North Bergen Had The Most UFO Reports In The USA

It’s probably the most unknown fact about the township of North Bergen.

For some reason, this densely-populated town in northern Hudson County has had the highest number of reported sightings of aliens and unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over the last 30 years.

Most of them have been centered out of the southeastern end of North Hudson Braddock Park, a large park named after deceased boxer James “Cinderella Man” Braddock.

The North Bergen sightings have been documented and reported to several agencies, including the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle and the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago.

Since two people reported a major sighting to federal authorities back in 1975, there have been a total of 775 sightings or incidents involving North Bergen residents, easily the highest total of reported incidents in the United States, according to Marc Sodderstrom of the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle.

In the last 32 years, the reports far exceeded those of the more famous location of Roswell, N.M., or other popular UFO sighting spots like Hudson Valley, N.Y. and Gulf Breeze, Fla. – places that have had at least 500 sightings over the years.

So how did all of this start in the quiet but busy town of North Bergen?

Started with liquor store owner

The UFO craze in North Bergen began in earnest on Jan. 12, 1975, when a 72-year-old liquor store owner named George O’Barski was driving home through North Hudson Braddock Park at approximately 2:45 a.m.

He began to experience some heavy static on his car radio, then listened as the radio went dead.

O’Barski apparently heard a loud noise from above. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw a round, flat object with glowing, rectangular windows that hovered behind his car, according to what he told authorities.

O’Barski told federal officials that the object came to a stop about 100 feet ahead of his car. It was hovering 10 feet off the ground and was about 30 feet wide, he said. It was flat at the bottom and brightly domed at the top.

O’Barski told the authorities that a ladder came from the object, and between eight and 11 identical creatures emerged.

He said they were three to four feet tall and all wore dark snow-suit like uniforms with helmets. Each had a small bag and a little shovel. They quickly scooped up soil samples, poured the samples into the little bags, and then immediately got back onto the craft.

So was this a Steven Spielberg film crew, or did it really happen?

O’Barski further told officials that the episode lasted like three minutes. At sunrise, he went back to North Hudson Braddock Park to make sure he wasn’t dreaming the incident. There were several holes in the soil where he witnessed the aliens allegedly digging, he said.

And O’Barski was not alone with his sighting.

A doorman who was working at the Stonehenge apartment complex across from the park on the other side of Boulevard East also noticed the glowing object hovering 100 feet over Braddock Park. The doorman, whose actual identity was never revealed, also told both local police and federal officials that when the object started its ascent, it forced windows to be shattered in the apartment complex and that a large tree adjacent to the complex was split in half.

“We might have thought he was a little crazy at first, but he was certain that he saw what he did,” said O’Barski’s son, George O’Barski Jr., on an A&E Network special about UFOs that aired for the first time in 2005. “It really bothered my father that people thought he was lying.”

It was also later revealed that O’Barski and the unnamed Stonehenge doorman did not know each other, and it was impossible for the two to collaborate on their stories.