North Hudson Park / O'Barski case

Before dawn on January 12, 1975, businessman George O'Barski was driving through North Hudson Park in North Bergen, New Jersey, when his car radio reportedly filled with static. Looking toward the park, he saw a large luminous object descend and hover or settle close to the ground. O'Barski stopped and watched from his car. A door or opening appeared, and several small figures emerged. He described them as child-sized but proportioned like adults, wearing pale one-piece suits and helmets or close head coverings. The figures carried simple tools and containers and appeared to scoop soil from the park. After only a few minutes, the group returned to the craft. The object rose and departed across the river. O'Barski continued home and later reported the experience. Investigator Budd Hopkins interviewed him, and other local testimony was discussed as possible support for unusual lights in the same area. Investigators examined the park and reported small holes or disturbed patches where O'Barski said the samples had been collected. Such marks were consistent with his description, but they were not unique and did not identify who or what made them. No preserved sample, tool or instrument record established an extraordinary cause. The setting makes the report striking: a close, structured observation in a metropolitan park with the Manhattan skyline nearby. Yet the principal entity-and-craft sequence rests on one witness. Later retellings sometimes sharpen the figures, number and object beyond what the source record can securely support. CE3 is retained because O'Barski described multiple occupants leaving and returning to a nearby craft. The portrait uses the reported witness viewpoint from a car and shows soil collection without adding confrontation or communication. It is an illustrative reconstruction, not documentary evidence.