UFO Case Report:

Abduction by robot-like beings in Brazil (La Rubia case)

Date: September 15, 1977
Location: Paciencia (near Rio de Janeiro), Brazil

Antonio La Rubia, a 33-year-old bus driver, encountered a huge object, which he estimated to be 70 meters (235 feet) across, sitting in a field near his home. He decided to retreat, but was unable to do so, for at the moment he started to run, an intensely bright light lit up the area, and he was unable to move. At that moment Antonio saw three "robots" positioned near him, and he was captured and taken into the disc.

La Rubia's drawing of one of the "robot" beings. (credit: APRO Bulletin)

Illustration representing the La Rubia abduction, by Brian James in Canadian UFO Report.

Classification & Features

Type of Case/Report: StandardCase
Hynek Classification: CE4
Special Features/Characteristics: Abduction, Physiological Effects, Injury, Humanoid/Occupant

Full Report / Article

Source: APRO Bulletin, Vol. 26 No. 4, Oct. 1977

"Brazilian CE4 Case"

We are indebted to Field Investigator Irene Granchi of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the details of an alleged and very bizarre abduction case. With her characteristic thoroughness, Mrs. Granchi forwarded translations of the complete texts of the newspaper stories from "0 Dia" which initially carried the story and which included a number of errors which she cleared up before submitting her final report. The details follow:

Mrs. Granchi first traveled to Paciencia, the site of the incident (about 45 kilometers or about 28 miles from Rio) on Saturday, October 8, and interviewed Dr. Neli Carbonel, who examined the victim. However, she (Mrs. Granchi) was not able to interview the percipient, Antonio La Rubia, as he was still very upset. He promised to come to Rio when he was feeling better and talk to Mrs. Granchi and on October 18th he arrived at her home with his brother Arnaldo.

Because she had only 40 minutes to devote to him, as she had to go to the Cultura to teach her classes, this is more or less a preliminary report. Mrs. Granchi intends to do further work on the case and if further pertinent information is forthcoming, it will be published in the Bulletin.

Antonio La Rubia habitually arises at 2:00 a.m., brushes his teeth, washes and leaves his home at 2:15 or 2:20 a.m. On the morning in question he feels he must have left at 2:20 for that was when his watch stopped. He walked to a large field near his home and when he got to the near corner of it, he stopped short, for in the field sat an object which he estimated to be 70 meters (235 feet) across, at least, as the field is 70 meters across and the object's bulk extended beyond the boundaries of the field.

Antonio thought the object, which was a dull leaden color and shaped like a hat, was resting on the ground. However, a search made by Mrs. Granchi and Antonio at a later date revealed no vestiges of a landing, such as impressions, burned grass, etc., although Mrs. Granchi feels they could have missed them.

As soon as Mr. La Rubia realized what he was seeing (he had never believed in the existence of UFOs previously) he decided to run back home.

(Initially, La Rubia thought the object was the bus he had to ride to go to the terminal of the Oriental Bus Company where he was employed as a bus driver.)

Antonio was unable to run, however, for at the moment he decided to retreat, an intensely bright light lit up the area. La Rubia was standing by an electric pole which became illuminated by the brilliant blue light. At that moment Antonio saw three "robots" positioned near him. They were one meter, 40 centimeters (about four feet) tall, but their antennae, which jutted out of the middle (tops) of their heads extended far enough to extend beyond his height (which is approximately five feet, five inches). The heads of the creatures were shaped like American footballs, with a band extending across the middle, horizontally, which looked like a row of small mirrors of a blue shade, one a little darker than the others.

The bodies, Antonio said, were stocky, the trunk broader than his own (he is muscular, but of slender build). They had appendages for arms which he compared to elephants' trunks, and which narrowed down to pointed tips, resembling one finger. Their bodies were made of a rough substance resembling scales. Antonio, when questioned, said he didn't think the scales were "armor", for the robots moved around freely and the "scales" did not seem to impede them in any way. The trunks were rounded at the bottom ending in a single leg. Antonio's first impression was that they were sitting on something, but didn't feel this was the case. This leg ended in a "platform" the size and shape of a saucer. Antonio compared this leg and "platform" to the stools utilized on ships. All of this outer part of the bodies looked like a dull shade of aluminum.

