The Walking Tin Cans
- Classification (Hynek): CE3.
- Witness: Jerry (James) Townsend (19).
- Time & Place: 7:40pm, Oct 23 1965; Long Prairie, Minnesota.
- Entity Type (Lawson): Robot.
- Craft: 35-ft-high rocket-shaped craft.
- Summary: A motorist encounters tiny robots.
The Comic Book Rocket
While UFOs come in many shapes and sizes, it is unusual to find one that looks exactly like an antiquated rocket. But the strange appearance of the craft encountered by Jerry Townsend was nothing compared to the oddity of the entities that emerged from it.
On the evening of 23 October 1965, Townsend - a trainee radio announcer - was driving home to Long Prairie, Minnesota. Rounding a corner, he saw a V-2-shaped rocket sitting in the middle of the road ahead. The car's electrical systems failed and the vehicle coasted to a halt.
Little Tin Men
The rocket was 35 feet high and metallic in appearance. It rested on three tail fins. When Townsend left his car to take a closer look at it, three tiny objects emerged from the underside. They were the size and shape of tin cans, and each had three fin-shaped legs.
The objects tottered towards Townsend then stopped. "They didn’t have eyes that I could see, but I knew they were looking at me," he remembered. "There was no sound—just dead silence. It seemed like ages as we looked at each other"
Finally, the objects tottered back beneath the rocket and disappeared. The craft shot straight up with a loud roar, leaving a trail of "colourless light" in its wake. Once the rocket had disappeared, Townsend's car immediately started up again.
Townsend reported the bizarre incident to the local police, who discovered traces of a strange oily substance at the landing site. Two hunters in the area reported seeing a bright object heading skywards at the time of the encounter.
Sources
Peter Brookesmith: UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue, p85.
Jerome Clark: Extraordinary Encounters, p245,
Alan Baker: Encyclopedia of Alien Encounters, pp237-238.
NUFORC Website.