Alien in the Attic

[Guest guest]

I thought this was old news, but this must be a new incident.

Jo

 

Hoax, military decoy or film prop? A householder from Norfolk doesn't

know what to make of an " alien " that has crash landed into his attic.

 

 

Builders working in the attic of Barney Broom's cottage in the

village of Gunthorpe found an old jar containing what appeared to be

a model of an alien, about 12 inches tall, made of clay and preserved

in a liquid which smelled of vinegar.

 

The jar was wrapped in a 1947 copy of the Daily Mirror. The alien

appeared to have a serial number on its foot.

 

Intrigued by the discovery, Mr Broom's initial suspicion was that the

model was somehow connected to nearby United States' airbases. Not

quite knowing what to do with it, he approached the Sci-Fi Channel,

which is now carrying out investigations into whether the serial

number is a form of military identification.

 

Hoax?

 

As far as the Pentagon is concerned, it's nothing more than " another

hoax " . There is no military connection, a spokesman told the BBC News

Magazine.

 

But what would be the point of producing this dummy? Why would

someone be making aliens like this in the 1940s?

 

 

The clay model was in a jar wrapped in a Daily Mirror from 1947

 

There's nothing to date the model except the newspaper wrapped around

it, which could have been attached at a later date. But for UFO-

enthusiasts, 1947 is a key date, as this was the year of the supposed

alien sightings at Roswell, New Mexico, in the United States.

 

" If it is a hoax, it is very well done and was clearly done some time

ago, " says Sci-Fi Channel spokesperson, Lawrence Hall. " There are

signs of degradation on its upper and lower left arm, it is

cracking. "

 

Mr Broom, a film-maker who is agnostic about the existence of aliens,

says it could have been produced as a stage prop, or else made by one

of the many US servicemen and women who have been based in the area.

 

" There were two factors that made me decide to find out more about

this. First, it was so odd looking, with an androidal, we-are-not-

alone image. And second, because we're close to Mildenhall, I thought

that it might have been left behind by someone from there, " said Mr

Broom.

 

 

The model of the alien has a serial number on its foot

 

As well as finding out about this " baby alien " , Mr Hall says he wants

to find out if any more were manufactured.

 

Conspiracy theorists will already have their own ideas, such as

whether such " aliens " were used as convenient decoys to cover up

research projects and military crashes during the Cold War.

 

But Professor Adam Roberts, a specialist in science fiction

literature, says the type of alien depicted is more like the images

portrayed in the 1960s, rather than the 1940s - which could cast

doubt on whether it really was produced 60 years ago.

 

Before the 1960s, aliens were more likely to be seen as " little green

men, " says Professor Roberts, from Royal Holloway College, London.

 

Any connection with the US military has been dismissed by an airforce

spokeswoman, based at the Pentagon in Washington, who says it looks

like a " model made to display " .

 

Rejecting the model as a hoax, the US airforce says the numbers on

the foot " could have represented the makers' idea of a museum or

laboratory acquisition number " or else it could have been meant

to " make it look like government property