Tagliocozzo, Abruzzi entity encounter — October 25, 1978

Before dawn on October 25, 1978, a fifty-one-year-old farmer identified as Giovanni reportedly searched the hills near Tagliocozzo for a stray cow. On reaching an open field, he noticed a large light-brown object on the ground. Its outline was compared to a shoeshine box, a detail that distinguishes this account from the more familiar domed-disc descriptions. Lighted windows surrounded the object. Giovanni said he approached to within approximately three feet and saw six or seven small, humanlike occupants inside. The fuller account describes both male- and female-appearing figures. He characterized the women as blond with pink skin and said they smiled at him, while the older-looking, darker-complexioned men paid him no attention. These are the witness’s impressions of the reported figures, not independently established characteristics of extraterrestrial people. The short surviving account does not establish an entry aboard, a conversation, an abduction, or the object’s departure. It also gives no account of the eventual recovery of the missing cow. NICAP attributes the fuller description to Roberto Pinotti in the October 1979 International UFO Reporter. The illustration accordingly keeps the farmer outside, shows the occupants through the windows, and retains the unusual box-like craft rather than substituting a standard saucer.