Today's story is about 1 of the most famous paranormal events in history, but it's not famous because of how outlandish the details are. Instead, it's famous for its credibility. Not only were there 12 witnesses who saw this thing happen, but also there was a NASA engineer who investigated this event and ultimately concluded that it must have happened because of tangible proof. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload once a week. So if that's of interest to you, please replace the like button stick deodorant with cream cheese.

Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay. Let's get into today's story. Around 9 pm on December 29, 1980, a 57 year old woman named Vicki Landrum rode in the front seat of her friend Betty Cash's car, while her 7 year old grandson named Colby, who she was raising sat between them. The 3 of them had just had dinner at a truck stop and were now on their way home driving down a dark wooded highway near Huffman, Texas, which is a small town about 30 miles northeast of Houston.

As they drove down the road, Vicki began to notice the windshield was fogging up from how cold it was outside and how warm it was inside the car, and so Vicki turned on the defroster. And as the windshield began to clear, Vicki noticed this bright light right out in front of them up over the trees. And at first, Vicki just figured, you know, they were close to the Houston airport and so that light must just be an airplane. But as the trio continued driving down this winding highway road, that light that Vicki really thought was a plain landing appeared to just kind of hover in the trees, and actually as they drove, the light almost appeared to get closer and closer to them. So it didn't really seem like it was a plain.

Now at first, Vicki thought this was just kind of interesting and was curious about this light, but as they got closer and closer to this light, it became very obvious that the inside of the car was getting much warmer and stuffier than any of the heat settings would allow it to get to the point where Vicki was actually sweating and panting from the heat. Now all of this was happening really quickly and so Vicki sort of went from being curious to being kind of anxious. Look what was going on here? Like does this light have something to do with the heat they're experiencing in the car? And then all of a sudden the light that appeared to be sort of behind the trees suddenly came right out in front of the car and Vicky screamed at Betty, stop.

And Becky jammed on the brakes and they came to a stop and blocking their path maybe a 100 feet in front of them, just hovering over the road is this strange looking aircraft aimed right at them. This craft was the strange light. For a moment, all 3 of them just stared in shock at this craft, like it was so unexpected and so unbelievable that this had happened. But then Vicky who's sitting there still panting and sweating, you know, she's looking out and she's realizing this craft she's looking at looks nothing like any other aircraft she had ever seen. The craft was a bit bigger than a car.

It was diamond shaped, and it was letting out these strange loud roaring sounds almost like an engine. It appeared to be glowing red hot and periodically with those loud roaring sounds it was making, fire would appear to shoot out the bottom of the craft scorching the pavement right under it. And again, the strange craft is just hovering there right over the ground appeared to be aimed directly at Vicky, Betty, and Colby. Pretty quickly, Colby began to cry. He was scared.

But Betty, the driver, she said she couldn't go anywhere. You know, the road was too thin. She couldn't really turn around very easily and she couldn't drive straight and go under the craft and risk being burned by the flames, and so they were just kinda trapped there. And so Vicki and Betty sort of looked at each other like, okay. We're just gonna we're gonna wait it out and hope this craft just eventually flies away.

But after several minutes and the craft still had not departed, it was still blocking their way and periodically spitting fire into the ground, Vicki and Betty are like, well, let's get out and see what's going on here. Let's investigate. By this point, their fear and anxiety around this had sort of been replaced by just genuine human curiosity. I mean, what the heck is this thing? And so Betty, the driver, she gets out and Vicki, she tells her grandson stay in the car.

So Colby's right here and Vicki gets out and the second she does and she now has an unobstructed view at this craft, she suddenly remembered this bible verse. So Vicki was very religious and she had read in the bible that 1 day Jesus would return to the earth and when he did he would return in a rain of fire. And so all of a sudden, Vicki believed that what she was looking at was not some aircraft, but the second coming of Jesus Christ. This was like a highly spiritual moment for her. Her, but just as Vicki was about to go forward and actually inspect this thing up close, she heard Colby call out for her.

He was crying hysterically. He was totally scared and upset, and so this kind of broke Vicki out of her trance. She turned around and went back to the car to comfort Colby. And when she got back to the car, she found Colby scrunched up on the floor underneath the dashboard like he was trying to shield himself from this craft. And so Vicki, she got right down there with him.

