On Tuesday, August 3, 1965, Rex Heflin was driving his truck along the Santa Ana Freeway in Los Angeles to inspect the sides of Myford Road: his job was to check if vegetation had overgrown along the roadside.
Event Summary
Around 11:30 a.m., according to his original testimony, he pulled over to the side of the road to send a radio message to the road services headquarters. After a few seconds, the radio was filled with static and then completely cut off. Two of his coworkers, who were in another service vehicle, intercepted the radio exchange between Rex Heflin and HQ. Both confirmed they heard the static and the communication cut.
After a few minutes trying to get the radio working again, Heflin noticed a strange object silently hovering on the other side of the road. The object stopped near the road for a moment. Heflin then grabbed the camera he used for work (a Polaroid Model 101) and took the first photo.
The object crossed the road and passed in front of the truck. While taking the second photo, Heflin noticed that the underside of the object had what looked like a rotating beacon.
He took a third photo. He continued observing the extraordinary craft, which now headed north toward Saddleback Mountain. It began to speed up and then, suddenly, vanished—leaving behind a strange ring of black smoke in the sky. The sighting lasted about two minutes.
Given the distance where the object disappeared, Rex Heflin started his vehicle and drove toward the smoke ring: he managed to take a fourth photo before it completely faded.
The Four Photos Taken by Heflin
The first was taken through the front windshield of his truck, the second and third through the driver’s side window, and the last one outside. In this last photo, you can see a black smoke ring left behind by the craft after its departure.
Here’s a YouTube comment I found particularly interesting:
Those photos were in my house for one night when I was a kid. My dad worked for the Orange County Road Department knew Rex Heflin at work. One day my dad brought these photos home. We only had them in our house for that night. My dad told us later that Rex had sent them to Life magazine. They told him they were good photos, but that the subject was too controversial at that time. 30 years later, I was looking at the Time-Life “Mysteries of the Unknown” books. I turned a page and there they were.
