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volume, St. Louis, Missouri. Some

1:06

scars tell stories of accidents.

1:09

Others speak of battles fought and

1:11

won. But what happens

1:13

when the marks on your flesh

1:15

become proof of something beyond human understanding?

1:18

For one man in the Canadian

1:20

wilderness, a chance encounter left him

1:23

with mysterious scars that time can't

1:25

erase. Because sometimes, the

1:27

most terrifying thing isn't that

1:29

the unknown is out there. It's

1:32

the evidence it leaves behind. Welcome

1:36

to Sightings, the series that takes you

1:38

inside the world's most mysterious supernatural events.

1:40

Each week we bring you a thrilling

1:42

story that puts you at the center

1:44

of the action, followed by a discussion

1:46

that dives into the accounts that inspired

1:48

the story and our takes on them. I'm

1:51

MacLeod. And I am Brian,

1:53

and today we're diving into

1:55

Canada's best documented UFO encounter, the

1:58

incident at Falcon Lake. When

2:01

one man encounters an otherworldly craft

2:03

in the wilderness, He doesn't

2:05

simply end up with one incredible story.

2:08

He bares the scars to prove it.

2:11

Find out how on this episode

2:13

of Sightings. My

2:41

name is Stefan Michalek, and I never

2:43

meant to become part of Canadian

2:45

history. All I wanted that

2:48

day in 1967 was to find some silver.

2:51

Instead, I found something

2:53

that nearly killed me and left

2:55

me with brutal scars, both

2:57

psychological and physical. I

3:00

know a good bit about survival. I

3:02

was born in Poland where I spent the

3:04

first half of my life watching my

3:06

homeland crumble under the Nazi war machine. When

3:09

they invaded, I worked as an

3:11

intelligence officer, gathering what information I could

3:13

about their movements, their plans. But

3:16

they caught me, and my year and

3:18

a half in a gross -rose and concentration

3:20

camp taught me just how cruel humans can

3:22

be to one another. I

3:24

watched friends die, saw things

3:26

no person should ever have to see. But

3:29

I survived. When

3:31

the war finally ended, I joined the

3:33

American forces occupying Germany. I worked

3:35

as a translator while they dismantled the

3:38

camps, helping document the horrors we

3:40

found there. The work was grim, but

3:42

necessary. And when I

3:44

finally got the chance to move my family to

3:46

Canada in 1949, I took it

3:48

without a second thought. It was

3:50

a fresh start, far from the

3:52

horrors I'd witnessed. Or,

3:55

that was the idea, anyway. By

3:59

1967, I'd built what most would

4:01

call a good life in Winnipeg. I

4:03

had a home. A loving wife, three

4:06

wonderful kids who'd never known the fear

4:08

of air raid sirens or the gnawing

4:10

pain of hunger. I worked

4:12

as an industrial mechanic at a cement

4:14

company, honest work that let me use my

4:16

hands and my mind. But

4:18

my real hobby, passion even,

4:21

was prospecting. There's

4:24

something about rocks and minerals that's

4:26

always fascinated me. Maybe it's their

4:28

permanence in the world where everything

4:30

else seems so fragile. Or

4:32

maybe it was just being outside in the

4:34

freedom of the vast forests and mountains. That

4:38

may I decided to spend Victoria

4:40

Day weekend prospecting near Falcon Lake. The

4:43

area was part of the Canadian

4:45

Shield, this massive plateau of ancient rock

4:47

that I'd heard good things about.

4:49

Local prospectors had been pulling interesting samples

4:51

from the area, mostly silver with

4:53

occasional traces of gold. So

4:55

on May 19th, I caught a greyhound

4:57

bus out there, watching the city fade

5:00

into wilderness through the window. I

5:02

checked into a small motel, spread my

5:04

maps across the bed, and

5:06

planned my route for the next day before turning in

5:08

early. The morning

5:10

of May 20th was clear and cool, perfect

5:12

weather for hiking. I

5:15

packed light, my prospecting tools,

5:17

a lunch, some water, and a

5:19

small notebook for sketching any

5:21

interesting geological formations I might find.

5:24

I was in high spirits as I

5:26

set out, feeling that familiar sense of

5:28

anticipation. Maybe today would be

5:30

the day I'd find something

5:32

extraordinary. And

5:34

you know what? I

5:37

had no idea how right I was. By

5:41

9 a .m. I'd found my way to

5:43

a promising clearing overlooking the lake. A

5:45

huge quartz vein ran down the

5:47

hillside, exactly the kind of formation that

5:49

often held silver deposits. So

5:51

I got out my pickaxe and goggles

5:53

and set to work, carefully examining and

5:56

sampling the crystalline rock. The

5:58

familiar rhythm of the work soothed me. Check

6:00

the rock face, swing the pick,

6:02

examine the fresh surface, and if

6:05

I was lucky, find something valuable.

