This case took place in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, in 1978.
On January 27 of that year, around 17:45 GMT, four young men aged between 17 and 19 decided to go hunting for pheasants along the River Weaver. Hunting pheasants on private land in Britain is considered poaching, which led to these four young men not wanting to reveal their unusual experience afterward.
Map of the area involved 
The Weaver River is one of the main waterways in the area, flowing into the Mersey Estuary about a mile to the east at Frodsham. The hunting area of the four young men was just before the estuary, in a place known as “Devil’s Garden.” The name of this place seems to hint at some strange occurrences there in the past.
At the time, the four were hiding in a small grove, patiently waiting for their prey to appear. Suddenly, one of them noticed a strange object flying towards them from the southeast, the direction of Bartington and Weaverham, along the river. Their first reaction was that it was an out-of-control satellite. This was shortly after news reports of a Soviet satellite crashing in Canada.
This object flew horizontally over the water, seemingly under control, at a height of about 5 to 6 meters above the water. The four watched silently as the object approached and then landed in the nearby bushes. It made a faint humming noise mixed with another sound, like the wind blowing. Overall, it was a bizarre and eerie sight.
Soviet Kosmos 954 crashed in Canada
The object was spherical and silver, with something like a skirt or edge at the bottom. Although it was hard to estimate in the dark, its diameter appeared to be about 4.5 meters. There were flashing lights on one side of the sphere and what looked like windows, emitting a strange light. This was a type of ultraviolet light (although the people didn’t call it that, their description made it clear), and staring at it for a long time was painful. The light made the interior look blurry, making it impossible to see any details inside.
Needless to say, the four young men had completely forgotten about the pheasants. They were fascinated by the strange object before them. They still believed it was a satellite, but the strange, blurry lights made them somewhat afraid. Just as they were about to run, a figure emerged from the side of the “satellite.” Of course, due to the darkness, it was almost impossible to see any details, but the figure looked quite normal, wearing a silver jumpsuit. The only notable thing was a lamp, similar to a miner’s lamp, on top of the helmet, which illuminated the surroundings with a purple light, making it difficult for the witnesses to look directly at it.
The figure seemed to be scanning the area, and almost at the same time, he noticed several cows in a nearby field. Whether the cows were simply scared or paralyzed, they stood motionless. The figure returned to the spherical object, whose bottom no longer emitted flames (these flames looked like the exhaust from when the object landed). He was gone for just a few seconds before returning with a companion and a piece of equipment. This equipment looked like a large cage made of silver metal.
According to the young men’s description, they guessed it must be made of aluminum or something similarly light, as the two carried it effortlessly. They approached a cow with the cage. The cow still did not move. They placed the cage around the cow and started adjusting the cage’s pillars and bars, seemingly adjusting its size and shape, then prepared to load the cow into the cage.
At this point, the four young men, who had been watching, had had enough. They deduced that after treating the cow this way, they might be the next target! They turned and ran without looking back, all the way to a bridge that took them over the river, about a mile from the town center.
They had run far enough to see nothing anymore. But one of them (who was articulate and had several high school science certificates) felt someone pulling at him as he ran away. He was most embarrassed when describing this, saying the invisible pull was on his testicles. However, he managed to break free, though it felt like being hit by something hard. In the days following, his legs were red and painful, like a mild sunburn. Of course, sunburn in January in England is impossible.
Are the stories of these four young men true? First, they were unwilling to reveal their real names in later investigations due to their poaching activities. Therefore, fabricating such a lie would have no value for them. Second, the unique experience of the one being pulled was quite embarrassing, and there was no benefit in sharing it.
Moreover, perhaps due to the above reasons, this experience was not immediately exposed. The first news article appeared in October in the Toronto Sun, yes, a Canadian newspaper. Later, a short article appeared in the Runcorn Weekly News, describing the story from Frodsham.
Fortunately, UFO investigators Jenny Randles and Paul Whittaker, upon seeing these reports, successfully located the four young men involved in the local area. Although they were reluctant to reveal their names, they shared the entire incident.
In fact, January 1978 was a month of unusual UFO activity in Britain. On January 2, someone in Rainford, Merseyside, across the Mersey Estuary, saw a strange person in a silver suit. On January 18, in Anlaby, Humberside, some children said a small UFO landed on their school roof in broad daylight, and three astronauts “came out wearing silver jumpsuits connected to the UFO by tubes.” They were terrified in the minutes before the UFO sped away. And on January 26, there was a report of a small spherical UFO in Felmersham, Bedfordshire.
Who was the person in the silver suit? What happened to the cow caught in the “cage”? We do not know.