She wrapped her arms around Colby and began praying with him to try to calm him down. But while Vicki and Colby were praying inside the car, Betty remained outside of the car just staring at this craft. And it went on like this for about 10 minutes until Vicki who still tucked down there with Colby heard that roaring sound coming from the aircraft get noticeably louder like it was about to do something. And so Vicky poked her head up and she looked out the windshield and sure enough this craft was beginning to take off. It was getting higher and higher off the ground, flames were shooting out the bottom of it, Betty was still outside staring at it, and then before long this craft had shot straight up into the air and began taking off up and away from them at a really steep angle, and at the same time, Vicki suddenly saw the swarm of all these helicopters, these military style helicopters go right up around this craft like they were escorting it, and then the craft and all these helicopters took off into the horizon and disappeared.

After they were all gone, Vicki realized that what she had just witnessed was not the second coming of Christ. Because of these military helicopters that arrived as this craft took off, it told Vicki and also Betty that very likely this was just a US military exercise of some sort. And so a few moments later, Betty came back to the car and sat in the driver's seat and Vicki, she climbed back into her seat and lifted Colby up to the middle seat as well. And for a moment, the 3 of them just sat there in silence. I mean, there's nothing blocking their way anymore.

They're just sort of trying to process what just happened. Eventually, Betty just put the car in drive and began driving straight ahead, crossing right over that scorch mark on the pavement where the craft had been. About 45 minutes later, Betty pulled up to Vicki's house and parked the car. Vicki and Colby, they got out, they said goodbye to Betty, they didn't really talk about what they had just seen, they just said goodnight, and then Vicki and Colby headed inside the house. And as much as both of them did have things to say about whatever it was they saw, they just continued not to talk about it.

They both were just kind of eager to go to bed. However, as Vicki was putting Colby to bed, he began to complain that his stomach hurt, and at the same time, Vicki began to realize that she also didn't feel very well. And shortly after that, both of them were vomiting in the bathroom, and this scared Vicki. You know, she tried to tell herself that, you know, maybe the reason they were sick is because they ate some bad food at that truck stop. But deep down, Vicki was very concerned that their nausea was somehow connected to that strange craft.

And so it was a very long night with Vicki and Colby being nauseous most of the time, but eventually they both did fall asleep. And then when Vicki got up the next morning, she still felt awful. And so Vicki, she rolled out of bed and made her way to the bathroom and when she looked at herself in the mirror, she gasped. Her skin was bright red and blistered like she'd had this horrible sunburn. At this point, she knew whatever was going on here, it had to do with that craft.

She just knew it. And so Vicki instinctively rushed to Colby's room to check on him to see if his skin was all blistered and red and she found he was still sleeping, but she could see his skin skin was red and blistered in some places but not nearly as bad as Vicky's. And so Vicky, she began thinking about the night before and she remembered she had gotten out of the car and gotten closer to the craft, so she was sort of more exposed to the craft if you will than Colby who stayed in the car and tucked himself down underneath the dashboard the whole time. And so maybe Vicki's exposure to the craft was higher than Colby's which is why she looked worse. But as Vicki was thinking this through, she remembered that Betty had actually stayed outside the car for 10, 15 minutes, much longer than Vicki had the whole time just staring directly at this craft.

And so immediately Vicki was worried that, you know, if this is what happened to me, I can only imagine what shape Betty is in. And so Vicki ran to the phone, she picked it up and she dialed Betty's number and she listened and it just kept on ringing and ringing. Betty didn't answer. Now at this point, Vicky was in a full blown panic, not only because she was worried about Betty, but also, you know, she doesn't really know what's wrong with her or with Colby. She doesn't know if their sickness is gonna get worse or better.

Currently, she felt horrible. She was nauseous. Her skin seemed to be practically falling off. Colby was in less bad shape but still not healthy. And also, Vicki didn't have the money to even go to the doctor to get looked at.

