Oliver Hardy, 60, and lifelong Hawthorne resident, remembers that Spring afternoon of April 1, 1967 very well.

“I was seven years old,” explains Hardy, “…I had just got done playing some baseball with my friends, it was around 5-5:30 PM, and I was racing on my bike to get home.”

What Hardy saw next would send shivers down anyone’s spine.

“I heard this strange sound,” said Hardy, “and I looked up in the sky and I saw the darnedest thing. It was a flying saucer.”

According to Hardy, the flying saucer just hovered in the air right above him, prompting the young man to seek help and shelter.

“I ran to the closest house,” said Hardy, “and banged on the door. Luckily, a fine gentleman came out and rescued me.”

That gentleman, the now deceased Hawthorne resident Thomas “Scrapps” Scrapper was able to photograph the image, to preserve it for years to come.

“If old Scrapps didn’t take that photo,” stated Hardy, “I don’t think anyone would have believed our story.”

The photo can be viewed in the archives at the Hawthorne Public Library.  But Hardy says the story doesn’t end there.

“The saucer eventually flew on off,” concluded Hardy, “but where did it go? Did it land in Hawthorne? Some say it landed in North Haledon…but I guess we will never know.”