North Hudson Park UFO sightings

The North Hudson Park UFO sightings occurred in the early morning hours of January 12, 1975, when North Hudson Braddock Park in North Bergen, New Jersey was the scene of an unidentified flying object encounter.
It can be classified as a close encounter of the second kind (due to physical evidence at the scene) and of the third kind (due to a witness having seen beings associated with the flying saucer). It is also notable as the case that introduced Budd Hopkins to the UFO research scene; he would later become a key figure in alien abduction.
Since the 1975, sighting, approximately 700 sightings or incidents involving North Bergen residents were reported in the subsequent 30 years, reported to be the highest total of reported incidents in the United States.
Researcher Jerome Clark cites the case as one of the best-documented of its kind, because the core story was corroborated by numerous independent witnesses.
Background
The case first came to public attention in November, 1975, when 44-year-old painter and sculptor Budd Hopkins visited a liquor store in his neighborhood; he was on friendly terms with 72-year-old George O'Barski, the shop's co-owner and proprieter, described by Hopkins as a "strict teetotaler" and as "street-wise, astute, and reflective."
That November day, O'Barski was pacing back and forth in an "troubled" mood, muttering that "something can come down out of the sky and scare you half to death." Hopkins had seen a "daylight disc" several years beforehand, and asked O'Barski what he meant by his comment.
O'Barski related an experience that had happened in the early morning hours of January 12, 1975. He had closed the liquor store at about 1:00 am, and around 2:45am, during his drive home through North Hudson Braddock Park near the Stonehenge apartment building. His car radio failed, and he then saw a large disc-shaped object, making a humming or whining sound, descend from the skies and land in the park.
Amazed by the sight, O'Barski stopped his car to watch. The disc, which had a rim of bright lights along its edge, sprouted metallic "legs" and landed, then a doorway opened on the object, and a ladder extended from the disc to the ground. Within seconds, eight to twelve humanoids had descended the ladder and were scurrying about the park. He judged them to be three to five feet tall, and said they wore identical white coverall-type clothing he described as resembling "snowsuits."
Several of the humanoids produced shovel or large-spoon type objects, and took samples of the park's soil, placing them in bag or sack-like containers. The humanoids then returned to the flying saucer, which quickly rose into the air and flew away.
O'Barski said the entire incident, from his sighting of the disc to its departure, lasted three or four minutes.
Describing himself as in shock, O'Barski went home but the next day returned to examine the park. Hoping he had somehow imagined the strange encounter, O'Barski said he grew frightened when he discovered several holes scooped out of the ground where the humanoids had dug into the soil.
O'Barski said he told no one of the encounter, but it troubled his thoughts for months afterwards.
Investigation and other witnesses
Hopkins contacted Ted Bloecher, a computer data analyst and UFO investigator. Together they began looking into O'Barski's story and questioning neighborhood residents.
Their first break came when the doorman for the Stonehenge Apartments, across the street from the park to the east, said he'd seen an unusually bright light on Jan 12, 1975, emanating from near the same park where O'Barksi had his close encounter. Additionally, the doorman said that a pane of thick glass at the Stonehenge had cracked that early morning; though no one could determine a cause, the doorman speculated that bright light might have somehow been the cause, though he did not relate this suspicion for fear of ridicule. Aside from the glass breakage the doorman noted that his watch had stopped working the same evening as the alleged alien sighting.
Hopkins, Bloecher and others eventually located three other groups of independent witnesses, totalling more than ten people, who had seen bright lights or a UFO near the park on January 12. Each of the witness groups had no contact with one another, none had widely related their story, and none knew that anyone else had claimed a similar sighting. Only O'Barski had seen the little humanoids.
Bloecher took samples of the soil from where O'Barski said the UFO had landed in the park. Analysis at an independent laboratory demonstrated that, unusually for soil from a city park, the samples were entirely free of plant roots.
Hopkins' article on the case was published in the Village Voice in 1976.
Subsequent encounters
Four years after the O'Barski incident, North Bergen resident Harold Stith related a similar encounter. One night in 1979, Stith was driving from work along Boulevard East, which borders the park at the east, at almost the same exact location that O'Barski traveled four years prior. He turned into the park, and his car and radio stopped. He saw a bright light above the car, and heard strange noises on the radio that sounded to him like a language he did not understand. He then saw that the light was some type of craft. After it landed, he saw what were described as "little grey men with big eyes" exit it, but they and the craft immediately left. Although he recalled the incident as lasting ten minutes long, his wife, when relating the incident to their son years later, said that Stith returned home three hours late, which Hopkins takes as a sign that Stith was abducted.<ref name=Hague/>
Residents Ron Lee and Ninetta Nappi witnessed sets of lights in the area in 1985, as did others in 1988. Witnesses to subsequent alleged sightings include North Bergen schoolteacher Ann Barlovich in 1993, and Marc Taylor, a resident of the Parker Imperial condominium complex in 1999. Some of these sightings were related in a 2005 A&E television special that focused on the O'Barski sighting. On November 3, 2003, two witnesses who claim to have seen zig-zagging lights near Braddock Park at dusk reported their sighting to the National UFO Reporting Center.<ref name=Hague/>
ABC News anchor Peter Jennings did a special report on UFOs in November 2004 that questioned whether the number of sightings in North Bergen were merely coincidence or fact-based.<ref name=Rense/>
Jersey City Reporter reporter Jim Hague has reported that 700 incidents have been reported in connection to North Bergen in the 30 years following the 1975 incident, the highest in the country.<ref nameRense/> However, North Bergen Police Chief William Galvin, a native of the township, remembers the craze as a 21-year-old, prior to becoming a police officer, but he and his colleagues are skeptical of the reports, and surprised at the attention they have garnered for the area, observing that no one has ever reported a UFO to the Police Department.<ref nameHague/>

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