In the field, one of the "robots" stood in front of him, one at the side and another behind him. When the blue light had come on, he could no longer move. Antonio flailed about with his arms, but found, he was imprisoned in a "bell" (glass or Mason) jar. Otherwise he felt quite normal except that he felt quite nervous. He could not move, but the "creatures" floated along. They were all of the same stature, but one of them was holding what appeared to be a syringe (an instrument used to give an injection). This "robot" raised its appendage, pointed the syringe at La Rubia, and Antonio moved from his position without feeling it, toward the disc. Although he felt himself moving toward the disc, he does not know how he entered it. As he approached it, he felt a tremor, then found himself in a corridor of aluminum substance, and beyond it a wall. Two of the "robots" went one way, one another. He looked down the corridor, saw the field, and it seemed that the skin of the UFO was transparent and he felt the craft had lifted from the ground. He got the impression the object was moving from south to north.

As he was looking back and out, a bright blue light came on again and he now found himself in a large, circular room. The light appeared to come from the ceiling and became lighter in hue as it came down the "wall", until it blended with the aluminum color of the walls.

In this huge chamber he saw a dozen of the "entities" on one side and another twelve on the other side; reminding him of children in a classroom because their "single legs" looked like seats.

Antonio had been struggling all the while, unable to make a sound. But suddenly he was able to shout: "What do you want? Who are you?" To his great surprise, all of the creatures fell to the floor and he assumed that the sound of his voice must have caused this. The light came on strong again, blinding him. He continued to struggle, partly from fear, but also because he had had extreme difficulty breathing since he first entered the craft. He did not hear his own breathing but could hear breathing sounds coming from the entities which was puzzling to him as they appeared to him to be robots.

When Antonio began shouting, all of the entities raised their appendages to the tip of their antennae, holding them. Prior to that, the antennae had been spinning so fast that he could not determine their exact shape. When they held them, with their appendages, he could see that their shape resembled that of a teaspoon.

The only fixture in the whole enclosure was a small piano-like affair in front of Antonio. It was a box-shaped thing about 15-17 centimeters (6 inches) in width standing on 2 supporting poles, which reached to the height of Antonio's chest. At the extremity of the box, on each side (see sketch) there were antennae jutting up, and to one side, the keys, which reminded him of a piano.

There was also something that looked like a tin (can) on it into which the beings inserted some objects which they took from their belts.

At this juncture Antonio explained that the beings wore belts from which hung, by hooks, apparatuses which resembled syringes (injection apparatuses) which they inserted into the box (or "piano"). Each time this was done, an image appeared on the wall of the UFO in color, showing a different scene.

Antonio was shown a series of pictures in color and every time this was done, the being introduced the syringe-like thing to the "box", pressed a key and the picture appeared. The pictures Antonio remembers are as follows:

1. Himself, nude, lying on an invisible (?) table, swinging his arms about, his legs lying straight and two of the beings examining him with their little bluish lights, directing it at his chest and head, with another entity examining his head with a blue light which had no beam. It made everything blue, including his hair (which he saw in the "picture").

When this scene was over, another being approached the "console", introduced another "thing" into it, and another scene appears:

2. Here Antonio saw himself, still naked, standing.

3. Antonio was dressed, carrying his shopping bag, his teeth were chattering and he looked nervous. No sound came from him, and one arm was swinging.

4. This picture showed a horse and cart, being drawn over a dirt road. Antonio did not recognize the location but there appeared a cart-man, a peasant, wearing a straw hat, bare-footed and with a torn shirt.

5. Antonio saw a picture of a light orangey ball with himself standing beside it.

6. In this picture, the "ball" was seen once again, this time bluish in color, with one of the "beings" standing beside it.

7. This picture is most difficult to describe and whereas we have condensed Mrs. Granchi's words before, we will use her entire description: "A dog was shovm, trying to get at one of those beings, also shown in the picture the dog was big, and slobbering at the mouth, trying hard to get at the being, unable to reach it and looked very angry. Then the dog gave out 4 or 5 barks. At this point, the being started to melt, from top to bottom, like porridge."

8. A factory was seen, apparently one of "theirs" where the UFOs (crafts?) are manufactured. The scene was white and stretched out, so he could not see the end of it. There were 3 rows of UFOs, the 2 on the right were UFOs nearly ready, and the one on the left were UFOs in the making—at the "skeleton" stage. There were "millions" of "beings" or "robots" walking around but Antonio noticed no tools.

9. This picture showed a train, like the Japanese trains currently being used in Brazil, but older, something the worse for wear, windowless, entering a tunnel, whereupon it was lost from view.

10. This showed an avenue, which Mrs. Granchi compared with Avenida Presidente Vargas, one of the busiest thoroughfares in Rio de Janeiro, jammed with cars.

