Cretesti, Rom being encounter — July 8, 1996

ASFAN’s follow-up identifies this location as Cerţeşti in Galaţi district, rather than the imported “Cretesti” label. During the night of July 8–9, 1996, police sergeant Marian Mancu and volunteer watchman Marcel Rusu were on patrol. Shortly after midnight, Mancu briefly left the street, then returned on hearing an unusual sound. Rusu said a small, illuminated object descended behind him and hovered roughly half a metre above the road. He hid in a ditch beneath a small bridge. The men described a flattened, hut-like object five to six metres across, with changing coloured lights around its edge. Rusu reported three short figures; Mancu saw only one briefly from behind. Rusu’s fuller description included elongated, bumpy heads, large ears, pale faces, large eyes, very thin arms and grey, metallic-looking scales. The object reportedly rose, brightened and sped east as the streetlights briefly failed. Investigators later saw damaged leaves on a nearby cherry tree, but obtained no samples or radiation readings. Their discussion proposed possible hypnosis as future work; it did not report a recovered abduction narrative.