6:07

The next few hours passed in peaceful

6:09

concentration as I worked my way along

6:11

the vein. Birds called

6:14

from the surrounding trees, chickadees

6:16

and warblers mostly, with the occasional

6:18

cry of a hawk riding the thermals

6:20

high above. I was so

6:22

focused on my work that I

6:24

almost missed the first sign that

6:26

something was wrong. The

6:28

sound of geese taking flight behind

6:30

me, honking frantically. And

6:33

that sound, it was alarm

6:35

and distress, pure and simple. So

6:38

I dropped my pickaxe, lifted my safety

6:40

goggles, and looked towards the

6:42

lake. And what I

6:44

saw there changed the rest of my life

6:46

forever. Two

6:49

shiny objects hovered over the water.

6:52

Two flying saucers. I know how that

6:54

sounds, but there's no other way to describe

6:56

them. Each one about 30

6:58

to 40 feet wide oval shaped with a

7:00

raised bump in the center like someone

7:02

had placed a dome on top of a

7:04

plate. As I watched,

7:06

they started changing colors. Bright

7:09

red to orange to gray pulsing almost

7:11

as if they were communicating through

7:13

their colors. I was so

7:15

mesmerized that it took me a moment to

7:17

realize they weren't just hovering in place. They

7:20

were descending, coming straight

7:22

down toward me. I

7:24

stood frozen, pickaxe forgotten in my

7:27

hand as one of the

7:29

objects paused directly overhead. It

7:31

hung there for what felt like minutes

7:33

but was probably only seconds, close enough

7:35

that I could see that its surface

7:37

was entirely smooth, impossibly

7:39

smooth. Then

7:42

without warning it shot straight up and

7:44

vanished into the sky, moving faster

7:46

than any aircraft I'd ever seen. But

7:49

the other one stayed, then landed

7:51

on a flat rock about 150 feet

7:53

away from where I stood. It

7:55

kept changing colors until it settled

7:57

on a bright silver with this eerie

7:59

purple light shining from the top. And

8:01

in the silence of that clearing, I

8:03

could hear a faint humming, like

8:06

an electrical transformer coming from the

8:08

craft. Then there was

8:10

the smell, sulfurous, like

8:12

rotten eggs mixed with

8:14

burning metal. The odor

8:16

made my eyes water even from that

8:18

distance. But even with

8:20

the otherworldly sight before me, my first

8:22

thought wasn't aliens. Working around

8:24

machinery all my life, plus having a son

8:27

in the Royal Canadian Air Force Youth Program,

8:29

I figured this had to be some kind

8:31

of experimental aircraft. American, probably,

8:33

given how advanced it looked. So

8:36

I did what any curious mechanic

8:38

would do. I started inching closer,

8:40

trying to spot any familiar markings

8:42

or insignia. But there was

8:44

nothing there, no writing or flags or

8:46

anything. I did see,

8:48

though, that the craftsmanship was

8:50

incredible, with the entire hull

8:52

seeming to have been machined from

8:55

a single piece of steel, completely

8:57

seamless. Honestly, it

8:59

reminded me of Mercury, the way

9:01

it seemed to flow and shift in the sunlight. Then

9:03

suddenly a section of the

9:06

craft's side seemed to dissolve away,

9:08

creating an opening that flooded

9:10

eerie purple light onto the rock

9:12

below. And I stood

9:14

there frozen until I started hearing

9:16

voices. They sounded human, at

9:18

least I think they did, but over the

9:20

engine noise I couldn't make out what they

9:22

were saying. Just that there were two of

9:24

them seemingly having a conversation. Their

9:27

tone didn't sound alarmed or hurried.

9:30

They sounded... professional.

9:33

Methodical, like technicians going through a

9:35

checklist. So I called out,

9:37

asking if they needed help. When

9:39

no answer came, I tried again in Russian, then

9:42

German, Italian, French, Polish, every

9:44

language I knew. But

9:46

no reply came. Looking

9:48

back, I know I should have run. Should

9:51

have gotten as far from that thing as

9:53

possible. But I'd survived

9:55

a Nazi concentration camp. What was

9:57

one strange aircraft? So

10:00

I put my goggles back on, walked right

10:02

up to the ship, and

10:04

stuck my head into that purple opening.

10:07

There were no pilots inside, no

10:10

people at all, and

10:12

the interior was unlike anything I'd ever seen.

10:14

Beams of light crisscrossed in

10:16

different directions, others blinked

10:18

on and off in strange patterns.

10:21

It wasn't chaotic, there was a

10:23

mathematical precision to it, a purpose

10:26

I couldn't fathom. Banks of what

10:28

might have been instruments lined the walls,

10:30

but they bore no resemblance to any

10:32

control panel I'd ever seen in an airplane.