And so as much as Vicky really wanted right now to just go check on Betty, go drive to her house and check on her, she couldn't. She needed to focus on herself and her grandson first and make sure they were okay before she did anything else. And so over the next few days, Vicki and Colby stayed home, they slowly regained their strength, and over those few days, Vicki actually would get Betty on the phone and Betty would tell her that, yes, she's also dealing with similar symptoms, but she was okay, which was very reassuring to Vicki. However, Vicki also knew that Betty was not a complainer and even if she did have horrendous symptoms, she was not the type of person who would necessarily tell Vicki. She would sort of tough it out.

Finally, after 5 days, Vicky felt strong enough to go check on Betty in person. However, when she got to Betty's house and went inside, she called out for Betty, but there was no answer. The house was eerily quiet, And so Vicki began walking around Betty's house looking for Betty, and eventually Vicki walked down a hallway and reached Betty's bedroom and the door was shut. Vicki called out for Betty, but there was no answer from inside. And so feeling kind of scared at this point, Vicki reached down, she turned the handle and opened the door and immediately she saw Betty on her bed and Betty looked horrible.

She was barely conscious. Her entire body was red and blistered and bleeding. There was vomit all over the bed sheets and there were all these huge clumps of Betty's hair littering her pillow. And so, Vicki was horrified. She rushed inside.

She scooped her friend up and between the 2 of them they kind of hobbled out of the house. Vicki put Betty in her car and they sped to the hospital. A few hours later, Vicki was waiting in the emergency room where Betty was being treated when Betty's doctor walked into the waiting room at which point Vicki stood up and rushed over to him and said, hey, what's going on with Betty? You know, what happened to her? What's going on?

But the doctor just shook his head and said, you know, your friend, her skin is literally peeling off her face in sheets and there are blisters breaking out all over her body. He told Vicky that her symptoms reminded him of radiation poisoning. However, he also told Vicki that that was basically impossible. You know, for Betty, a woman who lives in rural Texas, you know, where would she go to come in contact with something that radioactive? It just seemed not possible.

So that couldn't be it. It. But Vicky, when she heard this felt like she knew exactly how Betty came in contact with something highly radioactive. It had to be that craft. And so without even thinking about it, Vicky began pouring out the story of how her and Betty had seen this light and then this craft appeared on the road and it was shooting fire and then it it flew off with helicopters all around it.

But as she was wrapping up her story, Vicki was suddenly overcome with embarrassment because the doctor was now staring at her like she was totally out of her mind. Thank you to better help for sponsoring today's video. As many of you may already know, therapy really changed my life when I got out of the military in 2017, but that change did not happen overnight. It took months before I had any sort of breakthrough, and during those months, it was often pretty uncomfortable for me. I mean, it's hard enough just internally thinking about your deepest darkest issues.

And so now imagine, you know, sitting in front of somebody you don't really know, pouring your heart out about these really sensitive things. It was a lot at first. Gradually, the more I showed up and continued working with my therapist, the more I sort of let my ego down and allowed the therapist to do their job. And over time, I really discovered that therapy is a very freeing experience. Being able to speak openly about these things that are troubling you to somebody who is non judgmental and can offer really distinct feedback and perspective that you just simply can't because you are yourself, you kind of think of yourself 1 way but the world sees you another.

That was really amazing for me. And so if you're struggling right now and you don't really know what to do about it, consider giving therapy a try. And 1 very accessible therapy option is BetterHelp. BetterHelp is on a mission to make starting therapy easier. It's entirely online and all you have to do is fill out a quick questionnaire online and then you'll be matched with a licensed therapist in as little as 2 days.

And if for some reason, you don't vibe with your therapist, you don't like them, you can switch therapists as many times as you want at no additional cost. If you're struggling and think you might benefit from a therapy session, click the link in the description below or go to better help.com/misterballen for 10% off your 1st month of therapy. A month later, in early February of 1981, Vicky was at her kitchen table with the phone pressed to her ear. She was calling her local senator who she had already written to to try to tell him about the strange aircraft she had seen that made her friend sick, but Vicki did not have high hopes about this phone call because she had already been ignored so many times by so many people when it came to the story. So by this point, Vicki and her grandson Colby had basically recovered from their nausea and their burns.

