THINK ABOUTIT ABDUCTION REPORT

Date: August 12, 1983

Sighting Time: Approximately 1:00 a.m.

Day/Night: Night

Location: Basingstoke Canal towpath, Aldershot, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Urban or Rural: Rural

No. of Entity(‘s): 2

Entity Type: Small humanoid

Entity Description: Approximately four feet tall, dressed in pale green coveralls from head to foot, helmets of the same color with blacked-out visors. No facial features observed.

Hynek Classification: CE-IV (Close Encounter IV) Abduction — the witness was taken aboard the craft, subjected to examination, and subsequently released.

Duration: Estimated 15–25 minutes (boarding, examination, and return)

No. of Object(s): 1

Height & Speed: Landed on towpath; departed at very high speed with a whining electrical sound

Size of Object(s): Not precisely estimated; large enough to contain an octagonal chamber with standing room (requiring a tall man to stoop)

Distance to Object(s): Adjacent — witness walked to and boarded the craft

Shape of Object(s): Saucer-shaped

Color/Description of Object(s): Brilliant light during descent; black metallic interior; octagonal chamber with a central shaft approximately four feet in circumference running floor to ceiling; no visible nuts, bolts, or seams; faint smell of decaying meat inside

Number of Witnesses: 1 (Alfred Burtoo; his dog Tiny reacted but was not taken aboard)

Source: Jenny Randles, Alien Contact: The First 50 Years, p. 102; Timothy Good, Beyond Top Secret, pp. 87–93

Summary/Description:

A 77-year-old retired man was night-fishing the Basingstoke Canal near a Ministry of Defence installation when a brilliant light descended and settled on the towpath. Two small humanoid figures in green coveralls approached and gestured for him to follow. Burtoo calmly set down his tea and accompanied them to a landed saucer-shaped craft, which he entered via steps. Inside a seamless, octagonal black metallic chamber, he was directed to stand beneath an orange scanning light. After several minutes, one entity asked his age in a “sing-song” voice. When he replied that he was 78, the being declared him “too old and infirm” for their purposes and dismissed him. Burtoo walked back to his fishing spot, drank his cold tea, and watched the craft depart at high speed with a whining electrical sound. He resumed fishing.

The Encounter

In the small hours of August 12, 1983, Alfred Burtoo was doing what he had done countless times before — sitting on the bank of the Basingstoke Canal near Aldershot, Hampshire, with his fishing rod, a Thermos of tea, and his dog Tiny for company. The canal towpath ran alongside Government Road, adjacent to a Ministry of Defence facility, a stretch Burtoo knew intimately from years of early-morning angling sessions. At approximately 1:00 a.m., a brilliant light descended from the sky and came to rest on the towpath nearby. Burtoo’s first assumption was prosaic: a helicopter from the nearby MOD base. He poured himself a cup of tea and paid it no further attention.

That indifference didn’t last. Tiny began whining urgently — unusual behavior for the dog — and two figures materialized from the darkness. They were approximately four feet tall, encased head to foot in pale green coveralls with matching helmets. Their visors were completely blacked out, rendering their faces invisible. The beings communicated nothing verbally at this point; they simply gestured for Burtoo to follow them. With a pragmatism that would become the hallmark of his account, the 77-year-old set down his cup of tea and walked with them along the towpath toward what he could now see was a saucer-shaped craft resting on the ground.

Burtoo climbed a set of steps into the object and found himself inside a black, metallic, octagonal chamber. The ceiling was low enough that he had to stoop. The interior was seamless — no nuts, bolts, rivets, or any visible method of construction. A central shaft, roughly four feet in circumference, extended from floor to ceiling. Two more entities, similar in appearance to his escorts, stood to the right of the shaft. A faint odor of decaying meat permeated the space. One of the beings directed Burtoo to stand beneath an amber-orange light, which appeared to scan him for several minutes. Then came a question, delivered in what Burtoo described as a “sing-song” voice that sounded like “a mixture of Chinese and Russian”: “What is your age?” Burtoo replied that he was 78. The response was immediate and blunt: “You can go. You are too old and infirm for our purposes.”

Burtoo climbed back down the steps and walked to his fishing spot. His first act was to pick up his cold cup of tea and drink it. Moments later, a whining noise — like an electric generator spinning up — filled the air, and the craft lifted off and departed at extraordinary speed. Burtoo’s reaction was characteristic: “I got into what I had come out for — the fishing.” He later described the experience as “the greatest experience of my life,” despite what amounted to a rejection.

