Travis Walton

The woo is out there UFOlogy

Aliens did it...

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...and ran away

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Travis Walton was allegedly abducted by aliens near Snowflake, Arizona on November 5, 1975.

The story

Walton and six other loggers were being driven home from their logging site in Sitgreaves National Forest by their employer Mike Rogers, when what appeared to be a saucer-shaped object was seen in the forest. Walton jumped out of the truck and ran towards the object, which reportedly zapped him with a beam of light. Rogers sped away, leaving Walton. Five days later, Walton reappeared at a local gas station saying that he'd been held aboard a UFO by aliens.

Problems with the story

• Walton and his family believed they'd seen numerous UFOs over the years and were obsessed with the idea of alien contact.
• As a UFO enthusiast, Walton would have been aware the National Enquirer offered a $5000 reward for "positive proof" of an extraterrestrial encounter.
• Walton and the other crew members divided the $5000 and gave exclusive story rights to the Enquirer.
• Walton's medical exams and initial failed-but-kept-secret polygraph test were set up and paid for by the National Enquirer.
• Walton's supposed abduction provided the much-needed "act of god" that enabled logging contractor Mike Rogers to avoid costly penalties due to the crew falling far behind schedule.
• Walton and Rogers could have easily rigged up a glowing light or other prop to make the other five think they'd seen a UFO.
• Faced with embarrassing questions, the Walton family decided they would only talk to people who did not doubt the abduction-by-aliens story.

What it tells us about aliens

Extraterrestrial visitors who possess technology sophisticated enough to evade detection by NORAD, levitate objects on beams of light, and the power to erase human memories will invariably choose to hang around remote, woodsy areas on the off chance that some guy dressed like the construction worker in the Village People will wander close to their spaceship.

What it tells us about polygraph tests

Over the years, Walton has maintained that his story is true because he arranged for, and passed an additional number of polygraph tests, which he says conclusively prove he wasn't lying. But when Walton failed a polygraph test on Fox network's The Moment of Truth show in 2008, he argued that polygraph tests can be rigged and are unreliable. In 2002, the American Academy of Sciences called the polygraph "a danger to national security".