However, Betty had not recovered. She was still cycling in and out of the hospital. She was in constant pain. She still had burns all over her, and in fact, because of all these symptoms, she'd had to move in with her brother. Now, Vicki was certain that all these symptoms Betty had were radiation sickness caused by the radiation from this aircraft they came in contact with, but it was like everybody they told about this aircraft didn't believe them.

Just then, Vicki heard a woman's voice break through the hold music. It was the local senator secretary. And so Vicki quickly explained why she was calling and why she really wanted to talk to the local senator, but the secretary just told Vicki that, yep, she'll pass this along to the senator and he'll be in touch. And then she hung up. And for Vicki, this was the moment she snapped.

She felt like trying to navigate the proper channels to try to figure out what this aircraft was and what happened to Betty was not working because nobody was taking her seriously. And so Vicki slammed the phone down and just sat there frustrated having no idea what to do. But as she sat there, Vicki remembered there was actually 1 place she had not called yet specifically because she didn't want to call this place. It was a UFO research center, and Vicky hadn't called because she did not believe the craft she had seen was a UFO. She believed it was a military aircraft because she had seen the helicopters escorting it away and that made the most sense.

It had to be but if she called the UFO Research Center and people found out about that, it would make her look even crazier because now she's claiming the craft was was aliens or something. But now, Vicki felt like she had run out of options. So she picked up the phone, grabbed the piece of paper with the number on it, and dialed. A couple days later, a scientist named John Schuessler drove down the winding wooded highway into Huffman, Texas. He was going to meet up with Vicky.

John was an aerospace engineer for NASA. However, he also spent a lot of time investigating UFO sightings. Vicky's call to that UFO research center had created a lot of excitement in the UFO community and the story had eventually found its way to John who decided he would take on the case. Now to be clear, Jon was not into researching UFO sightings in order to prove they really happened. Actually, it was sort of the opposite.

He would look into reported UFO sightings in order to prove they were not UFO. He would find a rational scientific explanation that debunked the sighting. That's sort of what he did. And so with Vicki's case, that was his intention, to go to Huffman, Texas, talk to Vicki, and explain away with science and rationale what happened here. That this was not, you know, aliens.

This was something ordinary like a government aircraft. And so John eventually got to Vicky's house and he went inside and he chatted with Vicky and she talked him through all the details of the story and then eventually they both left Vicky's house. They hopped in their respective cars and headed out to go to the actual site where this had happened. And when they got there and John got out of the car, he didn't need Vicky to direct him to the specific site because right in front of him was this really obvious black circle right in the middle of the road as if the road itself had been melted and then re solidified and actually looked different. And Vicky said that's where it was.

That's where the craft was hovering. Those marks are from the craft. Now this was great evidence that a craft really had been here, but John wanted more. He needed to figure out what kind of craft this really was. And so he told Vicky he was gonna leave and go canvas the area for witnesses and he told her he would keep her updated.

So Vicky left and John drove up the road until he reached some campsites and farmhouses. And John systematically went from door to door and tent to tent asking anybody if they had seen or heard any aircraft or anything strange on the night of December 29th. Now going into this, John didn't really know what to expect from these people he was asking. I mean he's some random scientist showing up uninvited at people's homes asking if they'd seen strange lights in the sky. However, every single person he spoke to said that, yes, they had seen that aircraft on December 29th.

However, they were obviously just farther away than Vicki and Betty and Colby had been. So now, John felt like he had enough information to speak directly with military officials. However, when he contacted all the military bases in the area, all those officials he spoke to told him absolutely that on December 29th, there were 0 military operations happening. John found this very frustrating because to him it seemed very clear that these officials were just lying to him. But what they were lying about and why was unclear.

So John actually went to these military bases to speak to the officials face to face. And when he did, he showed them all the witness testimonies saying what they had seen on December 29th and he also told them that with his own eyes, he had seen the black scorched mark on the pavement where the pavement seemed to have literally melted in a ring and resolidified from the heat of this craft. And to John, I mean, that scorch mark almost proved something had been there. Very likely a military craft. But all these military leaders despite hearing this and hearing John's testimony, they just said, you know what?

You can gather up all the evidence you think you have here but it doesn't matter. It doesn't prove that we were in the area. There was no military craft there that night. And so the bottom line was the military was adamant they were not involved. And so the case really began to stall.

