Encounter record / 1973

The Uden Encounter: Ann Dolphijn and the White-Hooded Figures

November 10, 1973 · Uden, North Brabant, Netherlands

15Thinly documented UAP Being / humanoid 12 sources 1 videos

Uden, North Brabant. The early hours of 10 November 1973. Ann Dolphijn got up in the night and saw something white beyond the front window. Three small figures were walking down the street. They wore white robes and pointed hoods. The one in front swept an instrument like an old-fashioned carpet sweeper back and forth over the pavement. From a back window she saw a red-glowing ball, about 2 to 2.5 metres across, hovering just above the pavement. Then the figures shuffled away behind a school. The ball was gone. Her story reached the Center for UFO Studies, and later the Dutch press. Carnival costumes and a gas-leak crew have been proposed. None of the theories explains everything.

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Key facts

When	November 10, 1973
Time of day	around 2:15 am
Where	Uden, North Brabant,Netherlands
Duration	about 5 minutes for the figures; back in bed by 2:55 am
Witnesses	1
Witness roles	civilians
Found
Evidence	none confirmed
Investigations	Police report filed in Uden, no recorded follow-up
Status	undisputed

The beings

Three small figures, two under a metre tall and a third slightly taller, wore white monk-like robes with two-pointed hoods, oversized shoes and belts of instruments that reflected the moonlight, faces unseen. They shuffled stiffly, the leader sweeping a carpet-sweeper-like device over the pavement. A red-glowing ball about 2 to 2.5 m across hovered just above the pavement.

Size	about 2.3 m (glowing ball, about 2 to 2.5 m across)
Distance	about 40 m from the witnesses
Colour	red, white
Surface	glowing
Lights	1 light, single light, red
Motion	hovered, slow drift
Duration	5 minutes

The Vilvoorde 'vacuum-cleaner' humanoid (same wave)

Context

November 1973. That autumn brought a wave of humanoid reports. In Uden, a town in North Brabant, the carnival season was about to open on 11 November. The sighting came the night before.

Sources (12, most influential first)

De ervaring van Ann Dolphijn, 1973 · UFO Zaken· 2019-01-01 · Research organisation · org report
The Truly Bizarre Ann Dolphijn Humanoid Encounter · UFO Insight· 2024 · Wiki, blog, podcast · blog
De UFO van Uden blijft een groot mysterie · buitenaardscontact (copy of Brabants Dagblad article of 28 Aug 2020)· 2020-11-20 · Wiki, blog, podcast · blog
Mannetjes met puntoren · Vrij Nederland Boekenbijlage (via DBNL)· 1982 · Press, book, documentary · news
1973 Year of the Humanoids (David Webb) · CUFOS (text on archive.org)· 1976 · Press, book, documentary · book

Reputability

15/100Thinly documented

Keywords

People

Ann DolphijnSole witness, aged 55; interviewed in 1978 under the pseudonym "Saskia Vermeulen"
Douwe BosgaDutch researcher, formerly at CUFOS and later NOBOVA; interviewed the witness in 1978
Frank van GelovenJournalist from 's-Hertogenbosch who later spoke with the witness
Edmund MuyenWrote to the Center for UFO Studies about the case in January 1975
Bob MuyenFriend the witness told in 1974
Gerard BrandsAuthor of the 1982 Vrij Nederland column "Mannetjes met puntoren"
Hans van KampenAuthor who proposed the carnival explanation in Spooklicht (1980)
Bram RozaResearcher at ufozaken.nl who wrote the fullest account (2019)

Names

Center for UFO Studies David Webb