PASCAGOULA, Miss. (UPI) -- Two shipyard workers say they were taken aboard a glowing blue spacecraft by buzzing creatures with silvery, wrinkled skin.
Sheriff Fred Diamond is sure "something did happen to them."
"These are reliable people," Diamond said. "They had no reason to say this if not been true. I know something did to them."
"I was scared and I'm still scared and up over it," said one of the men.
Charles Hickson, 42. "I've never experienced anything like that and I never will again."
Whatever happened took place around 7 p.m. Thursday night while Hickson and Calvin Parker, 19, were fishing off an old pier on the west bank of the Pascagoula River near here.
They said they saw a strange object approaching in the sky, emitting a bluish haze, and then were taken inside the craft by the three creatures.
Both men were questioned at length by Jackson County sheriff's office but were reluctant to talk to newsmen.
"All of a sudden we heard something like a buzzing sound," said Hickson, "and what looked like a bright, flashing blue light. It looked bluish to me. All it seemed to stop."
He said it appeared to be "hovering" a feet over the ground and "one end just opened ... and I saw three things coming out. They seemed to be floating across the water a couple of feet high."
"Before I knew it they were on me and two of them had me by each arm and immediately I was lifted from the ground. I was quite scared. It's hard to recall exactly what did happen."
"A big eye"
He said he was carried to the "vehicle" where he was examined 'by some kind of ... it reminded me of a big eye" which "covered my entire body."
Parker, who also works at a local shipyard, said he was taken to the craft too, but passed out shortly after the creatures appeared and could not remember what happened afterward.
Both men admitted to authorities they took "a stiff drink" after they were released, but said they had not been drinking before. Chief Deputy Barney Matin's said they definitely were not intoxicated.
