East / Simi Valley, CA being encounter — October 4, 1973

On October 4, 1973, in the early evening, Gary Jay Chopic was driving west on the Simi Freeway near Chatsworth when he noticed an unusual object above the hills. Near the Kuehner Drive area he saw dust below the road, stopped on the shoulder and got out. He reportedly observed a flattened triangular or capsule-like machine hovering about ten feet above the ground, roughly 80–100 feet away, swaying like an anchored boat. The fuller account describes a pink-gray body, a blunt nose, a large nested-V marking on its side, a swivelling transparent bubble on top and an eight-foot hose hanging almost to the ground. A normal-sized figure in a silver wetsuit-like garment crawled around the far side, looked toward Chopic and scrambled out of sight. Its facial features were not discerned. Chopic then heard clicking, followed by a whirring hum as the bubble rotated and withdrew. Vapor with a sweet, incense-like smell allegedly enveloped the machine before it disappeared. Contemporary reporting appears in Skylook 73 and Webb's 1973 compilation. Later transcripts disagree over dimensions, including an apparent 350-foot error; a fuller version gives approximately 30 by 50 feet. The being's exact position on the ground or hull is also unclear. A couple's reported sighting a week earlier is separate, not corroboration of this figure. The plate preserves the bubble, hose, nested-V mark and silver-clothed form while leaving faces and engineering details unresolved.