Researcher’s Notes

Witness Credibility and the “Too Old” Factor: Alfred Burtoo’s account derives much of its strength from the witness himself. A 77-year-old retired man with no history of interest in UFOs, no desire for publicity, and no financial motive, Burtoo reported what happened to him with the same unflappable practicality he brought to his fishing. He went public through local researchers and cooperated with Timothy Good and Jenny Randles — two of the most rigorous investigators working in British ufology at the time. Crucially, Burtoo died in 1986, only three years after the event, which forecloses any theory of long-term profit motive or attention-seeking. His account never wavered in its details across multiple retellings. The “rejection” element — being dismissed as too old — is an unusual and counterintuitive narrative detail that argues against fabrication. A hoaxer constructing a dramatic abduction story would be unlikely to cast himself as a failed candidate.

The MOD Proximity: The Basingstoke Canal towpath near Aldershot sits adjacent to one of the densest concentrations of military facilities in southern England, including Army installations and Ministry of Defence properties. This proximity cuts two ways analytically. It provides a ready mundane explanation for unusual lights and activity in the area — military exercises, test flights, flares — and Burtoo’s own initial reaction (assuming the light was a helicopter) reflects this. However, the description of what he encountered — a landed saucer with seamless construction, small humanoid occupants in green coveralls, and an interior chamber with no recognizable technology — does not match any known British military hardware or experimental aircraft of the early 1980s. The MOD connection also raises the question of whether the location was chosen deliberately by the occupants, though this remains speculative.

Interior Details and Construction Anomalies: Burtoo’s description of the craft’s interior is notable for its specificity and its consistency with a pattern seen across CE-IV reports from different decades and cultures. The seamless construction — no visible fasteners, joints, or seams — appears repeatedly in abduction accounts (Betty and Barney Hill, 1961; Pascagoula, 1973; Travis Walton, 1975). The central floor-to-ceiling shaft is a less common but documented feature. The octagonal chamber geometry and the amber-orange scanning light are details that do not map neatly onto either science fiction conventions of the period or known military interior configurations. The smell of “decaying meat” is an unusual and somewhat unpleasant detail that would serve no purpose in a fabricated narrative but could indicate biological processes, organic materials, or atmospheric differences within the craft.

The “Purposes” Question: The entity’s statement — “You are too old and infirm for our purposes” — implies a selection criterion and a specific operational objective. Burtoo is not the only witness to report being evaluated and rejected. Carl Higdon, abducted near Medicine Bow, Wyoming, in 1974, reported being returned after his captors apparently discovered he had undergone a vasectomy — suggesting interest in reproductive capacity. Luís Oswald, an elderly Brazilian woman abducted in 1979, described a lengthy examination followed by the declaration that she was “of no use.” These parallel accounts, drawn from witnesses who had no contact with one another across different countries and decades, suggest either a persistent cultural motif in confabulated abduction narratives or a consistent operational pattern by the entities involved. The Burtoo case, with its matter-of-fact witness and its specific age-based rejection criterion, remains one of the clearest examples in the record.

Alfred Burtoo’s night on the Basingstoke Canal towpath produced one of the most humanly compelling CE-IV accounts in British ufological history — not because of what happened to him inside the craft, but because of who he was when it happened. A man in his late seventies, alone with his dog and his tea, who followed two unknown beings into an unknown machine, got told he was past his useful date, walked back to his fishing rod, and carried on. He told his story clearly and without embellishment to credible investigators, never sought compensation, and died three years later. The case resists easy dismissal precisely because the witness had nothing to gain and because the narrative contains details — the rejection, the cold tea, the seamless octagonal chamber — that a fabricator would be unlikely to invent. Whatever happened on that towpath in August 1983, Alfred Burtoo reported it honestly, and the record is better for it.

SEO Metadata

Page Title: 1983: Alfred Burtoo CE-IV — Aldershot, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Meta Description: In August 1983, 77-year-old Alfred Burtoo was taken aboard a landed saucer while night-fishing the Basingstoke Canal near Aldershot, Hampshire. After an orange-light examination, the entities dismissed him as too old for their purposes. A landmark CE-IV case documented by Timothy Good and Jenny Randles.

