Erba / Como, ITL being encounter — October 20, 1954

Renzo Pugina, a resident of Parravicino near Erba in the Como area, reported an encounter outside his villa in October 1954. The Atlas's inherited entry gives October 20, while other Italian and international listings use October 14 or 18. Accounts also differ between an evening time and a return home close to midnight. Those disagreements remain unresolved; the month is more secure than the exact day and hour. In the fuller narrative, Pugina had returned from a film and parked his car when he noticed a luminous, helmeted figure near the steps and a tree. It was described as roughly 1.3 metres high, with a metallic upper covering compared to scales. Its lower part seemed connected to a short pipe-like support and a horizontal tube or wheel-like apparatus. These unusual details differ from the conventional picture of a person simply standing beside a separate saucer. Pugina reportedly felt unable to move and wondered aloud whether the figure came from Mars. In some versions, movement or the sound of his keys coincided with the end of the apparent immobility, and the figure departed with a buzzing sound. These are features of his reported experience, not medically documented paralysis. The case survives through later catalogues and histories whose differences in date and mechanical description should remain visible when interpreting the encounter.