By Tim Binnall
Exeter, New Hampshire's police department has created a special patch celebrating the 60th anniversary of the UFO incident that put the town on the proverbial paranormal map. The legendary 1965 case began when then-teenage resident Norman Muscarello spotted a flying saucer while walking home through the neighboring community of Kensington. The strange sighting was seemingly confirmed when a pair of Exeter police officers also observed the unusual UFO when they visited the location shortly after the rattled witness arrived at their nearby station to report what he had just seen. The remarkable case subsequently became indelibly linked to the community through John G. Fuller's New York Times bestselling book Incident at Exeter.
As has been the case since 2009, the town will celebrate the event this coming weekend with its wildly popular Exeter UFO Festival, which draws hundreds of flying saucer fans from throughout New England and beyond. Joining in on the fun by recognizing their "direct ties to the incident," the town's police department began selling collectible patches in 2022 with a new out-of-this-world design revealed each year. The 2025 edition, seen above, was unveiled in a Facebook post on Friday. The patch, commemorating the 60th anniversary, features a UFO 'piloted' by an alien and a chocolate lab from the department's comfort dog program, which will once again receive all proceeds from sales of the patches at this year's festival, where they will undoubtedly be a hot commodity.