Case description
A woman identified as W. R. was driving east on Interstate 210 through Glendora, California, with her children Louisa, six, and Tommy, four, on March 12, 1982. Near Grand Avenue, Louisa noticed a glowing red rectangle low in the sky, with a darker cross-shaped area inside it. As they approached Sunflower Avenue, it appeared larger and nearly ahead of their car.
Their mother felt a low vibration, weakness and dizziness that made driving difficult. Louisa later described similar sensations. The mother briefly looked away, and the object disappeared. The children said it had darted behind a cloud. Tommy, who had been talking excitedly moments earlier, was suddenly asleep. She woke him, and they continued to a restaurant in San Dimas.
They arrived about 7:20 p.m., unexpectedly late for a journey normally taking about half an hour after their 6:10 departure. The catalogue estimates the unexplained interval at thirty-five minutes; the fuller account gives approximately thirty. Their grandmother noticed the mother's distress and urged her to report the event.
In interviews with Ann Druffel, Tommy described a luminous humanlike figure emerging from the object, other figures behind it and winglike shapes moving without flapping. Louisa also remembered the shapes and a long-haired figure in a long garment. Their mother had not seen these details. Louisa was unusually sleepy for two days afterward. Druffel published the family's account in the May and June 1982 MUFON UFO Journal; the missing interval was not explored through hypnosis in that report.