Mrs. Granchi writes that Antonio's list seems to end here but that he described a scene he saw after the one where he saw himself naked, wherein he saw himself dressed, vomiting and passing stools in this trousers. Fortunately the latter did not come to pass, as he was at home when he became very ill.

Antonio also told Mrs. Granchi about when the beings took blood from him; one of them came over to the center of the hall where he was standing, took one of the "syringes" from his belt with his right appendage, passed it over to his left appendage, where it started to rotate, spinning so fast that Antonio could not follow it with his eyes. Then the gadget was pointed at him, whereupon his arm lifted, against his will, and the syringe was stuck into the middle finger of his right hand. He saw the syringe filling until it nearly overflowed. He was sure it was his blood for it was the only color he saw in the whole place—everything else was blue or white, or metallic-like. He didn't understand how this could be, for he did not feel the prick and there was no mark after it was accomplished. Then the being who had taken the blood pointed at a picture on the wall and drew three circles, presumably with Antonio's blood, and dissected them with an L-shaped mark (see sketch).

Mrs. Granchi thinks that the blood-drawing experience came before, or in between the showing of pictures for Antonio says that after the busy street scene was shown he was "thrown" overboard and fell into a street almost opposite the Paciencia station. When he landed, there was one of the "beings" beside him. All his belongings were with him, even his bag, which had not been with him on the craft.

Then Antonio looked at his watch, which read 2:20 a.m. He was on the ground, looked behind him and saw nothing. He then looked up and saw what appeared to be the bottom of a dark, smooth balloon, lifting up. It was huge in size and ascended until he could no longer see it.

Mrs. Granchi asked if there had been additional witnesses and La Rubia said there was. but the man is a known drunk and therefore not reliable. He (the drunk) told numerous people he'd seen a UFO that morning.

Antonio went over to Paciencia station, asked the time and it was either 2:50 or 2:55 a.m. He set his watch at the correct time. There was a bus passing at 3:10 and he caught it and arrived at work on time. He felt ill and nervous and ached all over. He drove the bus, nevertheless, but now and again his vision darkened. He worked all day and again all day Friday, but when he arrived home that night he went to bed.

It was at this junction in his narrative that Antonio recalled another "picture" which he had forgotten. In this one he saw himself with smoke coming out of his back, and the pain and heat which he was now feeling (when he arrived home) seemed to be connected with the picture. The pictures he saw in the UFO seemed to have depicted all of the suffering he was now experiencing except the one where he passed stools in his drawers.

Antonio told his wife nothing of what had happened to him. That Friday night his bowels were loose and he felt miserable. The next day, Saturday, he was still very ill and missed work. Sunday was the same—he could not go to work. That night (Sunday) the burning feeling started, which spread throughout his body and was very painful. His wife rubbed him with alcohol which relieved the distress somewhat. On Monday morning, he went back to the bus company to say he had to quit, and he had difficulty breathing, was burning and itching and asked a fellow employee to hose him down with water. His fellow workers told him he looked "as green as grass." He told Mrs. Granchi that when he walked he had an empty feeling as though walking on a cloud. This feeling persisted as late as 33 days after the incident.

The Monday that he was at the bus company and experiencing the burning feeling, the company nurse wanted to give him a tranquilizing injection but he refused, afraid that it would make him worse. The personnel at the clinic thought he had gone mad and ropes were brought to constrain him and he was taken to the hospital where it was generally thought he was mad because he babbled about UFOs.

Before being taken to the hospital, however, La Rubia was given a hearing by the bus company psychologist, Dr. Nely Carbonell, who pronounced him psychologically normal but nevertheless called an ambulance to take him to the hospital.

Antonio was surprised when the hospital doctors pronounced him normal despite his extreme discomfort. However, when one of the doctors visited him for his INPS (Worker's Employer Relief) and heard about the UFO, he called in six other doctors, saying that the case was serious and worthy of further study. Also, Antonio was registering a high fever (about 103 degrees Fahrenheit) which could have been dangerous to him had it persisted.

Mrs. Granchi does some philosophizing which is very worthwhile but which, for the sake of space, we must forego, but her closing words are very much worth quoting:

"But the most puzzling new facts in this case are the showing of the pictures, not in themselves as such, but what did the beings wish to communicate ? This is the task for many specialized scientists to try to unravel. What message did they wish to convey? The simplest seems that, as we harm them, they can harm us. That there are many of them, as there are many of us. That they can tell our future but we cannot tell theirs. That they isolate people in an invisible bell (Mason) jar. And so on.

"Shall we have time to reflect on all this before they come over (arrive) in larger hordes?" Well said, Irene.

Case ID: 464 edit: 464

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