The Ririe Carjacker

The Ririe Carjacker

By Cole Herrold

Encounters with extraterrestrials are often horrifying experiences. These beings who are often seemingly devoid of emotion and boundaries are often described as performing horrific experiments or complete vivisections of humans only to return the abductee back home with either a partial or no memory of the interaction, all the while continuing to stalk them for the rest of their lives or at the very least for a few years. While these encounters seem to make up the majority of reports, they are not the only ones as some experiences are described as being euphoric or pleasurable such as those who encounter the blonde Venusians and their ilk. Yet there is a section of encounters, unseen by most, where there are encounters of a seemingly ridiculous nature that while at the time were probably terrifying they now, with the passing of time, are so absurd and comical in nature that I'm certain even the witnesses don't chuckle about what the visitors did.

One such case occurred on November 2, 1967, just outside of Ririe, Idaho, when two Native American boys, Guy Tossie and Will Begay, were driving their car south on Highway 26. It was about 9:30 at night, and the boys were practically alone on the rural stretch of road. As the boys continued to head down the road, they noticed a bright light in front of them. This light, as quickly as it appeared before them, instantly became blinding, and as the boys stared at the bizarre illumination, they could tell that it was coming from some sort of craft. The object was rather small even though it emitted a blinding light and appeared very much like a stereotypical UFO. The craft was about 8ft wide with a 6ft diameter, was approximately 3ft high, and on the lower portion of the craft had a rim with green and orange lights that flashed intermittently; this section of the craft seemed to rotate as the vehicle hovered above the ground. On the underside of the UFO, the witnesses could see that vehicle would change colors and was frequently orange and green like the lights along the rim. Below the bottom of the craft is where the blinding light had seemingly come from, and the boys could now see that it was bright yellow and, as they watched, noted that the light behaved very much like flames or fire as it seemed to flicker. After expecting the lower portion of the craft, they happened to notice that atop the craft was a glass dome-shaped piece that the boys could see through and that inside the craft were two small pilots.

The boys were still driving at the time, but they soon realized that as they stared in amazement at the otherworldly craft in front of them that their car was beginning to slow down. Will Begay, who was driving, looked down to see if he had happened to hit the brake and found that his foot was still firmly placed on the accelerator and that the car was breaking on its own. They, horrified, finally stopped almost directly next to where the saucer was and noticed that the craft slowly began to descend until it stopped and proceeded to hover about 5ft off the ground. The light from the craft caused the whole area to glow an eerie green, and as the boys stared in the assumed safety of their car, they watched as the craft began to open up. The glass dome that was fitted on the top of the ship lifted up as if it was connected by a hinge. After this, one of the beings which they had seen from afar began to stir and, upon lifting itself from its seat, began to float down out of the craft and continued to hover over to the now-stalled car. The two boys, who were now focused on the being approaching them, took note that the entity was about 3 and a half feet tall and had bright green skin that was wrinkled and full of pits and creases. The creature had large ears, small eyes, and a straight slit-like mouth and seemed to of been wearing a kind of tight-fitting suit much like that of a diver's. The being also seemed to of had two fingers on each hand. The most peculiar thing, though, about this creature's sense of fashion, however, was that on its back, it had a kind of backpack or some sort of container. The hovering entity then began to approach the driver's side door of the car and began to open the car door. Upon opening the door, the being began to enter the vehicle, placing itself at the steering wheel. Guy Tossie and Will Begay, for some reason unstated, did not attempt to flee from the being or attempt to defend themselves but instead proceeded to scoot over and give their extraterrestrial hitchhiker full access to the driver's seat.

Once the being was seated, the car began to move without the aid of reigniting the engine, and the boys watched in abject terror as the being now at the wheel of their vehicle began to drive the car straight into a nearby wheat field. The boys watched the being drive and watched as the UFO began to go around the vehicle and stay ahead of them as if this was some sort of interplanetary convoy. During the trip through the wheat field, the vehicle made several jerky motions which they later thought was either from the being's inexperience of driving or from their vehicle simply being towed by the UFO even though it at the time seemed to be the being driving. Eventually, this Mister Toad-esque Joyride would come to an end as the craft stopped dead in the middle of the field, and with it, so too did the car a full 75 feet from where the car was initially taken. As soon as the vehicle stopped, Guy Tossie, who now had somewhat rekindled his senses, began to act. He was the closest to the passenger side door, and after opening it began to run. Tossie continued to run from the craft and watched as a bright light followed him until he arrived at the assumed safety of the farmhouse of Willard Hammon, which was about a quarter-mile away from where the car now sat and where he left Will Begay. Tossie could barely adequately describe to the farmer and his family of what he had seen. The farmer had eventually managed to calm the young boy down and said that he would eventually, once everyone was settled, walk him back to the site.

