An account in Provence-Alpes-C�te-d'Azur, France

The names of the various protagonists have been anonymized as in the official reports. The story that follows received a great deal of media attention because of the main protagonists, who never sought discretion, quite the opposite. The various events that make it up took place over a relatively long period of time and in fairly diverse locations. The amount of information is therefore significant and was, among other things, the subject of GEPAN technical note No. 6, referenced in the case documents. On November 26, 1979, around 5 a.m., the local police station received a phone call from T3 informing them that his "buddy was abducted by a UFO." A patrol was immediately diverted to the scene. Seven police officers and gendarmes soon found themselves on site with three witnesses, T3, T2, and T1, friends of the missing man and witnesses to the "abduction." The witnesses explained that they were getting ready to go sell "jeans" at the nearby market when they observed a glow above the road. T1, driving the car, headed toward the glow. It then positioned itself above the car, enveloping it in fog and small blinking balls. When the fog dissipated, the glow left "like lightning" into the sky. It was then that T3 noticed that T1 was no longer in the car. Before the authorities, the three witnesses had very different attitudes, ranging from indifference to great agitation. From the first hearings, discrepancies appeared in the testimonies, and the reconstructions carried out also led to contradictions regarding the witnesses' schedules the day before and the morning of the disappearance, the position of the car at the time of the events, and the trajectory of the glow. The gendarmerie notified GEPAN on the 26th, but the press was also alerted by one of the witnesses, and from the 27th, journalists and private investigators flocked in from the whole region. From the 28th, radio stations and newspapers reported the case in all its details, with opinions and interpretations multiplying through various interviews. However, no new element appeared before December 3, 1979, when T1's mother informed the gendarmerie of her son's return and T3 informed a radio station of his buddy's return. The gendarmes indeed found T1 at T2's home, in the company of his family and a female journalist. T1 stated that he had found himself in a cabbage field near T2's building. GEPAN tried to gather as much objective information as possible on this case, which was very widely covered by the media. It found this extremely difficult to do, as the witnesses constantly evaded whenever it came to gathering concrete elements, preferring the company of journalists and certain private investigators with whom they were much more talkative. As press conferences and statements progressed, the witnesses' account changed, and it quickly became obvious to GEPAN investigators that the reported facts were not credible. This hypothesis was reinforced by a blood analysis showing that it was unlikely that the "missing T1" had spent time in weightlessness. The discovery of a row of cabbages dried out "by the luminous ball" in the field where T1 reappeared reignited public emotion in this small town. The investigation quickly showed that these cabbages were perfectly normal and had been abandoned by their owner to be used as fertilizer, which was moreover confirmed by an analysis of samples taken by GEPAN. Although the witnesses always maintained their testimonies, including before the public prosecutor, GEPAN considers this to be a hoax whose unfolding discredits the scientific work it tries to promote.