went dead, and Wheeler remembered nothing else until someone was asking him if he needed help. That someone was David Moots, a dairy farmer who had just dropped off the babysitter at her home a few minutes before. He noticed the dark squad car sitting at the top of the hill blocking the lane with Officer Wheeler struggling to get out of the vehicle. Mutz thought it looked like something was wrong with him, like he was dazed or something, and asked what had happened. Wheeler responded that he'd been hit. Mutz asked by a car, and Wheeler responded, no, one of those UFOs. Police Chief Gene Helmer said that he had been at home monitoring the police scanner when he heard Wheeler's report. He listened as Wheeler described the

Starting point is 00:08:08 site when suddenly the radio went totally dead. Both Helmer and the sheriff's department tried to radio Wheeler back, but he didn't respond. Right as Helmer decided to go and find the officer, Wheeler came back over the radio and stated simply, get somebody up here, I've been hit. Now, Tuttle Hill was only about a quarter mile away from Helmer's house, so he arrived at the scene quickly and found Officer Wheeler more frightened than he had ever seen a person. He said that he had known Wheeler for years and had seen him in all sorts of trying situations, and this was the most upset that he had ever seen him. Mutz was trying to calm Wheeler down.

Starting point is 00:08:44 A short time later, Mrs. Wheeler showed up. She had been listening to the police scanner as well, and Officer Wheeler was taken home. Chief Helmer questioned him, taking down all the details of the experience, and the family doctor, Frank Springer, was called. He administered a sedative to Wheeler. However, it was around 1 a.m. when Mrs. Wheeler called him back to say that George was still extremely upset. George Wheeler was then taken to the hospital where he stayed for three days, was released,

Starting point is 00:09:09 and then went back for a stay of 11 days because of a recent and sudden onset of continual severe headaches and nightmares. Now, we'll return to that in a bit. In addition to this, sometime after the experience, Wheeler claimed to have no recollection of the details of the event. This report, and all reports of the occurrence, relies on his initial statements to Chief Helmer as well as his sketch of the sighting.

Starting point is 00:09:33 Additionally, although the squad car had been recently checked and tuned up before the sighting, after this incident, all of the points and plugs had to be replaced, and the starter began to act up. There were other reports in the area at the time. The nearby farmhouse, adjacent to the quarry where the UFO was spotted, was owned by one Mr. O'Brien,

Starting point is 00:09:52 who told investigators that, he hadn't seen anything. He was watching TV, actually Perry Mason, because that came on at 11. But the funny thing was, his TV had quit a few minutes after the show started, right about the time that the light would have struck Wheeler's vehicle. At another nearby farm, a nine-year-old boy said that he and his sister had recently come back from town around 11 o'clock, and the dogs were behaving strangely. Instead of greeting the pair like they normally would, they didn't respond to the children at all, instead just barking into the night. A woman, Mrs. Wurgland, said that she got up to take some medicine when she heard her

Starting point is 00:10:27 cook o'clock strike 11, was when she took her pills, and saw through the kitchen window a bright orange, moon-shaped object over Tuttle Hill. She said that she watched it for a few minutes and then went to bed, where she didn't even bother to wake up her husband, because on the many previous times that she had seen strange objects in the sky, he told her just to go back to bed without even checking. Mr. Fredrickson of Elmwood also saw the object. The police chief's wife called him asking for him to go to the window and see if there was something out there. And he described the site as like an orange half moon or the moon cut in half hovering over Taddle Hill.

Starting point is 00:11:03 Now regarding this second experience, George Wheeler was quoted as saying, I don't know what I saw, but all I know is that I don't want that experience repeated ever again. A far cry from the cheery hope for a second sighting. But the truth is, all of the night vision cameras in the world couldn't protect Wheeler from his newfound belief. after this second incident, he believed that UFOs were piloted by beings out to kill us. This is a humdinger of a case, and the reason that Elmwood is considered one of three UFO capitals of the world, all of which are, of course, located right here in Wisconsin, America's Scaryland.

Starting point is 00:11:40 And although it lacks some of my favorite aspects of high strangeness encounters, namely occupants or entities, whatever you want to call them, it certainly makes up for it in just the general eeriness of the sighting and the fact that. of a life altered. Now again, I know I just mentioned this, but it is really sad to me that you have this account of George Wheeler in October of 75, dying for another chance to see one, you know, a UFO with his field glasses and two cameras perched in his squad car to what happened after he did get that second chance. After the closer encounter and the subsequent knockout, Wheeler swore that he never wanted to see anything like that again and garnered a belief in the harm intended

Starting point is 00:12:18 by whatever forces behind the UFO phenomenon. Now, I will say that Wheeler falls into the category of a repeater witness, a pattern noted by many prominent researchers of the paranormal, including Jayonne, Heinek, and John Keel. Now, one of the most intriguing aspects of this case to me is the evolution of the object. You have this thing spotted in pretty much the same place by the same person a year apart. In the first case, it's a rather generic object, you know, orange cigar-shaped craft emitting blue light.

Starting point is 00:12:48 Not much detail. Soundless. In the second sighting, a year later, it has all these details, the hose, the turbine-like thing, the port holes. Now, to me, this plays on a few ideas. I am a major subscriber to the concept that the actual image of the anomaly may be false. That may be the most subjective part of any experience, closed by the viewer's beliefs, backgrounds, etc. Now, it's very intriguing to me that Wheeler, again, a former combat pilot from World War II, upon spotting this anomaly a second time, notices all of these analog details, the turbine, the hose, the landing gear, the silver machine-like appearance, it becomes a much more, you know, we would consider some sort of flying machine.

