by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear

Men in Black stories are almost as old as the modern UFO mystery, starting with the 1947 Maury Island Incident. This aspect of the phenomenon became firmly cemented with Gray Barker’s 1956 book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, and it plays a big part in John Keel’s 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies. Keel was of the mind that MiBs were not human beings from secret government organizations out to silence witnesses, but creatures of a much stranger origin. Supporting this is a 1981 report (page 8 of the pdf) out of Canada that is presented in the Vol. 27, No. 4, January 1982 Flying Saucer Review.

At the beginning of the report headlined, “M.I.B. Activity Reported from Victoria B.C.,” Dr. P.M.H. Edwards, a former linguistics professor at the University of Victoria, points out that the area “has largely been neglected by UFOs in the past.”  Then, according to him, on October 2, 1981, “two major incidents occurred in Victoria, B.C., involving two men who were unknown to each other.”

In a sidebar, the editor shares a note from Edwards headed “How this story was uncovered immediately after it occurred” that was included with the report. According to Edwards, he got a phone call from a “lady acquaintance” on October 4th telling him there was an article in the morning Victoria Times-Colonist reporting that a 16-year-old boy had taken a photo of a UFO between Mount Douglas and Mount Tolmie the previous night. On “a hunch,” Edwards got in touch with the boy, Grant Breiland, three days later and got the details of his story after meeting with him “several times.”

According to Edwards, the other witness, who was 19, wanted to remain anonymous, “forget about the whole thing,” and “refused to be interviewed.” Edwards gives him the initials “N.B,” says he has his information on file, and that he works at a local gas station.

As for Breiland, Edwards gives his address (1507 Winchester Road, Victoria, B.C. V8N 2B6, Canada) and describes him as unusual for his age with an “above-average intelligence,” keen observation skills, and his own security business called “J.R. Security,” consisting of a staff of friends who keep tabs on homes when their owners are away and assist “in keeping law and order.” In one instance, he is said to have helped to arrest a man who was breaking into a car and taken him to the police station. According to Edwards, Breiland handcuffed the man. Besides the above reasons for being inclined to believe Breiland’s story, Edwards points out that Breiland had only read a portion of the book UFOs and IFOs (Gardner Soule, 1967) at the age of twelve and “has read nothing else in our field.”

According to Edwards, at 9:30 p.m., Breiland was out in his driveway with his mother, seeing his sister off after a visit, when he saw what seemed to be an especially big star with “a yellowish tinge around the edge.” His sister and mother couldn’t see it, nor could a boy who rode by on a bicycle. Breiland got on the CB radio he used for his business and called out to anyone listening who might be on Mount Tolmie, which had an unimpeded view of the area. The second witness, N.B., replied and said he was looking at a big white light he described as “like a star that is about to shoot!” Looking through binoculars he said he saw a big red light that was pointing right at him.

Breiland got his 35 mm Pentax camera, put a zoom lens on it, and mounted it on a tripod. Using this setup, he could see what looked like an upside-down saucer with its dome underneath. It had a red light that moved across its width and then circled down and around from front to back. There were four white lights around the object that were smaller than it in the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions with black dots on them that Breiland thought could have been windows. There were yellow beams of light going between the “craft” and the surrounding lights. Breiland took a picture that had yet to be developed as of the writing.

The craft then moved in a manner described as that like a priest making the sign of the cross, with the lights maintaining their positions around it. The red light stopped moving for two seconds at one point, shone directly into Breiland’s eyes, and then resumed its former motions. Breiland took a moment to look at his watch and saw it was 9:59 p.m., and then, “at precisely 10 p.m. everything was switched off, like an electric light bulb being extinguished.”

Breiland and N.B. met for the first time the next day at Breiland’s house and talked about what they had seen. They both had bad headaches that weren’t responding to aspirin. They met again the next day and N.B. took Brieland for wild ride in his truck that was such that Brieland was relieved to get home safely. N.B. was also swearing and talking violently about people and things that annoyed him, and Edwards notes that he couldn’t say whether this was his normal behavior or an after-effect of the sighting.

On Monday, October 5, at 3:15 p.m., Breiland left school and went to the local shopping mall to see if a part he had ordered for his radio had arrived at the Radio Shack there. It hadn’t, and he then went to the main entrance of the mall where he hoped to meet a friend. The friend wasn’t there and he went to call him using the pay phone in the vestibule between the glass doors to the parking lot and the glass doors inside to the store. His friend’s sister answered and told him that her brother wasn’t able to come, as he had just broken his arm.

As Breiland hung up, he saw two men who were standing “extremely close together” and seemed as if they wanted to talk to him. He became scared because they had a non-human appearance and also because he noticed that there were suddenly no people coming into and going out of the entrance whereas there had just been lots of activity. He saw no one outside either.

The men were stiff and motionless, didn’t move or blink, and were expressionless. They were dressed in dark blue, almost black, suits, shirts, and shoes. They had no ties and their shirts were closed up to the neck, but Breiland saw no buttons on either the jackets or the shirts. Their faces were tanned, and their lips were the same color. Their eyes were mat as opposed to glossy and didn’t reflect any light. They had eyelashes but no brows, weren’t wearing hats, and had “Eton crop” haircuts with their hair only covering the top half of their foreheads. They had “squarish” earlobes, and one of them “kept his mouth perpetually half open like a rectangle,” whereas the other one’s mouth was more “normal.” They both had perfect teeth.

One of them spoke to him in a monotone robotic voice and asked, “What is your name?” Breiland said, “I’m not going to tell you.” and that man remained silent while the other continued and asked “Where do you live?” and “What is your number?” Breiland refused to answer the first question verbally as before and remained silent after the second.

After staring at him in silence for about five seconds, they turned on their heels “as one man,” went outside and crossed the sidewalk. They then turned left and walked on the road in sync “as in a military drill.” Breiland followed them at a close distance of about two feet and noticed that there were no people or moving cars anywhere to be seen. It was raining, and he stopped by the wall of the store and watched as the men approached a muddy, excavated field. He thought he heard someone call his name from behind, and he turned around. This happened twice, and after the second time, the men vanished as he watched. As he ran toward the spot where he had last seen them, he noticed that they had left no footprints.

Next week: More details, N.B.’s encounter, and the aftermath.