UFO Hits Police Car, 14 Minutes Missing | The Val Johnson Incident

A deputy on a lonely Minnesota highway, a blinding white light, and two clocks that fell exactly fourteen minutes behind. This is the true story behind the “UFO Car” seen at the Marshall County Historical Society, and the case that refuses to fade: the Val Johnson Incident. 

In August 1979, Deputy Val Johnson encountered a hovering light along State Highway 220. Moments later, his windshield was fractured in a perfect circle, a headlight blown, and both radio antennas bent in ways investigators struggled to explain. Johnson suffered welder-type eye irritation and regained consciousness with missing time, while his patrol car came to rest hundreds of feet down the road without clear braking or collision evidence. Investigators from CUFOS and industry engineers examined the car, and decades later it remains on display as a magnet for skeptics and believers alike. We’ll retrace the drive, the impact, the medical report, and the investigation, then break down the leading skeptical, believer, and fringe theories, from ball lightning and mirage effects to directed energy and time anomalies. Finally, we’ll track how the “UFO Car” became small-town legend and a pop-culture echo that still draws crowds.