Megatron in the bushes
In September 1994, I had graduated from Army Intel School at Ft. Huachuca in SE Arizona. My brother came out for the grad ceremony and drove home with me to Los Angeles. My car at the time was a 1967 Ford Mustang.
We began the drive in the late afternoon, choosing to take Interstate 8 and drive up through San Diego. It was dark by the time we got through Tucson and onto the 8. Looking at a map, we were around the Sentinel Rest Area, driving westbound. We noticed to our left, farther off into the mountains, a bright glow. It was behind one of the mountain’s ridges and we thought it was a factory behind a ridge, a softer glow but large. As we kept driving, we noticed we were never able to look into the ridges or fingers of the mountains to see the glow. It was always over the next mountain ridge.
By the Mohawk I-8 Rest Area, we were pretty confused. We couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t see the source of the light. Estimated time since first seeing the light, 20-30 minutes. We pulled the car over and my brother jumped up onto the side of the door, looking over the roof of the car at the southern mountains. We could still see the glow, but no noise, no details, just a glow that was always over another ridge. The car is still running, I remember him saying to turn it off.
Just as my brother said to turn the car off, we heard a sound from behind him, in the brush. It is hard to describe, over the years we’ve joked that it sounded like Megatron. It was a growl, but had a metallic recording to it. As soon as we heard the growl, my brother dropped back into the seat and started screaming GO GO GO! I have never felt fear like that, it made our stomachs sick, a static-like tingling in the hair and neck.
We are now back on the highway, looking all around, windows rolled up, maybe ready to laugh it off. But then the cassette player starting warping the tape. Just as we ejected the tape the radio turned off. Then the dashboard shut off, headlights shut off, everything shut off. Except the motor. We are now westbound on Interstate 8, speed 60-80mph and no lights. We decided to keep going, could see the road well enough and knew if we turned off the car, it probably wouldn’t start back up. We weren’t sure how long after we lost power that we noticed the mountain lights we were chasing were now gone.
We got to Wellton, AZ a little time later. We pulled into a motel parking lot, turned off the car. We were right, it didn’t turn back on. We stayed the night at the motel, pushed the car over to the auto shop the next morning. I really couldn’t see anything in the engine bay but there was a strong burnt smell throughout the car. The mechanic took 2 minutes and brought us out to the car. All over the car, wires were melted together. He spent most of that day replacing parts and wires. He said that should get us to LA and we can take the car to an electrical shop. We barely made it into Yuma before we had to stop and do more repairs. The mechanics in Yuma echoed the same question: What did we run into? Nothing they knew of would affect the entire car. They mentioned it was an older car, as long as the distributor was turning it would continue to run. We drove home the next day without any further issues.
((NUFORC Note: Source of report indicates that the date is approximate. PD))
In September 1994, I had graduated from Army Intel School at Ft. Huachuca in SE Arizona. My brother came out for the grad ceremony and drove home with me to Los Angeles. My car at the time was a 1967 Ford Mustang.
We began the drive in the late afternoon, choosing to take Interstate 8 and drive up through San Diego. It was dark by the time we got through Tucson and onto the 8. Looking at a map, we were around the Sentinel Rest Area, driving westbound. We noticed to our left, farther off into the mountains, a bright glow. It was behind one of the mountain’s ridges and we thought it was a factory behind a ridge, a softer glow but large. As we kept driving, we noticed we were never able to look into the ridges or fingers of the mountains to see the glow. It was always over the next mountain ridge.
By the Mohawk I-8 Rest Area, we were pretty confused. We couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t see the source of the light. Estimated time since first seeing the light, 20-30 minutes. We pulled the car over and my brother jumped up onto the side of the door, looking over the roof of the car at the southern mountains. We could still see the glow, but no noise, no details, just a glow that was always over another ridge. The car is still running, I remember him saying to turn it off.
Just as my brother said to turn the car off, we heard a sound from behind him, in the brush. It is hard to describe, over the years we’ve joked that it sounded like Megatron. It was a growl, but had a metallic recording to it. As soon as we heard the growl, my brother dropped back into the seat and started screaming GO GO GO! I have never felt fear like that, it made our stomachs sick, a static-like tingling in the hair and neck.
We are now back on the highway, looking all around, windows rolled up, maybe ready to laugh it off. But then the cassette player starting warping the tape. Just as we ejected the tape the radio turned off. Then the dashboard shut off, headlights shut off, everything shut off. Except the motor. We are now westbound on Interstate 8, speed 60-80mph and no lights. We decided to keep going, could see the road well enough and knew if we turned off the car, it probably wouldn’t start back up. We weren’t sure how long after we lost power that we noticed the mountain lights we were chasing were now gone.
We got to Wellton, AZ a little time later. We pulled into a motel parking lot, turned off the car. We were right, it didn’t turn back on. We stayed the night at the motel, pushed the car over to the auto shop the next morning. I really couldn’t see anything in the engine bay but there was a strong burnt smell throughout the car. The mechanic took 2 minutes and brought us out to the car. All over the car, wires were melted together. He spent most of that day replacing parts and wires. He said that should get us to LA and we can take the car to an electrical shop. We barely made it into Yuma before we had to stop and do more repairs. The mechanics in Yuma echoed the same question: What did we run into? Nothing they knew of would affect the entire car. They mentioned it was an older car, as long as the distributor was turning it would continue to run. We drove home the next day without any further issues.
((NUFORC Note: Source of report indicates that the date is approximate. PD))
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Off
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Wellton
USA
1 hour
1 hour
32.69
-114.16
unknown
AZ
Occurred : 9/1/1994 20:00 (Entered as : 090194 20:00) Reported: 2/13/2017 3:41:40 PM 15:41 Posted: 2/17/2017 Location: Wellton, AZ Shape: Unknown Duration: 1 hour Characteristics: There were lights on the object, There was an aura or haze around the object, The object landed, The object made a sound, There were electrical or magnetic effects
Megatron in the bushes