West Cincinnati, OH being encounter — October 21, 1973

At around 2:30 a.m. on October 21, 1973, Reafa Heitfield awoke in her trailer in Covedale, on the west side of Cincinnati. Looking through the curtains, she reported a nearby arc of six blue and silver lights. When those vanished, a brighter object became visible on the parking area beyond a parked car. She described a glowing, transparent capsule like a bell jar, approximately two metres across. Beside it, and then inside its light, she saw a large grey ape-like form. It had a heavy waist, little visible neck and a projecting snout-like nose. Its arms moved stiffly and mechanically. Her thirteen-year-old son, Carl, eventually joined her; he could make out the light but was not certain about the figure. Heitfield said she telephoned police and found both object and creature gone on returning to the window. A nearby warehouse fire alarm was reportedly activated around the same time, and ash-like or powdery material was later discussed by investigators. These are attributed associations, not proof of a spacecraft mechanism. Leonard Stringfield investigated. The plate correctly gives the mother the detailed creature observation and places her sleepy son beside her, with the reported ape form inside the capsule.