10:35

There were no gauges, no

10:37

dials, just these pulsing, blinking

10:39

lights arranged in intricate patterns. And

10:42

it was all so intense, so

10:44

bright, even through my goggles, that

10:46

I had to jerk my head back

10:48

outside. The moment I

10:50

did, panels slid out of nowhere,

10:52

sealing the opening as if it never

10:55

existed. Now the craft appeared completely

10:57

seamless again. But I noticed something

10:59

I hadn't seen before. A section

11:01

of metal covered in a checkered

11:03

grid of circular holes, almost

11:05

like some kind of... exhaust port.

11:08

The pattern was too precise to

11:10

be random, arranged in perfect rows

11:12

and columns. Possessed

11:14

by an engineer's curiosity, I

11:17

reached out to touch the hull near

11:19

that strange pattern. The metal was

11:21

blazing hot. I could feel it even

11:23

through my heavy work glove. Before

11:25

I could snatch my hand

11:27

away, the entire craft rotated counterclockwise,

11:30

tilting up toward the sky. The

11:32

movement was completely silent, defying everything

11:34

I knew about mechanics. Then

11:37

came the pain. White

11:39

hot agony as some kind of

11:41

energy burst from those holes, hitting

11:44

me square in the chest and

11:46

stomach. The heat

11:48

was... intense, my

11:50

shirt caught fire immediately.

11:53

I tore it off and dropped to the ground, but

11:55

it was too late. I could

11:57

already feel severe burns forming across

11:59

my abdomen. Perfect circular shapes

12:01

that matched the pattern of that

12:03

exhaust port. And the

12:05

pain. It wasn't like

12:07

a normal burn. This felt like

12:10

it was cooking me from the inside

12:12

out. As I desperately

12:14

tried to put out the flames, the craft

12:16

lifted up and zoomed away into the

12:18

sky. And the last thing I

12:20

remember was that thing disappearing from view. And

12:23

then the pain overwhelmed me. And

12:25

they passed out right there on

12:28

that quartz -covered hillside. At

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14:11

I came to, I was alone on that court

14:14

slab. I don't know how long

14:16

I'd been unconscious, maybe minutes, maybe hours. I

14:19

felt horrible. My head

14:21

pounding like the worst hangover

14:23

imaginable, sweat pouring off me despite

14:25

the cool air, my stomach

14:27

in excruciating pain. Looking

14:29

down, I saw a series of perfectly round

14:31

burn marks on my stomach, matching the

14:33

shape of that exhaust port. The

14:35

skin was angry red and blistered.

14:37

The burns arranged in a geometric

14:40

grid. Before I could even

14:42

examine them properly, a wave of nausea

14:44

hit me and I turned to vomit. The

14:47

violence of that physical reaction brought

14:49

a terrifying thought to my mind. If

14:51

this was some sort of nuclear -powered

14:53

military vehicle, whatever came out of that

14:55

ship might have been radioactive. The

14:57

burns, the vomiting, the headache. These

15:00

were all symptoms of radiation poisoning,

15:02

weren't they? And considering the pain

15:04

I was in, I needed medical help badly. But

15:07

I was alone in the wilderness, miles from

15:09

the nearest town with no one to help. So

15:12

I had to find my own way out, get

15:14

to a hospital somehow. I

15:16

reached for my compass to orient myself,

15:18

but when I looked at it, the

15:21

needle just spun wildly, refusing to point

15:23

north. Even tapping the

15:25

case didn't help. It was like the

15:27

magnetic field around me had been

15:29

completely disrupted. So I picked

15:31

a direction and started walking using the

15:33

sun as a guide. The journey

15:35

was miserable. Every few minutes I had

15:37

to stop to vomit. My head dropped

15:39

with each step and there was trail

15:42

by that horrible smell. The

15:44

whole time I kept looking over my shoulder

15:46

worrying the ship might come back. But

15:48

I knew I had to make it home to my family. I'd

15:51

survived a concentration camp. I

15:53

could survive this too. After

15:56

what felt like hours of stumbling through

15:58

the woods, I finally found a highway, and

16:00

recognized enough landmarks to know I was about

16:03

a mile from where I'd entered the forest

16:05

that morning. And as

16:07

I trudged back towards town, I

16:09

spotted salvation in the distance, a

16:11

mounted police officer coming my way. I

16:14

flagged him down and tried to explain what had

16:16

happened, that a mysterious aircraft had

16:18

appeared in the woods and somehow burned

16:20

me. But even though I was clearly

16:22

injured, shirtless, and obviously in need of

16:24

medical attention, the Mountie didn't seem

16:26

to hear a word I was saying. Even

16:28

when I specifically asked for directions to

16:30

the nearest doctor, he refused to help. It

16:33

was as if he'd been ordered not

16:35

to acknowledge anything unusual, or maybe the story

16:37

was so outlandish he assumed I was

16:39

delirious. So I kept walking.

