The Petare Hairy Dwarf Encounter, Venezuela 1954

Late 1954. Venezuela was in the grip of a strange wave. Across the country, people reported small, hairy and aggressive beings. One case would outlast them all.

Gustavo González was 25, a merchant born in Havana. His helper, José Ponce, came from the Totumos district of Caracas. At about 2 a.m. they were driving to Petare to collect a load. On Calle Bella Vista, the road was blocked. A sphere hung above the street, about 8 to 10 feet across. Its glow lit the street "as in broad daylight."

A small being walked toward them. About 3 feet tall. Covered in stiff, dark hair. Large eyes that glowed yellow "like cats' eyes." González grabbed it and lifted it off the ground. It broke free and knocked him back. He drew a knife and stabbed at its shoulder. The blade "glanced off as though it had struck steel."

Ponce saw two more beings come out of the bushes carrying soil or rocks. They leapt into the sphere. Ponce ran. From an opening, a being pointed a "long metallic shining tube." Its light blinded González and left him in a kind of trance. Then the sphere rose and was gone, at high speed and without noise.

At about 2:30 a.m. the two men reached the Inspectoría General de Tránsito. The guards were sceptical until they saw González's injuries: a deep red scratch and bruises on his left side. There was no sign of alcohol. Both men were given sedatives, and X-rays were taken to check for broken ribs.

That night, neighbours reported a detonation, whistling and a powerful light. Antonio Cherchi, director of the Scheper sausage company, vouched for the men as regular, reliable customers. Major Jesús Antonio Yanes of the police called the event "sumamente singular." And according to Frank Edwards, a well-known Caracas physician had witnessed the entire incident while on a night call. He was never named.

Joseph Rolas of Caracas sent the report to APRO. Coral and Jim Lorenzen wrote it up in the APRO Bulletin and later books. It was the first Venezuelan report they had received of occupants collecting samples. According to Orestes Girbau, a police commission in El Hatillo questioned witnesses separately and found that sightings of "a round object" matched González's description. José González Waite of the Flying Saucer Research Society suggested hypnosis or truth serum. González refused. No official finding of hoax or natural cause has been published.

The case rests on two witnesses. Its strongest support, the doctor, is anonymous. Prensa Mercosur has suggested "nighttime perceptual confusion aggravated by fear," and memory changing as the story was retold. Retellings do drift. The sphere's height ranges from 0.5 metres to six feet. The eyes turn from yellow to red. The city street becomes a mountain road. Prensa Mercosur called it "too dramatic to forget and too weakly documented to confirm."

The case became a classic close encounter of the third kind. It appears in books by the Lorenzens, Frank Edwards and Gordon Creighton, and in catalogues kept by Albert Rosales and Jacques Vallée. In 1994 the Venezuelan rock band Gillman told the story on the album Escalofrío. Girbau says González was still living in Venezuela in the 1980s. Still a subject of controversy.