Mystery in Marpole

By Bill Oliver - July 1998
 


In early February, 1998, we were left a message on our hotline by a fellow named Rod, whose friends urged him to give UFO*BC a call. He had no idea who to speak with concerning a most peculiar experience he had just gone through. I would have to mention that over the last two years of our hotlines operation I have never personally heard as much urgency in a caller’s voice as I did in Rod’s that evening. He seemed truly awestruck and was, as he stated, "at his wit’s end at what to do and would we please get back to him?" Upon reaching him on the telephone I was greeted by a very down to earth type. I found out Rod is twenty-six years old and in his own description considers himself a normal working type guy and he wanted to know why something so strange would happen to him?

On Saturday night Rod, his brother and brother’s girlfriend were hanging out at the apartment Rod and his brother share in the South Granville-Marpole area of Vancouver. This area is fairly dense, with three story apartments being the common dwelling found in this particular area (70th & Hudson).

Not being much of a drinker, and on his own admission a non drug user, after four drinks Rod was passed out on the couch at 2:00 AM. His brother packed him off to bed and lay him down still fully clothed including his boots that he still had on from work. His brother then went to bed himself after his girlfriend went home.

pantless1.jpg (54900 bytes)One hour later Rod was rudely awoken by a light going on and a man standing beside him. Shaking the cobwebs out of his head he asked the guy "What are you doing in my apartment?" in which the fellow answered "What are you doing in my apartment?" It was then to Rod’s utter amazement that he realized he was standing in his basketball shorts in the middle of someone else’s living room! Understandably the owner was disturbed, to say the least, that he was somehow awoken and alerted to the fact that a young man had made his way through the double locked door and into his living room. After being asked to leave he found himself in the apartment hall directly in front of his own entrance. Turning the doorknob he realized that the door was locked and being only in his shorts, was without his keys. Pounding on the door he awoke his brother who opened the door and stood shocked to see Rod in front of him, clad only in shorts. Upon entrance Rod immediately went to the living room to find his house keys where he left them….on the coffee table. He then hurried into his bedroom and it was there that the real surprise would come. There, lying on the bed, were his clothes laid out like he was still in them, pants tucked in boots, socks unturned and still in his tied boots. Both he and his brother were now completely freaked out by the early morning’s activities. It now appears Rod was, in his own description, "sucked out of his boots and clothes, left in his shorts, taken through two locked doors and placed in another apartment without waking up." Quite a feat indeed!pantless2.jpg (57139 bytes)

Rod and his brother are what they term as extremely light sleepers. So much so, in fact, that they both awaken when the other makes a visit to the bathroom throughout the night. It was also mentioned that the floors in their place are very squeaky and footsteps are heard very easily.

Rod also told me he had an extremely sore neck and, to his brother’s and mother’s shock, now has what appears to be two new moles on the back of his neck he didn’t have before! This alone puzzles the whole family.

I have talked to the witnesses on three occasions and the story remains consistent. As well, the immediacy of the event seems to return to Rod’s voice on each call.

Since the original hotline call, Rod’s frustration with getting an answer, or a more precise answer, had driven him to seek advice from a psychic who told him it was not an alien encounter although she hinted to him it could have been a type of poltergeist activity. Rod was not impressed with the woman’s answer and still remains puzzled, although he now says "If I was abducted I don’t remember anything! All I do know is they brought me to the right building, but wrong apartment!" Rod asked if I had ever heard anything like this and I told him it was indeed one of the stranger one’s I had personally been told about, but that on a grander scale, this kind of strangeness is not unheard of. In John Carpenter’s paper "Alien Humour" he writes of mistakes by our friendly visitors that pop up from time to time. Clothes on backwards, inside out, and in other cases, the wrong clothes period have shown up on the innocent sleeper upon awakening. In a hurry or just showing that ‘hey, everybody makes mistakes’ it is anybody’s guess what is going on.

If you know, give Rod a call. He doesn’t have a clue.

Note: Artwork by Glenn Jones

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