Hundreds of people gathered at a museum in a small Minnesota city on Tuesday evening to commemorate the 40th anniversary of a noteworthy UFO event in which a mysterious glowing ball of light smashed into a deputy's patrol car. The case, which is fairly well-known in UFO circles, occurred on August 27th, 1979 when Marshall County Deputy Val Johnson was out on patrol in the early morning and spotted a puzzling light off in the distance standing out among the darkness in the remote rural region of the state.
Curious as to what the oddity might be, the deputy drove over to investigate and eventually reached the inexplicable light which was about a foot in diameter and hovered a few feet above the road. At that point, the situation took a harrowing turn as, according to Johnson, the anomalous object "went at" the car, smashing into it and engulfing the vehicle in light. The collision caused considerable damage to the windshield and headlight of the patrol car, while also bending two antennas attached to the vehicle.
Perhaps the most fantastic aspect of the case was that the clock in the car and Johnson's watch both stopped for 14 minutes, seemingly as a result of the strange encounter. The deputy also passed out for around a half-hour after the collision and suffered burns to his eyes and face that one doctor likened to "welder's burns." A subsequent examination of the vehicle by the Ford Motor Company left their expert baffled as to what could have caused the damage to the car.
More on this landmark UFO case and how the city celebrated its anniversary at the Coast to Coast AM website.