Giving Them Enough Rope Ladder To Hang Themselves

The two miners -- known to be sober and truthful -- asked the sheriff if they could shoot at a flying saucer that had been trespassing on their camp.

Over at his site -- The Flying Saucers That Time Forgot -- Curt Collins covers this event with the post "Flying Saucer Ambush: Brush Creek, CA, 1953."  (Link: http://bit.ly/2hMLIWv )

Curt shares news clippings about the miners and their unusual situation. For me all the details with any UFO/flying saucer story have to fit.  When even one key detail is dubious then the whole story is suspect.

Of course newspaper reporters can make mistakes.  For example the articles don't match up regarding the miners's activity.  They are described as either mining gold or titanium.  Or maybe they kept changing their story a bit with each interview.

The gist of the story is that on two occasions -- both on the 20th of each month at 6:30 PM -- a saucer would appear, landing on a sandbar with its tripod legs.  A diminutive alien would get out, scoop some water out of the creek, and return to the saucer with his sample, handing it to someone inside.  Then interstellar vehicle left.

The sheriff told the miners that the saucer could be shot but only with a camera.

Considering the visitation pattern the miners assumed the saucer would be back on the 20th of the following month.  On that day a crowd gathered, including reporters and cameramen, to verify the truth behind the story.

The saucer never appeared.  But that is no surprise when we check out some details to the miners's story.

The miners described the saucer's dimensions as four feet high, seven feet long.  Now that's really small.  How thick was its hull?  How large was the craft's instrumentation and propulsion system?  The water-scooper was described as only four feet tall. Obviously no real headroom inside the saucer.  He must've been traveling crammed into a intergalactic sardine can.

A detail that bugs me much more is the use of a prosaic aluminum pail to get some water.  Wouldn't the aliens extend a hose from the craft to pump up the water instead of having someone go outside and get it, exposing himself to danger?

But this is the buggiest detail: ingress/egress to the saucer was gained with the use of a rope ladder.

FTL technology and they're still using a rope ladder?  When leaving in a hurry climbing up a rope ladder adds time.  And hauling up the rope ladder delays flight even more.

A knotty situation that quickly results in the truth of this saucer story kicking the bucket.

And I didn't mention how the little alien was attired: a suit and tie with a green cap and green trousers.