Will seemingly still at a loss of control of his faculties or simply not as disturbed by the encounter as Tossie continued to sit by the extraterrestrial being in the driver seat. Begay stared both in shock, and a twinge of horror as the being turned faced him and began to speak. The entity let out several sounds that he could not understand but was certain was a kind of language; the noises were high and rapid, and like those, he would describe as "like a woman... or a bird." The being then stopped talking, and Begay noticed that the second entity of the craft was approaching the vehicle, and upon this, the other entity began to move out of the car and hovered over to his co-pilot. The two beings then began to lift up off the ground and, in the same way as they exited, entered the UFO. The UFO then resealed the dome and began to fly off in a bizarre drunkenly zig-zag-like pattern.

About 15 minutes after the craft had left, Willard Hammon and Tossie had managed to make their way back to the site. Willard seeing the car, immediately ran to it expecting to find someone injured and instead found Begay sitting quietly with his eyes tightly closed and unable to speak. The vehicle seemingly had returned to life and reignited itself after the craft left and, in doing so, caused every light in and on the car to turn on. Hammon had managed to coax the boy out, and Begay seeing that Tossie had returned with help, began to quickly exit the vehicle. Now Begay and Tossie seemingly were able to recount their mad motor vehicle excursion with the being, and Hammon listened intently to both the boy's stories; he was in complete awe at their tale and felt conflicted about it. Hammon then, after helping the boys calm down and watching them hop back in their vehicle, proceeded to get in his own car and follow them home to make sure they got there safely. After Tossie and Begay were safely back at home, Hammon, still confused about what had transpired, proceeded to go and stop in at a local bar to see if anyone else had seen something bizarre that night. Upon asking around, no one seemed to of had any recollection of seeing anything particularly strange that night, and just as he was about ready to leave, a county deputy sheriff came in and seeing that this encounter needed to have some sort of an official report or at least some acknowledgment told the officer of the encounter and then proceeded to go home. A short time later, both of the boys had once again decided to leave and, seeing the officer approached him and began to tell him about their encounter. The officer, who certainly at first must have been skeptical to the monster motorist, now seemingly changed his tune as the officer, realizing that this was the same story he was told some moments ago, proceeded to leave the bar with the boys and drove them to the station where they filled out an official form and the sheriff then proceeded to call several state police officers in to perform an investigation into the area around where the sighting occurred.  a Cpl. Tom Harper of the Idaho State Police met the witnesses at the scene and checked the car and surrounding area for traces of radiation but they found no evidence. While they found nothing aside from the path, the car went down in the field; upon talking to some of the other farmers and residents in the area, they did discover that others had reported seeing lights in the sky and that those who raised cattle noticed that the animals behaved strangely that night including a case of the cattle of Mrs. Claude Mann who said her cattle had stampeded through a steel pipe fence running away from the area where the craft was near and upon being rounded up and the fence re-mended the animals proceeded in breaking down the fence again.

A short time later, word of the encounter reached NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon), and so they sent out researcher C.R. Ricks of Idaho Falls. Ricks, during his investigation, had happened to find a man who, on the exact same night as Guy Tossie and Will Begay had a very similar encounter with seemingly related beings. The witness stated that during that night a craft of similar make had landed in front of his vehicle and that as he watched a small being approached his car and proceeded to tap on his windshield. Ricks managed to find the witness; however, unlike Tossie or Begay was not comfortable discussing the encounter in detail aside from confirming that he too had a similar experience and was adamant about remaining anonymous in regard to his sighting.

This encounter is one of the great unsung Ufology cases that tend to get hidden in the shadow of famous cases like Pascagoula or Betty and Barney Hill, but the reason it is so great is just the absurdity of the beings in the case. Aliens have always been interested in our planet in one way or another, and there have been reports of them collecting rocks, soil samples, animals, and of course ourselves, yet when one views these cases, we usually can picture the reason for their interest as scientific. In this case, it seriously seems more like a joyride than anything else, as though these beings simply saw a car for the first time and decided to take it for a spin but in doing so in a completely ridiculous manner. Then once the being is done driving, it simply leaves it does not abduct or do anything particularly heinous to the witnesses, and the entire encounter seems pointless as opposed to the traditional thoughts of alien motives. When one looks at this encounter, it does not appear to be some scientific analysis of how cars work or anything similar, but it seems to be more akin to curiosity than anything else. It's because of this particular reason I love this case perhaps there are more cases of similar interstellar carjackers out there and that this phenomenon is much more common than we know; in any case, I think that from now on, we don't just have to look in the skies for evidence of extraterrestrial life but that we should also look on the road.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Extraterrestrial

Location: Ririe, Idaho

Sighted: November 2, 1967

Works Cited:

SECTION VII-Are There UFO Occupants? By NICAP http://www.nicap.org/newlook/section_VII.htm

The UFO Evidence: A Thirty-Year Report By Richard Hall

“1967: Three-1/2 Foot Tall Creature Floats to Ground IN Ririe, Idaho – Article”. Think About It Docs. March 19, 2021. https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/1967-three-12-foot-tall-creature-floats-to-ground-in-ririe-idaho/. Accessed February 2, 2021.