16:42

And when I finally reached my motel, I

16:44

learned that the only doctor in the

16:46

area was 45 miles away, with no

16:49

easy transportation available. But

16:51

my pain was getting worse, not better, and

16:53

I needed to get home. So I

16:55

called my son Mark and told him to meet

16:57

me at the bus depot in Winnipeg. Then

17:00

I endured the most hellish two -hour

17:02

bus ride of my life. Every

17:05

bump sent fresh waves of pain

17:07

through my burned torso. And

17:10

the nausea kept bubbling up even

17:12

when we were driving straight. By

17:14

the time I arrived in Winnipeg, I was

17:16

barely conscious. But I'll never forget

17:18

the look on Mark's face when he

17:20

first saw me. Or maybe he just smelled

17:22

me. Either way, he fought watering eyes

17:25

and rushed me straight to the hospital. After

17:27

my experience with the Mountie, I was

17:29

worried the hospital staff wouldn't believe my story

17:31

either. So I told them I'd

17:34

been hit by airplane exhaust. The

17:36

doctors examined my injuries but seemed

17:38

confused. They said the burns

17:40

looked more chemical than thermal, with none

17:42

of the typical blistering or charring you'd

17:44

expect from normal heat injuries. So

17:47

seemingly unsure of what else to do,

17:49

they gave me some ointment and a

17:51

sedative and sent me home to rest. I

17:54

slept most of the next day,

17:57

plagued by strange dreams of purple light

17:59

and liquid metal. When I

18:01

finally woke up, I knew I had to tell

18:03

my family the truth. So I gathered

18:05

them around and carefully explained that

18:07

I believed I'd encountered some kind

18:09

of UFO and that it had

18:11

somehow burned or irradiated me.

18:14

To their credit, they believed me. It was

18:16

hard not to, seeing how much pain I

18:18

was in. I couldn't keep food

18:20

down, and that awful smell still clung

18:22

to me after multiple showers. My

18:25

son tossed out the idea that I might

18:27

have had radiation poisoning, and I immediately worried

18:29

that if I did, that I'd

18:31

exposed my entire family to the radiation as

18:33

well. So the next morning,

18:35

they took me to the Canadian National

18:37

Atomic Research Centre. I was poked

18:40

and prodded for hours while they

18:42

took readings from various instruments and scanned

18:44

different parts of my body. The

18:46

good news was that I wasn't

18:49

radioactive in any conventional sense. The

18:52

bad news was that they had

18:54

no explanation for what was wrong with

18:56

me. The doctors admitted

18:58

my symptoms looked remarkably similar

19:00

to radiation exposure, especially the

19:02

circular burns, which one specialist

19:04

suggested might have come from

19:06

focused gamma rays. That would

19:08

explain the immediate vomiting and the

19:10

strange smell. The energy could have

19:12

instantly broken down the food in my

19:14

stomach. Even though all

19:16

the scientists seemed both fascinated and

19:18

disturbed by my case, no one

19:20

seemed to know what to make

19:22

of my condition. So, with

19:25

no clear diagnosis, they

19:27

too sent me home to recover. We

19:31

pulled into our driveway to find a

19:33

reporter from the Winnipeg Tribune waiting on

19:35

our doorstep. Somehow he'd caught

19:37

wind of my story, and since I

19:39

wanted nothing to do with any publicity, I

19:41

hobbled past him with no comment. hoping you'd

19:43

just go away and leave us alone. But

19:46

the story ran anyway, and

19:49

everything exploded from there.

