On August 13, 1970, Danish senior police officer Evald Maarup was driving back to his HOME in Knud, using the patrol vehicle at about 10:30 P.M., on a country road connecting Kabdrup and Flestrup, not far from the border enters Denmark and Germany, when something out of the ordinary happened to him.
At bout ten kilometers in the North of the town of Haderslev, the car became bathed in a very powerful bluish light, and the car engine stopped suddenly. The officer tried to communicate with his police station by means of the car's radio, but it did not function at all. It was if if all the electricity had disappeared of the patrol car.
Officer Maarup then realized that the temperature inside the vehicle had increased, and that it continued to increase quickly. In his report, he stated that he had the feeling that one would have during a hot summer sun when it hits a car's windshield.
A short moment later, it was obvious to him that the bluish light seemed to be withdrawing. Maarup realized that the light actually surrounded a flying machine of elliptical shape, metallic appearance, and of a diameter of approximately 10 meters, which was now rising in the sky.
Maarup noticed that actually, the rise of the craft was not the only cause of the withdrawal of the light which surrounded it. He realized that the extent of the light around the craft decreased as if the craft was swallowing the light into its body, from a defined point located at the center of the bottom side of the craft, in which the light was engulfed as if it had been sucked into there. This part of the craft appeared clearly delimited to him, by a dark part of a diameter he estimated at one meter. He also saw some protrusion on the underside of the objects (see drawing on the right).
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At this time, he remembered that he had a Fujaxa camera at disposal, as he is the rule, in the police car. He used it, and managed to take three snapshots of the object. Those, developed the following day, did not show much more than a gleam of light, without revealing any details (see on the right).
After the series of events which Maarup estimated the duration of about five minutes, the craft then flew away at high speed in the sky. During all the events, the craft was totally noiseless.
As soon as the object flew away, the car's engine started again spontaneously, the power went back, so that the lights went back, and the radio functioned again.
Maarup then went out of the patrol car, to look for clues or evidence of the event in the surroundings. He found none, but when he touched the car, he noticed that it had become heated.
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Very remarkably, Maarup had a second sighting almost three years to the day after this first encounter. On July 14, 1973, in the same area and at roughly the same time, he saw a similar shaped UFO above the countryside as it passed over the landscape. Once again he was able to take pictures of the object but once again, all the six pictures were disappointing, showing only an indistinct spot of light (see on the right). He also saw several dome like protrusions on the underside of the object.
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Maarup did not want the first observation to be known by the press. He told his colleagues not to say a word. But the day after the observation, the journalist Bent Zachariassen of the newspaper Jydske Tidende went to the police station for his routine visit, hoping to get some information for the newspaper. When the journalist was about to leave, Maarup's brother couldn't resist to call him back, shouting "Sure, there is some news, as a matter of fact Maarup saw a flying saucer!"
This is how the sighting became publicly know. It made the news in Jydske Tidende, then in Tv-Aktuelt, other magazines, Denmark radio and TV news, German TV. Maarup found that funny at the beginning, but he found out that he was often ridiculed, so he gave the pictures. The story became worldwide, even an newspaper of Ghana told the story. And although Maarup has been very careful not to use the words UFO or flying saucers at any time, headlines did headline on UFO and flying saucer.
Hassled by the press, mocked in the media, he said that he understood how only the fact that he was a police officer made the story interesting, that he would not have considered that anyone could believe the story at all if he didn't wear a uniform, and that he regretted to have spoken about it at all.
Maarup, following his official report at the police station, was sent to a psychiatrist, who did not find any reason to consider him mentally disturbed. When several newspapers of Denmark and other countries published articles presenting him as a crackpot and a liar, all his colleagues Maarup protested, explaining that they know Maarup well and that it is a shame to calumniate him, and that they are all sure that what he told is the truth.
The official investigation of his first encounter was lead by major Helden of the tactical command of the Danish Air Forces. The silliest explanation ever was then issued: the conclusion was that Maarup had witnessed the landing of a T-33 jet fighter/trainer.
Maarup's report came to the attention of Erling Jensen, who lead the Danish ufology association S.U.F.O.I, and the case became further known through his mail exchanges with people from the French GEPA, a civilian ufology group - but whose members were often from the military - a sort of French equivalent of the American NICAP in these years.
There were no "hard evidence" for the claims of officer Maarup. The photographs are only photographs, the car naturally cooled down to normal temperature, and he did not suffer any particular after-effect. There were no other witnesses.
After the official explanation for his 1970 sighting was published, Maarup was further ridiculed in the Press. When his second sighting occurred, having had his lesson on the consequences of exposing oneself as UFO witness, so he chose not to make any formal report. He told ufologists, however: "I cannot doubt what I saw. But why at exactly the same time? Why not any other day of the year? Why was it exactly the same craft?"
I do not doubt even for a second that many skeptics will scoff, dropping the usual line "a guy who mistook the moon for a flying saucer" or "there is no proof that he did not make it all up" or "there was an air force base within less than 50 kilometers."
I also do not doubt even for a second that complicated minds will interpret the report aa "proof" of the existence of whatever stuff they enjoy such as "flying saucer built in secrecy by scientists of Nazi Germany now secretly working for the US military" or whatever "paranormal effect, like clairvoyance and telepathy."
But I doubt that any such explanations are valid.
