Nestled in the remote hills of Pembrokeshire, Wales, lies a cattle farm that, in the mid-1970s, became the stage for one of the most chilling and inexplicable series of events in UFO history. The true story of the Coombs family, chronicled in books like The Uninvited and revisited in documentary series, is a terrifying account of a simple farming family besieged by phenomena that defied all logic and reason. This is not a tale of a single, fleeting encounter, but a prolonged campaign of psychological and physical terror that raises questions about the line between reality and the paranormal.
A Cold Watchful Presence
It began subtly, with the mother of the Coombs family, Pauline, spotting a blinding white light hovering near a cliff edge. It swayed "like a malevolent pendulum" and seemed to be watching her. Her husband, Billy, was initially skeptical, but a strange military presence soon appeared in the area, cordoning off coast paths and adding to the unease.
The family's first direct encounter came through their nephew, Mark Matthews. While out in a field, he witnessed a glowing, red saucer-shaped object and from it emerged a towering, silver-suited figure. Terrified, he fled, only to later return with his father and find a massive 12-inch boot print in the mud, a chilling piece of evidence that his sighting was real.
The Escalation of Events
Over the following weeks, the terror intensified. The Coombs’ farmhouse was plagued by electrical anomalies. Bulbs flickered and died, fuses blew, and two televisions inexplicably burnt out. The family's youngest son began to wake up screaming, claiming a "shadow man" had visited his room. This electrical chaos reached a terrifying peak when their car died in the middle of the road, pursued by a pulsating orange orb that swooped over them, enveloping the vehicle in an eerie glow.
This was a prelude to the most infamous incident of all. One night, while Pauline and Billy were watching television, a colossal, seven-foot-tall figure appeared at their bay window. Clad in a glowing silver suit, it dwarfed the window frame. The entire house shook and the lights flickered violently as the figure reached toward the glass. The police, who were called to the scene, admitted they had heard too many similar reports to dismiss the family's fear, but they were too afraid to investigate the figure on their own.
Men in Black and a Secret Base
The phenomena continued. Two identical men in dark suits, described as "not quite right," glided up the driveway in a futuristic car, asking for Pauline Coombs by name. These "Men in Black" were frighteningly direct and seemed to know more about the family than they should.
Equally bizarre were the repeated incidents involving the family's cattle. On multiple occasions, over a hundred cows mysteriously vanished from a locked shed, only to reappear in a neighbor's yard, half a mile away. Everything remained locked, and no sign of a forced entry could be found, an event that pushed Billy to his breaking point.
The family also witnessed a UFO that appeared to enter a secret base in the area. They watched a spherical disc hover over the sea before shooting towards a rocky outcrop known as Stack Rock. Instead of a collision, the rock face opened like a "sliding door," and the craft disappeared inside.
Beyond the Farm: A Worldwide Phenomenon?
The events at the Coombs farm found a terrifying parallel in a separate incident thousands of miles away. In the northern desert of Chile, a soldier named Armando Valdez vanished into thin air while approaching a brilliant, hovering light. He reappeared just 15 minutes later, disoriented and with a strange beard, and his wristwatch had advanced by five days. He claimed the beings told him, "You will never know who we are or where we came from, but we will return again." The similarities to the Coombs' terrifying experiences suggest a potential link to a larger, worldwide phenomenon.
The Challenge of Credibility
While the Coombs family's account is harrowing, the story is clouded by controversy surrounding one of its key chroniclers, Peter Padgett. It has been claimed that Padgett is an alias for a man named Peter Fisher, who was convicted of defrauding the benefits system. This raises a difficult question: Does the alleged criminal history of an author invalidate his account of the events? While the Coombs family’s story has independent corroboration from neighbors and police, the author's credibility complicates the narrative, forcing us to consider whether a "good story" might have been embellished for dramatic effect.
Ultimately, the case of the Welsh Triangle and the Coombs family leaves us with more questions than answers. Whether the events were an elaborate military hoax, an example of mass hysteria, or truly a glimpse into a world we cannot comprehend, one thing is certain: a family's life was turned upside down by something they could not explain, and for years, they suffered in silence, haunted by the memory of their uninvited guests.