19:52

Headlines appeared across Canada and

19:54

even in American papers. Other

19:56

witnesses soon came forward, saying they

19:58

too had seen strange objects in

20:00

the sky near Falcon Lake. It

20:03

seemed like the story was gaining momentum and

20:05

taking a life of its own. Our

20:07

phone rang off the hook. Journalists

20:09

interviewed our neighbors. People I'd never met

20:11

claimed to believe me or called me a

20:13

liar or suggested I was crazy. All

20:16

I could do was try to focus on

20:18

getting better and shield my family from the worst

20:20

of the attention. But soon

20:22

enough representatives from the Royal Canadian Air

20:24

Force showed up to interview me. It

20:27

felt more like an interrogation. I

20:30

got the sense they were worried

20:32

I'd encountered some kind of enemy

20:34

spy plane and they questioned me

20:36

for hours about it. They asked

20:38

detailed questions about the craft's capabilities,

20:40

its method of propulsion, whether I'd

20:42

heard any radio communications. Then

20:44

they probed my background, my political

20:46

beliefs, and whether I had any connections

20:48

to the Soviet Union. I

20:51

reminded them I'd escaped Eastern Europe specifically

20:53

to get away from communism, but

20:55

they seemed determined to find holes in

20:57

my story. Afterward, they

20:59

sent teams to find the landing site,

21:01

but came back empty -handed. But

21:03

I knew what I'd seen. I

21:06

had the burns to prove it. So

21:08

a few weeks after the incident, I felt

21:10

strong enough to head back out to

21:12

Falcon Lake myself. I was scared

21:14

of what I'd find, or that

21:16

I'd find nothing at all. But I

21:19

had some friends with me and they believed

21:21

my story. So we walked back

21:23

out into the wilderness and found

21:25

the exact spot where I'd seen the

21:27

craft. And there on

21:29

the ground was a huge

21:31

outline of the ship in the

21:33

rock. We even found

21:35

scraps of my burned shirt nearby, exactly

21:37

where I'd torn it off. But

21:40

the trees surrounding the site had turned

21:42

withered and yellow, and their

21:44

branches were dying as if they'd been

21:46

poisoned. The whole

21:48

area felt wrong somehow, like

21:50

something fundamental had been altered

21:53

at an atomic level. And

21:55

I worried then, had

21:57

I been altered at an atomic

21:59

level? Would I?

22:02

wither and die like those

22:04

yellowing trees. And

22:06

that uncertainty? That

22:08

was the most terrifying part of all. I

22:14

left Falcon Lake that day and never looked

22:16

back. I hoped that eventually my

22:18

wounds would heal, people would forget, and life

22:20

would go back to normal. But

22:22

deep down I knew better. I'd

22:25

survived the horrors of war, a concentration

22:27

camp and building a new life in

22:29

a foreign land, but what happened that

22:31

day at Falcon Lake changed me forever.

22:34

Even now, years later, those burns

22:36

haven't fully healed. Sometimes

22:38

they ache, especially when it's cold

22:41

out. And some nights, when

22:43

I close my eyes, I

22:45

still see that silver craft in its

22:47

eerie purple light. I

22:50

know what I saw that day on Falcon

22:52

Lake. And I know there's

22:54

things that defy all our comfortable

22:56

explanations about how the world works. No

22:59

government denial, no

23:01

skeptical reporters, and

23:03

no doctors' puzzled diagnoses will

23:05

ever change that. Maybe

23:08

you think I'm overconfident. Maybe

23:10

you think I'm crazy. But

23:13

I can tell you one thing. I've

23:15

got the scars to prove

23:17

it. Sightings

23:24

will be back just after this.

23:27

The missing child is Lucia

23:29

Blix, nine years old. Please,

23:31

let her come back home

23:33

safely. Thursdays.

23:35

The kidnappers plundered the take

23:37

-killers. If money is what it takes to

23:39

get her back, we're gonna pay it. The

23:42

secrets they hide. You can't talk about

23:44

this. You can't write about it. Are

23:46

the clues. The mother's hiding something, I

23:48

know it. To find her. Tell me where

23:50

she is. The Stolen

23:52

Girl. New episodes Thursdays. Stream

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together on Green Light. Welcome

25:06

back to sightings. Holy

25:09

cow, Brian. Tell me everything.

25:12

Just go. This one's a

25:14

cool one. This is very cool. And

25:17

at least the way you framed

25:19

it in the story, a very credible

25:21

sounding witness who didn't seem to

25:23

have any stake in a hoax. didn't

25:25

seem to want the attention, just

25:27

wanted to be healthy. Yeah, no. I

25:30

didn't do any real changing on

25:32

this. This is the way it went

25:34

down. And because of that, it's

25:36

really one of the best documented UFO

25:38

events in Canadian history, if not

25:40

the best documented UFO event. I was

25:42

going to say, just in Canadian

25:45

history? Very true. Well, compare it to,

25:47

say, Roswell, where the US government

25:49

has always just been like, oh, nothing

25:51

happened here. It was a balloon.

25:53

It's nothing. Don't worry about it. But

25:55

no, I mean, I guess before

25:57

I get to all kind of hot

26:00

and bothered about this, it is

26:02

like every other, or almost every

26:04

other encounter we have here. just

26:07

kind of one guy's story. There's a

26:09

lot of pictures. I know. So

26:12

he has documented scars that are for

26:14

sure real. Documented scars, absolutely. Okay. And the

26:16

rest of it is kind of the

26:18

account basically, but there's a few other things

26:20

that we'll get to that lend a

26:22

lot of credibility to this as well. But

26:25

I mean, just when I was writing

26:27

this, I think the thing that struck me

26:29

the most was just this poor man

26:31

having this horrifying experience and then being in

26:33

the middle of nowhere with What basically

26:35

seems to be radiation poisoning? I know,

26:37

right? What a badass that he's

26:39

like, this is awful. This is awful.