John went home but he couldn't stop thinking about the case and so he kept in touch with his witnesses and periodically checked in with military officials but nothing seemed to change except that Betty continued to get sicker and sicker and Vicki actually began to develop other serious symptoms like developing cataracts in 1 of her eyes. And then John got a frantic call from 1 of his witnesses. They told him they had just seen something truly incredible. And as John listened to the story, he felt his heart sink because now he knew the military had been lying to him about being out there on December 29th. Clearly they had been and very likely it was their aircraft that had made Betty, Vicky, and Colby so sick.

But now, John also knew that any hope he had of proving this was now literally gone because the witness told him that black government vehicles had rolled up to the incident site out on that road and they'd come along with construction vehicles and for no clear traffic related reason, they had cut up 1 particular stretch of that road, taken it with them, and left. And that particular stretch of road that was removed just happened to be the exact spot where that scorch mark had been left by the craft. It was like they were taking the evidence and getting rid of it. Now John himself was not able to literally go back to the road and see for himself where the pavement had been cut. However, not long after John learned this information, a group of UFO scientists descended on the road to find this scorch mark or to prove it had been cut out and taken away like the witness had said.

And sure enough, when they got out there, they didn't find the scorch mark. Instead, they found nice fresh brand new pavement. The strange event that Vicki, Betty and Colby experienced on the night of December 29, 1980 is widely considered to be 1 of the most famous and credible UFO sightings of all time. It's now known as the Cash Landrum incident after Betty and Vicki's last names and to this day, nobody has been able to come up with a rational explanation for what happened if it wasn't a UFO. To this day, the US government maintains that they did not have any military operations happening on December 29th.

However, they did say when it comes to cutting out the road and paving over it, that that was just for routine maintenance. They were not trying to hide evidence. As for Vicky and Betty, over the years, their health continued to deteriorate. They ultimately filed a lawsuit against the government but because they couldn't actually prove that the aircraft even existed or that it caused their health problems, their lawsuit was ultimately dismissed. Both women would eventually die from cancer which Colby believes is a direct result from radiation exposure.

As for Colby, he's still alive and continuing to seek answers. The official mister ballin podcast YouTube channel is back. This channel is the home for our exclusive mister ballin podcast episodes that you can't get anywhere else on YouTube. Which means, if you have not been listening to the mister ballin podcast on podcasting platforms to this point, Well guess what? All those exclusive episodes, all that new content you missed out on is now gonna be available to you on YouTube on this channel.

And there are literally hundreds of new stories that have only been audio only to this point. And so, we're talking about a whole bunch of new content for some of you. We post at least once a week on this channel, so make sure you subscribe to the channel right now, so you don't miss an episode. Also, to further entice you to check this channel out and hopefully subscribe to it, I have hidden a behind the scenes photo of me inside of my studio somewhere on this official mister ball and podcast YouTube channel. So go over there, subscribe to it and find that photo.

Now, here is a teaser from 1 of the mister ballin podcast episodes. Enjoy. On Wednesday, April 21st, 1 year and 5 days after Bill Harrison had died, 9 year old Mason Harrison left school at about 3 PM and walked home to pitch pine Crescent. This was unusual for Mason. Since leaving Nova Scotia and living with his grandmother and father, Mason really couldn't remember a time like today when neither of them had been there after school to get him and Mikaela.

But since Mason was now old enough to go home on his own, he figured he'd find his grandmother at the house and just remind her that she needed to go out and get his younger sister. And Mason didn't mind. It was a cloudy but mild afternoon and having this responsibility to walk home made him feel grown up. It was about 3:30 PM when Mason finally arrived home. As he walked up the driveway to the front door, he saw his grandmother's car in its usual spot so he wasn't surprised when he didn't need to use his own key to open the door.

Instead, he just walked inside already slipping the straps of his backpack off his shoulders. But before he could even call out his grandmother's name, Mason suddenly stopped like he was frozen in place because there at the bottom of the carpeted stairs right in front of him was his grandmother. She was sprawled out on the ground not moving. To hear the full episode and so many other strange, darker, mysterious stories that many of you may not have heard before, head on over to the mister Baldwin podcast official YouTube channel and subscribe today.