This story was once told by American ufologist Leonard Stringfield, who was quite well-known in the second half of the 20th century. He personally met with the witnesses and questioned them for details about the incident.
It happened on the night of July 3, 1955, around 3:30 AM, in the rural area of Georgia, USA, near the town of Stockton. A woman named Simmonds, along with her husband Wesley, was driving on the highway toward Florida to spend their vacation there. She was driving, while her husband slept in the back seat of the car.
Suddenly, in the headlights, she saw a group of four short men on the road ahead. They were a little under 1 meter tall, dressed in gray-green cloaks and wide-brimmed hats.
The woman managed to closely observe their appearance, noting their long claws, large eyes “like saucers” without pupils that glowed red, and long hooked noses “like carrots” on their faces. Their skin and limbs were gray in color.
Overall, these beings appeared to the woman as bizarre, dwarf-like caricature witches, as commonly depicted in Western culture.
Witness Sketch
Realizing she was about to run over these beings, the woman screamed loudly, turned the wheel, and swerved around them on the roadside. She didn’t think of stopping and continued driving. However, her scream woke her husband, and she told him about the beings she had seen.
Her husband was very interested in them and asked his wife to turn back to look at them, but the woman was so frightened that she flatly refused.
“It really sounds like a spooky story when you tell it to others. But it’s not the same when you see it yourself. It really scares you,” Mrs. Simmonds recounted.
Later, she remembered another strange aspect—when she swerved around the beings on the roadside, they barely moved, only taking a small step back. It was as if they hadn’t noticed the car with the people until that moment.
As for what these beings were doing in a group in the middle of the road, Mrs. Simmonds believed they were digging something. She noticed sticks in their hands, resembling those of shovels.
Leonard Stringfield thoroughly questioned this woman about whether she had seen a UFO before or after the incident that night, but she answered no. Interviews with local residents and other drivers also indicated that UFOs were not involved.
The identity of these beings remains unknown. Were they simply children in carnival costumes? But what would they be doing on a deserted road late at night? Pranksters? But the same question applies. This was a rural road where there weren’t many cars even during the day, especially in the 1950s.