26:42

Gotta get out of here. Yeah,

26:44

and he, he smelled horrible. Smell. Can

26:46

we, I'm sorry to interrupt, but

26:48

like, can you describe, is there a

26:50

clear description of what that smell

26:52

was? A burning smell? It was described

26:54

from a lot of sources as

26:56

basically a... the mixture of rotten eggs

26:58

so like a very sulfurous smell with a

27:00

burning electrical smell. So from a lot

27:02

of sources so it's not just him saying

27:04

oh yeah I smelled really bad there's

27:06

a bunch of other people who are like

27:09

oh yeah you smell really bad but

27:11

this is weird. Yeah his family noted it

27:13

too and interestingly it wasn't just him

27:15

that's like he said when he was approaching

27:17

the ship he smelled it too so

27:19

I think whatever it you know, vented

27:21

on him or radiated onto him, stuck

27:23

around for quite a while. And I

27:25

mean, I know we don't want to

27:27

go to the picture just yet, but...

27:29

Let's just go into the picture. Okay.

27:31

Tell us what this picture looks like.

27:33

It's a picture of the guy. Like,

27:35

here's the guy, but just with his

27:38

shirt open, lying down on like a

27:40

couch or a bed, and he's kind

27:42

of like gently pressing... look

27:44

like these marks on his stomach. But

27:46

the marks, it's like circles. Each

27:48

mark is like a little circle. And the

27:50

thing that's really weird, though, is

27:52

they're in a grid, like a perfect

27:54

grid of little circles. Yeah. Listeners,

27:57

we're going to put this up on our Instagram

27:59

for you. Yeah, check it out. To me, McLeod,

28:01

it looks almost like someone put

28:03

a connect four board on his stomach. and

28:06

like spray painted? Yeah, use it

28:08

as a stencil. Yeah, basically. Very

28:10

strange. And this is verified by

28:12

a number of doctors that these

28:14

were scars that he has injured

28:16

that he did not just like

28:18

paint himself for these pictures. Yeah,

28:20

this is allegedly the scars that

28:23

he has. Yeah. And then he

28:25

smelled terrible and then he's got

28:27

to get out of the woods

28:29

and his compass was broken and

28:31

he's vomiting and then he finds

28:33

that mounty. the Mountie. Tell

28:35

us about the Mountie. Is this guy been

28:37

tracked down? I don't know about that. I

28:40

couldn't go digging that far on that.

28:42

But what struck me about this Mountie,

28:44

he was the least helpful. Well, what

28:46

I assumed was that he somehow got

28:48

dazed by this thing, that he was

28:50

somehow like just, I don't know, mentally

28:52

not there because if I assumed these

28:54

aliens did something to him too. That's

28:56

plausible. Or I think some people have

28:58

reported that maybe he knew. that something

29:00

was going on and it's like you

29:02

know what you just keep going I'm

29:04

not even gonna engage you Basically, but

29:06

it seems like he was completely not

29:08

helpful. Yeah, but he eventually did make

29:10

it home Which just sort of brings

29:12

to mind this guy's background as a

29:14

survivor like the things this guy has

29:17

been through in his life are beyond

29:19

comprehension Yeah, and to make matters even

29:21

worse to make me feel even worse

29:23

for this guy It didn't come from

29:25

the story and we're not gonna talk

29:27

about it a bunch right here because

29:29

it's kind of tangential But he ends

29:31

up hooking up with this UFO kind

29:33

of fanatic who was with this one

29:35

UFO or organization, okay? who

29:37

befriended him and kind of

29:39

was helping him along with navigating

29:42

what could have happened to him and things

29:44

like that. He ended up kind of stealing

29:46

his story almost, publishing it himself. And

29:48

it's telling him like, oh, you know, I'll raise

29:50

money for you. Didn't actually do that. All the

29:52

money went to this other guy. So

29:54

I know. Boo this man.

29:56

Poor Stefan ended up making

29:58

no money on this. Whoa, that's

30:00

awful. Have have his children

30:02

ever been interviewed or spoken on

30:05

the public record? Yeah, they

30:07

have. I think a couple

30:09

of them, or at least one of them, is involved

30:11

with a book about this in some capacity. I

30:13

did not read it. I did not dive into it.