Starting point is 00:13:31 And he also notices the beings moving inside the craft. Now, it's at this time that he decides that the things inside the craft, the things piling it. You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost. Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your oceanfront room. Just steps from the water.

Starting point is 00:13:56 The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton for the stay. Are harmful. They're out to get him. Now, if we kind of go a step further, is this because of his back? ground, where he would have contended with people in airborne objects that did intend to harm him. You know, effectively, if anomalies clothe themselves in our anticipations, our own personal

Starting point is 00:14:29 mythologies, is this what George Wheeler saw in his second sighting? Kind of following on this concept that perhaps these objects are somehow influenced by the, you know, thoughts or memories or personal mythologies or beliefs or whatever of a core observer, we have this notion that other people who had far less close encounters who observed this object at the same time saw it with much less detail. For the other witnesses, it was simply an orange half moon or ball of light or cigar-shaped object. In my opinion, this kind of goes back to Paul Devereaux's theory of proto-entities, that the anomaly is some malleable energy form that maybe reflects our anticipations back to us. And these less close encounters, you know, maybe they were witnessing just a more basic form that was, somehow outside of the sphere of their influence.

Starting point is 00:15:18 Now, also kind of tangential to this topic, Keel was a proponent of the idea that the image of the anomaly, the so-called hard sightings of craft or monsters or whatever, may actually be less important than the so-called softer sightings of light anomalies. On a side point, too, regarding Keel's work, this second encounter actually took place over one of his preferred UFO haunting grounds, a quarry, so that's kind of interesting. Anyway, perhaps in melding these ideas, the image of the anomaly truly does tell us more about ourselves than it.

Starting point is 00:15:50 Now, one thing that really sets this case apart, for me at least, is that it is rife with long-term effects. From the first sighting, Wheeler was a changed man. When the Eau Claire Leader telegram checked up with him in October of 1975, not only had his mind changed on UFOs, prior to this sighting, he just had zero interest. But Wheeler claimed that he had been ill from that fateful night on. even through regular doctor visits, no one could determine what was wrong with him, although Wheeler himself had his own fearful superstition. He thought that the UFO may have been radioactive. Follow this with the later occurrence where he then had an onset of headaches and nightmares,

Starting point is 00:16:30 which he had never before experienced, and you have this trace evidence of this absolutely wild encounter in the form of a person who has developed pretty serious physiological symptoms that don't go away. This isn't the only evidence beyond Wheeler's eyewitness account or even the other eyewitness accounts. You have the TV going out

Starting point is 00:16:49 at the same time the car does. Again, there are so many of these cases where it seems to be evidence of some sort of widespread EM effect. In this case, of course, too, you have the car shutting down, which we've seen time and time again, the Marlinton encounter

Starting point is 00:17:02 where it was a Bigfoot-like creature. The recent video I did on the Bent's Basin citing of a UFO and some strange humanoid time and time again, it seems like there is this effect on electrical appliances. Wheeler described this object, too, as moving at insanely high speeds, making 90-degree turns without slowing and vanishing in a second. Now, these things are impossible for objects we understand them to do in physical reality

Starting point is 00:17:29 as we understand it, especially soundlessly or without disturbing the space around them. Something like this should generate some sort of change in the environment. yet it's reported time and time again. And here, too, you know, you could argue, hey, maybe he was just a nut job. But then you have to contend with an account for the dozen or so other nut jobs that reported the same thing at the same time. And, you know, truly, this is the paradox with anomalies. So much evidence points to a subjective experience, almost like some sort of dream experience

Starting point is 00:18:01 that is somehow often confirmed to happen in objective reality by other witnesses or trace evidence. So, you know, if we can't reason away the anomaly, we have to kind of reason around it. And truthfully, it's very exciting because the ramifications of these things consistently defying natural laws, it seems like they exist almost at some intersecting point between subjective and objective between energy and matter. I mean, it could really revolutionize our thinking about the world and how it works. As with many other experiencers, too, Wheeler did not jump to conclusions. The first time he saw the object, he genuinely thought it was a plane on fire and jumped into a nearby ditch. The second time he saw it in the same location as the previous

Starting point is 00:18:43 citing, mind you, he didn't even jump to It's a UFO then. He thought it was a fire. Bear in mind, too, this is someone who fought in World War II, served on the New York Highway Patrol for 10 years, and then an additional 20 years as an officer in Elmwood. For a time, he was actually Elmwood's only police officer. I mean, sure, it was a town of around 780 people, but still. And this guy was so frightened by what he had experienced that he had to be calmed by a passerby, given sedatives, and then had lasting nightmares. Whatever he spotted was truly the catalyst for a changed life. And that, to me, is the crux of the importance of any sort of anomaly, is that you have these people experiencing things that they can't explain and having to live with that for the rest of their lives. Well, if you enjoyed this episode on the infamous Elmwood UFO, please like, and if you're new to this field of cop circles, go ahead and subscribe to see what weirdness the future may have in store.

Starting point is 00:19:38 Till then, you can keep up with me on my free blog at patreon.com slash just another tinfoil hat. And for today, I am Zelia Edgar, signing off. Do we? Enjoy more ways to save at Ralph's, like low prices in every aisle. And when you download the Ralph's app, you can clip and save more with digital coupons every week. Plus, you can earn fuel points to save up to $1 per gallon at the pump. At Ralph's, you can enjoy more ways to save and more rewards every time you shop. So it's always easy to save big every day with savings and rewards.

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Somewhere in the Skies - The Elmwood UFO Incident: A Police Officer’s Terrifying Close Encounter

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