Keywords/Tags: Alfred Burtoo, 1983, Aldershot, Hampshire, Basingstoke Canal, CE-IV, abduction, saucer, Ministry of Defence, Timothy Good, Jenny Randles, entity encounter, United Kingdom

Image Prompt

Dossier-style intelligence reconstruction of an elderly man in a flat cap and waxed jacket standing on a dark canal towpath at night, Thermos flask and fishing rod visible on the bank behind him, facing two small figures approximately four feet tall in pale green coveralls and opaque-visored helmets, a saucer-shaped craft resting on the towpath beyond them emitting a soft amber-white glow from its underside, the silhouette of a small dog visible near the fishing gear, the Basingstoke Canal reflecting the craft’s light in a long ripple, atmosphere of quiet rural England disrupted by the alien presence, 1983 period-appropriate grain structure with Fujicolor warm shift, muted palette with one restrained amber accent from the craft’s glow, grainy surveillance-camera texture, tactical HUD overlay with thin crosshairs and coordinates reading 51.2485°N 0.7619°W, stamped classification strip reading EYES ONLY — MOD SECTOR ALDERSHOT, credit strip at bottom: thinkaboutitdocs.com — UAP/Entity Archive by Date.

Image SEO Title: 1983 Alfred Burtoo CE-IV Encounter — Basingstoke Canal Towpath, Aldershot, Hampshire

Image Alt Text: Dossier-style reconstruction of Alfred Burtoo on the Basingstoke Canal towpath at night facing two small green-suited entities near a landed saucer-shaped craft August 1983

Image Caption: Alfred Burtoo’s August 1983 encounter on the Basingstoke Canal — taken aboard, examined, and dismissed as “too old and infirm for our purposes.”

Image Description: Intelligence-aesthetic reconstruction of the Alfred Burtoo CE-IV encounter near Aldershot, Hampshire, August 12, 1983. The scene depicts the 77-year-old witness on the dark canal towpath confronting two four-foot humanoid entities in green coveralls and blacked-out visor helmets, with a landed saucer-shaped craft glowing amber behind them. Burtoo’s fishing gear and Thermos are visible on the bank, and his dog Tiny is silhouetted near the rod. The Basingstoke Canal reflects the craft’s light. Period-accurate 1983 Fujicolor grain, surveillance texture, HUD overlay with Aldershot coordinates, and MOD classification stamp. Credit: thinkaboutitdocs.com — UAP/Entity Archive by Date.

Aldershot, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Night Fishing

As 77-year-old Alfred Burtoo was fishing the Basingstoke Canal in the peaceful early hours of the morning of August 12, 1983, he saw a brilliant light descend from the sky and settle on the nearby towpath.

Thinking it must be a helicopter from the nearby MOD base, he took no notice, and poured himself a cup of tea from his Thermos flask. Then his dog, Tiny, began whining furiously and two figures emerged from the darkness.

“They were about four foot high, dressed in pale green coveralls from head to foot,” Burtoo told reporters. “And they had helmets of the same colour with a visor that was blacked out.”

The strangers gestured to Burtoo to accompany them. Calmly setting down his cup of tea, the intrepid pensioner follow them along the towpath towards a saucer-shaped craft. “I was 77 and didn’t have much to lose,” he later explained.

Inside the Saucer

Climbing up a set of steps into the saucer, Burtoo discovered that the ceiling was so low he had to stoop. He found himself inside a black, metallic octagonal chamber, which smelt slightly of decaying meat.

“I did not see any signs of nuts or bolts, nor did I see any seams where the object had been put together,” he recalled. “What did interest me most of all was a shaft that rose up from the floor to the ceiling. The shaft was about four feet in circumference, and on the right-hand side stood two forms similar to those that walked along the towpath with me.”

One of the beings told the old man to stand beneath an orange light, which appeared to scan him for a few minutes. “What is your age?” asked the entity, in a “sing-song” voice which sounded like “a mixture of Chinese and Russian”. When he replied that he was 78, it declared: “You can go. You are too old and infirm for our purposes.” Bemused, Burtoo climbed down from the saucer and returned to his fishing spot.

“The first thing I did… was to pick up my cold cup of tea and drink it,” he recalled. “And then I heard this whining noise, just as if an electric generator was starting up, and this thing lifted up then took off at a very high speed.”

Apparently unfazed by his bizarre encounter, Burtoo resumed the task at hand. “I got into what I had come out for – the fishing!” Despite his rather curt reception, he later declared his nocturnal adventure to have been “the greatest experience of my life”.

Quality Control?

Alfred Burtoo is not alone in having apparently failed an alien medical test. American abductee Carl Higdon believed that he had been rejected as a guinea pig for a hybrid breeding program because his captors discovered that he had had a vasectomy.

Likewise, Luis Oswald, an elderly Brazilian abducted in 1979 by beings who claimed to be from “a small galaxy near Neptune”, reported that she had endured a lengthy examination then been told she was “of no use”.

Source & References:

Jenny Randles: Alien Contact: The First 50 Years, p102. Timothy Good: Beyond Top Secret, pp87-93. Photograph of Burtoo-Timothy Good