30:15

All I know is that this book exists, so

30:17

I can't be an authority on that. But

30:20

yeah, like I

30:22

said, there's a lot of

30:24

newspaper articles and photographs and other

30:26

documentation about backing this up that something

30:28

happened to this guy. And what

30:30

I find incredibly compelling is there's a

30:32

lot of corroboration

30:34

at least not from anybody who was

30:36

there and witnessed it necessarily until

30:38

I guess some people said that they

30:40

also saw something at Falcon Lake

30:42

after the fact which you know maybe

30:44

is people just joining the bandwagon

30:46

or Israel I don't know but just

30:48

like with like doctors and people

30:50

examining him you know it's not like

30:52

it just came up through hallucination

30:54

he was like guys I got injured

30:56

by a spaceship look at my

30:58

belly it really hurts uh

31:00

help me and they're like okay yeah

31:02

and the problem was none of them

31:05

were really able to help him beyond

31:07

we don't know go home and do

31:09

we know did he have these scars

31:11

till the day he died like it

31:13

sounds like they faded i i didn't

31:15

find any later pictures of him to

31:17

verify any of that but his torment

31:20

didn't go away necessarily a few months

31:22

After the incident, uh, he was working

31:24

at a cement company and his body

31:26

started just swelling up, he said, and

31:28

his legs and arms started to balloon almost.

31:30

They began to turn this dark purple

31:32

color and the burn marks that had kind

31:34

of faded on his stomach, but were

31:36

still there because they were scars. Basically, they

31:39

kind of flared up and started burning

31:41

all over again, which must have been horrifying.

31:43

That is bizarre. In 1968, he

31:46

went to the Mayo Clinic and he still

31:48

was having headaches. He was fainting once in a

31:50

while and the doctor at the Mayo Clinic

31:52

confirmed this is not radiation, but they did

31:54

have a new hypothesis. They thought that

31:56

he might have been burned by toxic

31:58

gas. But what is that? Like what is

32:00

toxic gas? Like naturally occurring toxic gas or

32:02

something? Well, as in like it's shot out

32:05

of the ship. Oh, okay. On to him

32:07

and it was hot. Right. And they said

32:09

that the symptoms that he was experiencing, the

32:11

reason he might have swelled up while at

32:13

work that one time is because his body

32:15

is still kind of fighting whatever compound he

32:17

was burned with. So the doctors have all

32:19

checked him out. But that's right, at some

32:21

point in the story, the government comes and

32:23

checks them out too. It's the Canadian Air

32:25

Force comes and talks to them. And also,

32:27

ironically, I didn't bring in the story,

32:29

but the Mounted Police came in too. So

32:32

they were there too, and they

32:34

came and they interrogated him and

32:36

questioned him. Why are you giving

32:38

our friend Chuck a hard time,

32:40

eh? Yep,

32:43

there you go. All of our Canadian listeners were

32:45

sorry. the

32:48

government apparently listened to him. took all

32:50

of his information and believed him enough that

32:52

they sent multiple teams out to go

32:54

find this site and couldn't seem to find

32:56

it. They couldn't find it, but he

32:58

could find it, at least in the story,

33:00

he could find it. He went out

33:02

with some friends and that guy who

33:04

ended up scamming him for the book,

33:06

basically, but they found it again. Did

33:09

they document it at all? Take any pictures of

33:11

it? They did, and then they told the government too,

33:13

and the government ended up coming out to look

33:15

at it then afterwards. But like you

33:17

heard in the story, they saw the

33:19

marks on the ground, the trees

33:21

were kind of dead. And are there

33:24

pictures that are available of the

33:26

site itself? Not that the government has

33:28

released. Okay. But there's also newspaper reports

33:30

of other

33:32

witnesses. in the vicinity

33:35

in like a nearby town of Lockport,

33:37

for instance, who claimed to have seen

33:39

lights in the sky the day before

33:41

that he actually ended up having his

33:43

his encounter. Right. So a year after

33:45

the incident, though, Stefan went back out

33:47

there into the wilderness and found the

33:49

spot again. And this time he

33:51

found a crack in the rock and he

33:53

used his prospecting tools and pickaxe and stuff

33:56

to kind of dig into this crack a

33:58

little bit. And at the bottom of the crack,

34:00

like six or eight inches down,

34:02

he found would look like

34:04

molten metal. That implies that something

34:06

melted off the ship, fell

34:08

into the crack and hardened down there.

34:10

So he dug it out and

34:12

he had it sent to a

34:14

lab and they said that it

34:16

was pure silver, which isn't unusual

34:18

to find, I guess, but it

34:20

was coated in radioactive uranium. Okay.

34:25

Let me guess, this sample was

34:27

never reclaimed. No, there's pictures of this. He

34:29

dug out. There's just pictures of it on

34:31

the ground, you know, just sitting there. Oh.

34:33

And on a table. Yeah, he has. My

34:35

man. think he kept it for a while.

