Lib Dem councillor sees alien in Winchester High Street

Issue 250 of Fortean Times carries the story of Adrian Hicks, a Liberal Democrat councillor from Winchester who claims to have seen an alien in the city's High Street one Saturday afternoon in late January or early February 2004.

The Southern Daily Echo quotes him as saying:

“I was near The Works bookshop when I saw this strange woman, a humanoid walking with a penguin-like gait. She had very large prominent eyes and was twirling her hands in a circular motion.

“She seemed friendly and totally at ease with us. She wasn’t scared, she was smiling, and seemed to be enjoying herself among us. She walked very slowly up the High Street. I remember she was very interested in the clock over Lloyds Bank. She was taking it all in.

“She was human enough to get away with it. Everybody’s heads were turning.”

According to the newspaper, Cllr Hicks, an orthopaedic technician in the A&E department at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital for some 35 years, remained silent about his experience for five years because he did not want it to jeopardise his chances of election to the city council.

Mark Oaten is 45.