Mount Olive, North Carolina: Reporter follows oblong object, beam of light strikes his car

On 1 April 1974, Nelson Bland, a reporter for the Mount Olive Tribune, is driving on US Route 117 near Mount Olive, North Carolina, when he observes an oblong object 25–30 feet long with lights in the middle and at each end, the end lights moving erratically. He stops his car, attempts to photograph the object, then continues following it until it suddenly approaches to within about 300 feet. Bland sees the top reflecting light like metal, while the rest appears yellow-orange. As he raises his camera, an intense beam of light shoots from the bottom of the craft directly onto him and his car, leaving him shaken; when the beam goes out a few seconds later, he flees the area, extremely nervous. The case is reported in the Mount Olive Tribune and the Goldsboro News-Argus in April 1974 and in Flying Saucer Digest. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.