Columbus, IN being encounter — January 7, 1982

A short report in the Columbus, Indiana, Republic of January 8, 1982, records a woman’s claim of a UFO and small beings in the 2100 block of Home. Police spokesman Oakel Hardy said assistance had been requested the previous afternoon. This contemporary timing differs from the Atlas’s approximately 8:00 a.m. entry for January 7. According to the newspaper, the woman had contacted an unidentified branch of the Army and said she would deal with the beings herself if soldiers did not respond. She also claimed that a neighbor had shot two of them. Two city police officers checked the area but found no beings. The article did not identify the Army branch, name the woman or neighbor, describe a verified landing or establish that anyone had actually fired a weapon. The Atlas’s Hatch source compresses this into two women seeing small humanoids beside a saucer and includes a hoax code. That code is important provenance, but the available newspaper clipping does not document a confession or a completed hoax investigation. The record is best presented as an unverified telephone report followed by an unsuccessful police check. No official confirmation, physical evidence, detailed occupant description or exact video was located. The plate consequently labels its distant craft and figures as a historical claim rather than depicting an authenticated encounter.