34:38

Maybe, you know, maybe there's so much evidence because the

34:40

Canadian government is just like way nicer and is

34:42

like, oh, well, I mean, what are you going to

34:44

do? We found it. Like, you know, it's fair

34:46

is fair. That's

34:50

valid. Yeah. I mean, they did eventually

34:52

close the case. It looks

34:54

like the government did. Stefan ended

34:56

up passing away, eventually. Did he

34:58

live a normal lifespan? Sounds

35:00

like it. I think he

35:03

died in the 90s. And natural

35:05

causes, not of radiation, poisoning,

35:07

or toxic chemicals. Not that I

35:09

could find, just the natural

35:11

dying of old age. Woo! Okay.

35:14

This is maybe the most compelling

35:16

story that we've had. Period. Well,

35:18

I kind of agree because we have a

35:20

lot more than just this is what happened

35:22

to me and just take my word for

35:24

it. And because of that,

35:27

I don't know how theory wise,

35:29

I think the theories are either

35:31

A, this was an

35:33

elaborate hoax. It would be an

35:35

elaborate hoax. Or B, and

35:37

this is what I'm inclined to believe. I

35:39

think the believer beaver is strong with this

35:41

one. You know, he saw something and I

35:43

think the big question now is was it a

35:46

ship of extraterrestrial origin?

35:48

Or was it a

35:50

foreign craft of some

35:52

kind, some kind of

35:54

experimental technology? I can

35:56

imagine a radioactive spacecraft

35:58

as like an experimental

36:00

craft. But then the other thing that's

36:02

weird is he heard voices inside the

36:04

ship. Yeah, that was weird. And then he

36:06

went and poked his head inside and

36:08

there was no one inside the ship. Right.

36:11

So... kind of weird.

36:13

If this was a human ship, where

36:15

did those people go? Yeah. But

36:18

even if it's an alien ship, where

36:20

did those aliens go? Like, why would... If

36:22

they weren't physically there, if they were

36:24

somehow, I don't know, computerized digital AI

36:27

beings or something, like, why were they

36:29

bothering talking to each other through speakers or

36:31

whatever? Mm -hmm. That's valid. That's valid.

36:33

I mean, also, he did just poke his

36:35

head in the ship for, like, what

36:37

sounded like a very quick instant before

36:39

the thing shut again. Maybe there was

36:41

a back room. Yeah, they were in the

36:43

toilet. So, and what

36:45

the voices he heard were like,

36:47

Carl, we're out of toilet paper. Yeah,

36:50

there you go. There

36:52

it is, the Falcon Lake incident, which

36:54

I think has taken the trophy for me

36:56

as, you know, I'm believer beavering that he

36:58

saw something and something did that to him.

37:00

Was an alien ship necessarily? I don't know

37:02

if there's necessarily evidence to prove that.

37:05

But between the marks on him

37:07

and the sightings that are

37:10

corroborating and the government's involvement and

37:12

all the doctors and all

37:14

the things... Yeah, it seems like

37:16

this certainly takes my crown

37:18

of believer beaverdom as well. I

37:20

can't say like I do. like

37:23

100 % believe, but like, I'm

37:25

like, I got another idea. Because,

37:28

whoa. Listeners, we want to hear

37:30

if you had the same effect on you. Hit

37:32

us up on Instagram at SightingsPod

37:34

or find us on Spotify. Leave

37:37

us a comment there. It's awesome. We

37:39

read all of them. Yeah, review us

37:41

on Apple too. We read those too,

37:43

even if we don't get to interact.

37:46

Please absolutely five stars. Okay, so Brian,

37:48

I don't want to leave this

37:50

because it's, I'm just kind of...

37:52

It's energized me, but I'm sure next

37:55

week will be everybody's scintillating. So Brian, where

37:57

are we headed next week? So we

37:59

are actually going to head into the realm

38:01

of listener stories next week. Yeah,

38:03

we got three new stories actually from

38:05

around the world. Oh, coming your

38:07

way. And listeners, if you're new

38:09

to the show. These could be

38:11

anything. They could be ghost stories. They

38:13

could be alien stories. They could be, you

38:15

found a secret time portal in your closet, which

38:17

we haven't gotten that story yet, but if

38:19

you did, let us know. Please send

38:21

that to us. Yeah, so

38:24

it's gonna be fun. We're gonna

38:26

creep you out all over again. Come

38:28

back next week, same time, same

38:30

place, here on Sightings. Sightings

38:36

is hosted by McLeod Andrews and

38:38

Brian Siggly. Produced by Brian Sigley,

38:40

Chase Kinzer, and McLeod Andrews. Written

38:42

by Brian Sigley. Story Music

38:44

by Madison James Smith. Series Music

38:46

by Mitch Bain. Mixing and

38:48

Mastering by Pat Kicklider of Sundial

38:50

Media. Artwork by Nuno

38:52

Sarnanos. For a list of this episode's

38:54

sources, check out our website

38:57

at sightingspodcast.com. Sightings is presented by

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39:01

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