Coincidence? To have all these coincidences is just coincidental.

Off we go to the state which brags that it doesn't believe in anything unless you can "show" it. OK, Missouri, you asked for it.

It was 6:40am on the road between Elmer and Atlanta, MO March 4th, 1969. City Marshall, William Overstreet was driving towards Atlanta on his early morning job, a rural mail carrier. Ahead of him, a "large red object" was traveling to his right in the fields. It was moving northerly and would cross his path. Overstreet, because the thing was low [circa 50 off the ground], could estimate its size at about 100 feet in diameter.

As Overstreet continued along, the object had intersected his path at the highway and was hanging overhead.

The thing emitted an intensely bright white lightbeam towards the roadbed. This beam was also extremely hot, and he felt the same way as if he were out on a summer's noon time in full blast of the Sun. As the beam manifested, the object changed colors. Its center became blue, and the red migrated to a ring around this core. A further yellow aura also manifested. The yellow aura gave the impression of rotating clockwise around the circular interior. Although Overstreet felt that all this light was being produced by some object "inside", it was much too bright to see what that could be. No sound accompanied the thing.

Overstreet grabbed his two-way radio to call this in; his signal seemed not to be able to get out. As his truck got very near the beam, the engine died and the radio went inoperative. The truck then coasted for a while. The object moved slightly ahead and the radio turned back on, he popped the clutch and the engine re-started. He moved to within 6 feet of the beam, and both engine and radio quit again. Again the object moved forward while the truck coasted, and the engine and radio turned on again.

This time Overstreet dropped back. The object went on ahead, beam still on, for less than a mile. It smoothly bobbed along according to the contour of the road, always sticking to its original altitude. It flipped off its beam, turned back to all red, "flashed" once as it passed over a powerline, and was lost to sight. The weather, by the way, was clear --- no sign of storms anywhere. [for you ball-lightning fans.]

A NICAP consultant wondered if the UFO itself was producing "highly ionized air" in its vicinity, most obviously causing the powerline flash as it passed over. It is difficult to buy this for the vehicle effects however, as Overstreet, an apparently very good observer, would certainly have noticed static electricity zapping him on his car's interior.

A few days later, about thirty miles "up the road".... 

It's Monday morning, 10:30am, March 10th, 1969 and Mrs. Nanci _______ {she asked on the form not to quote her name, so even if it's almost 50 years ago, I'll comply} was driving to Lancaster, MO with her dog resting in the rear seat. 

The dog roused from his sleep --- a large arousal since he was a St. Bernard. It became alarmed and barked furiously as it jumped into the passenger seat, his hair standing up on his neck. Then, as if he had been whipped, he tried to crawl down beneath the seat, whimpering.

The apparent cause of this extraordinary behavior was a bright beam of light coming down into the road ahead. This beam was so bright [like the Sun] that it was hard to see anything else in its direction. Mrs. X followed the beam skyward to see a disk-shaped [almost like a pyramid] object, gray colored with a small dome atop, from which this beam emerged. Sometimes it seemed like there were particles of something suspended in this beam.

Where the beam intersected the road, it nearly overlapped the road --- i.e. she could tell it was about 24' wide, and the disk somewhat larger [50' or more?; she thought larger]. Her car began to drive into the beam at about 50-60mph, but quickly was slowed to 8-10mph. Though she, out of natural curiosity, squinted strongly to try to determine what this thing was, she could not determine anything but general shape ... and her eyes bothered her for three more days due to the effort. By the way, the Sun was positioned at 90degrees to her right the entire time of the incident.

As the car's velocity was slowing, she tried to push the accelerator, but the car refused to respond to that. Still, even at this slowed speed, her car gradually made headway through the area of the beam and ultimately exited it. At that moment it regained its lost speed and she drove quickly home, not viewing the thing again.

Hmmm.... six days apart in the same general area of the country. Two objects showing eye-stunningly bright white beams onto the roads, one estimated at 100' in diameter, the other in the same apparent range. The one at dawn showing as a sphere of light; the one in daylight showing as a disk. One stopping the vehicle if it got too close, the other slowing it.

Different, yes. Different enough to be "just a coincidence"?

....but the point really is: both these cases had witnesses judged to be highly credible. Whether "just a coincidence" or not, they stand as full-blown mysteries --- particularly since the favorite skeptical "explanation" for such vehicle interferences is some odd sort of never-seen ball lightning, and both cases occurred on clear days.

I'll probably do one more of these [to me] fascinating things, and then give us all a break.

Peace and joyful days.