The Baependi Abduction (Caso do Embornal)

Arlindo Gabriel dos Santos farmed a smallholding called Fazenda Sobrado in rural Baependi, southern Minas Gerais. On the morning of May 16, 1979, he went hunting with two friends. He carried a shotgun, a revolver, a cheap camera and an embornal, a cotton shoulder bag holding his food. The group split up to cover more ground. Arlindo was alone when it began.

First came something like a post, or a telephone booth. A yellow cylinder on a dark base, topped by a sphere flashing red and white, about 180 m away. He took a picture. It vanished without a sound. A second object followed, egg-shaped, a propeller turning on top. He photographed it, heard a hiss, and dense white smoke swallowed it. A third, a red and white striped barrel, swayed before settling. Its body seemed to expand and contract, "like breathing".

Then the fourth. An egg-shaped craft about 10 to 12 m across, with two dark square windows. It came down with a noise like a flooded car engine and put out four legs.

He raised the camera. An intense flash blinded him. He ran about 10 m and froze. Two helmeted beings took his arms. He begged them in God's name to let him go. The answer came in Portuguese: "In God we are all brothers. We do no harm to anyone. We only want some information from you." They stood about 1.5 m tall and looked much like us, with large slanted eyes and no eyebrows. Tight black suits. Helmets with transparent visors, hoses running to tanks on their backs.

Inside was a cold, domed room that smelled of dust. A woman in white, without a helmet, showed him the Earth, the Sun and the Moon on a screen, then a silvery yellow blotch she said was their home. They asked whether he had seen a "zurca", a device like theirs that had crashed. Then they sent him down, telling him to protect his eyes. He walked away without looking back.

For about 20 minutes he could not speak. Red, swollen eyes and headaches followed for three days. In July 1979 investigators from CEVAPPA in Varginha arrived: Ubirajara Franco Rodrigues, Malius de Figueiredo and Francisco Antônio Romanelli. They cast four symmetrical footprints in plaster. The metal plate inside the camera was burned and covered with soot. Rodrigues called Arlindo "an undeniably honest person". SBEDV made three visits of its own.

Then the embornal turned up, empty and tattered, about 300 m from the landing site. Arlindo said it had been plain. Now it carried 146 characters in 10 lines. Researchers compared the script to Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic. Irene Granchi analysed it. Paulette Gustin sent photographs to scholars in Jerusalem. No reply was ever reported.

No government body ever investigated, and no sceptic has published a detailed explanation. Still, the story has soft spots. Arlindo first said he was looking for a lost cow, then admitted he had been hunting and feared the forestry authorities. Retellings differ on the hour, the time aboard, the number of beings and the woman's appearance. Sources even disagree on whether the photographs show anything. Two rival "translations" of the bag appeared. A return said to have been promised for 30 years later was awaited in 2009. Nothing happened.

The case reached Globo Repórter in a 1993 special and has filled the pages of Revista UFO for decades. Arlindo, one account says, never sought fame or financial benefit. He died on 9 September 2026 and was buried in Baependi. No independent expert has ever confirmed the writing on his bag.