A piece of extremely hard metal found after a UFO landing on the Swedish island of Waddo is of interest not only to ufologists. More than once they tried to buy it from the owner for large sums. There were also those who, wishing to take possession of a mysterious piece of metal, went to a crime.
Meeting with the unknown
Carpenters Stig Ekberg and Harry Sieberg from Stockholm were building a summer house on the island for a wealthy businessman. On weekends, they returned to the city to buy the necessary materials and relax. It's easy to do: Waddo is connected to the mainland by several bridges.
On the evening of November 11, 1956, the carpenters were returning from Stockholm to Waddo to continue their work early in the morning. Ekberg was driving the recently purchased pickup. Suddenly, the headlights of the car began to dim, and the engine began to work intermittently.
“I looked up and saw a bright object,” Stig later recalled. - Then I thought that a military plane with searchlights was flying. I pointed at him to Harry, and he decided that we were in front of ball lightning. But I read somewhere that lightning is never bigger than a soccer ball, and the object we saw was much larger.
While the carpenters were arguing, an unidentified flying object slowly approached the car. The motor finally stalled. The Stig and Harry watched in silence as the huge object, a flattened ball at the poles, descended, rocking back and forth. He landed on the road 100 meters from the car.
The night has turned into day. A bright light flooded everything around, but for some reason did not blind my eyes. Harry even saw a shed half a kilometer from the car. The edges of the UFO extended far beyond the road. The partners estimated its diameter at 8-10 meters. There was a gap between the bottom and the road, filled with glowing vapor. The object appeared yellow from above and below, and red-orange to the right and left. The contours of the hull trembled as if a layer of hot air surrounded it.
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For 10 minutes, the carpenters looked at the UFO, deciding whether to get out of the car or stay in it. And then the question was resolved by itself. The light intensified, the UFO rose above the ground, made a sharp turn and flew away.
Strange find
As soon as the UFO disappeared, Stig took a flashlight and went to see what was wrong with the motor. It was difficult for people to breathe. The air smelled of ozone and smoldering insulation. Everything turned out to be in order under the hood. The headlights came on and the car started on the first try.
Then the men decided to inspect the landing site. They saw that the grass on both sides of the road was flattened in semicircles. Something glittered on the ground. Ekberg picked up the object and almost dropped it - it was very hot. In his hands was a smooth, triangular piece of metal the size of a matchbox. “In addition to the heat, we were surprised that the piece was incredibly heavy for its size,” Stig recalled. - So I hid the metal in the glove compartment of the car, and did not throw it away.
The carpenters tried to tell their friends and acquaintances about what had happened, but they only heard ridicule.
A few months later, Stig met a familiar jeweler and remembered the strange metal. The jeweler suggested that it might be platinum, and advised to take the piece to some laboratory. The Stig did just that. It turned out that it was not platinum, and the carpenters lost interest in the find again.
Three more years passed. Once Stig Ekberg got into a conversation in a bookstore with a man who was interested in fresh literature about UFOs. It turned out to be ufologist Daniel Glantz, who, after hearing the story of the Stig, persuaded him to hand over the sample to specialists.
Several Swedish laboratories took the metal for analysis, but could not find out anything. They sent Stig to other cities, assuring that there is good equipment and specialists who know a lot about rafting. In the laboratory of the city of Oxelosund, scientists decided to subject the alloy to analysis, for which it was necessary to crush part of the sample into powder. The piece remained unharmed, and the repair of the crushing machine cost 20 thousand crowns!
Unhealthy interest
During unsuccessful attempts to find out what kind of metal it was, the sample was sawn into three parts with an ultrasonic gun. But one of the units was kidnapped under strange circumstances. Sven Schalin from Saab, who took part in the study, invited Stig to his dacha. A US Air Force major, who did not speak Swedish, was waiting for them there. Shalin had to work as a translator. The major offered to study the find in the best laboratories of the Air Force and send copies of the analyzes. The Stig handed over a small piece. He saw neither the man in uniform nor the specimen again.
Then Shalin said that he did not remember any major. Either he had something to hide, or a skilled hypnotist worked on his memory.
“When they wrote about our story in the newspaper, a lot of strange things happened,” Ekberg said. - Someone called me and offered 50 thousand crowns for the remaining piece, and if I agree, he will come with the money in half an hour. Then someone broke into my car and searched the glove compartment. At the same time, the unfortunate thief lost his medical insurance in the name of a student from Uppsala at the crime scene.
But the police could not interrogate him - he had already returned to America. Someone had broken into and ransacked the boat station where I worked at that time, my house and even neighboring houses. Letters and parcels that I sent to relatives arrived openly or did not arrive at all.
Ekberg began to suspect that the police did not want to get in the way of the American intelligence services. To end the persecution, he came to the Soviet embassy with metal in his hands and offered to hand it over to Russian scientists.
“We know what it is,” the embassy official replied. “But we are not interested in such things.
Stig left in bewilderment, deciding that in the fall of 1956, he and Harry saw the landing of a Russian aircraft. He did not believe in aliens from the very beginning. The third piece was kept by Harry Sieberg. The carpenter used it instead of a diamond - the sharp edge cut glass perfectly. When Harry died, there was no longer a piece among his personal belongings. Most likely, Sieberg hid the sample well and did not have time to tell about the cache before his death. Or the piece was found by those who hunted for it.
An unexpected epilogue
In 1972, the American newspaper National Inquirer promised to pay $ 50,000 for reliable proof of the existence of a UFO. Ufologist Sten Lindgren persuaded Stig to take a chance. Just in case, the sample was insured for a large amount.
The new research was conducted by Professor James Harder of the University of Berkeley. He was a UFO enthusiast with a stake in success. The sample contained tungsten carbide with impurities of cobalt and titanium. A rare rafting could not accidentally get on a country road. The alloy was processed under tremendous pressure. In metallurgy, such a force is not used. Apparatus capable of developing it can only be found at a factory for the production of artificial diamonds.
Although the quality of the metal was outstanding, it was not considered alien. Journalists refused to consider the alloy as evidence of an alien visit. However, no one received 50 thousand dollars that year.
“Such an alloy is not suitable for heat shields because of its weight,” said engineer Udo Fischer. - In addition, it conducts and retains heat very well, and at a temperature of 500-600 ° C it begins to deteriorate. It is difficult to imagine how a material with such characteristics can be used in an aircraft.
The Swedish Ministry of Defense became interested in the rafting later than everyone else. Analysis in 1983 confirmed Fischer and Harder's findings.
Why have thieves hunted for so many years for a piece of metal that is almost indistinguishable from terrestrial alloys? Swedish ufologists believe that the value of a sample is not in the chemical composition. It can contain important information.
If you donate memory from a flash drive for analysis, the chemist will find nothing in it except silicon and rare earth metals. Those who tried to take possession of the Waddo alloy sample understood its value and could recognize the hidden contents. Perhaps in the future it will be possible to understand what secrets an ordinary-looking metal sample hides.