Police Found 20-Inch Footprints After UFO Encounter - UFO Encounters in Mediterranean
- Cristina Gomez
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 25
The Mediterranean region has produced some of Europe’s most compelling UFO encounters, cases that continue to puzzle investigators decades later. Three incidents stand out not just for their extraordinary nature, but for the physical evidence, multiple witnesses, and official recognition they received.
UFO Encounters in Mediterranean
Italy’s Most Famous Abduction: The Zanfretta Case
Shortly after midnight on December 6, 1978, Italian security guard Pier Fortunato Zanfretta was conducting routine patrols near Torriglia, outside Genoa, when his world changed forever. His Fiat 126 patrol car died mysteriously near the Casa Nostra villa as four strange lights moved through the garden. Approaching what he assumed were burglars, Zanfretta instead encountered something that defied explanation: a ten-foot-tall green creature with undulating skin, yellow triangular eyes, and clawed feet. Terror overwhelmed him as a massive triangular craft, larger than the villa itself, rose behind the building with blinding light and a hissing sound. His desperate radio call to headquarters captured his horror: “My God, are they ugly!” When asked if his attackers were human, Zanfretta’s reply became legendary: “No, they aren’t men, they aren’t men.”
The investigation that followed revealed compelling evidence. Fellow guards found Zanfretta unconscious at 1:15 AM, his clothes inexplicably warm despite the freezing December night. Military police discovered two horseshoe-shaped impressions in the frost-covered grass, each nine feet in diameter, marking where the craft had allegedly landed. Most remarkably, 52 residents of nearby Torriglia independently witnessed a bright glare in the exact direction and time of Zanfretta’s encounter. Commander Antonio Nucchi, who had known Zanfretta for years, vouched for his character: “Only something exceptional could have frightened him so.”
Between 1978 and 1981, Zanfretta reported eleven separate abductions, each documented by police and medical professionals. During his second disappearance on December 26, investigators found enormous footprints measuring 20 inches long around his patrol car, which remained scalding hot despite hours in freezing rain. His service weapon had been fired five times, though he couldn’t recall shooting it. Under hypnosis at Milan’s International Center of Medical and Psychological Hypnosis, Zanfretta described beings from the “third galaxy” who communicated through luminous translation devices. The most extraordinary session occurred on December 3, 1979, when Zanfretta mentioned events in Spain that weren’t reported in Italian media until the following day — a Spanish dentist’s UFO encounter that had occurred the exact night Zanfretta claimed to be abducted.
Greece’s UFO Crash and Retrieval Operation
On September 2, 1990, after 3:00 AM the small Greek village of Megas Platanos shepherd Trantos Karatranjos and other locals watched six brightly lit crafts move silently overhead. One flew erratically before crashing 500 meters away, erupting in flames that spread to nearby bushes. Rather than fleeing, the remaining five UFOs hovered over the crash site as two descended and landed nearby, mysteriously extinguishing the fires.
For hours until dawn, witnesses observed what appeared to be an organized recovery effort. Small lights dove from the hovering crafts to the crash site, hovered briefly, then shot back upward — systematic retrieval operations conducted by what investigators theorized was an alien rescue team. When local residents investigated at daylight, they discovered a dark, burned oval with edges so precise they appeared “cut with a knife,” along with tiny metallic fragments and small wires. Many collected pieces as souvenirs, though their current whereabouts remain unknown. The Hellenic Air Force arrived later that morning, collected the remaining debris, and dismissed the incident as either a Soviet satellite or small plane crash — an explanation witnesses firmly rejected based on their direct observations.
France’s Encounter with the Unknown
On August 29, 1967, in Cussac, France, thirteen-year-old François and nine-year-old Anne-Marie were herding cattle when François spotted four small figures in strange black clothing with a silken appearance. Standing about three feet tall with unusually long limbs and no discernible facial features, the beings collected samples near a brilliant sphere so bright the children couldn’t look directly at it. When Anne-Marie called out, “Do you want to play with us?” the beings realized they were being watched. What followed defied conventional physics: each figure leaped into the air, hovering over the glowing sphere before diving headfirst inside and disappearing.
The credibility of this encounter stemmed from the witnesses themselves. The children’s father was the mayor of Cussac, a man whose reputation depended on public trust. Despite potential political consequences, he immediately contacted police. When officers arrived at 4 PM, they found a strong sulfur odor still lingering and a fifteen-foot patch of yellowed grass where the sphere had hovered. The case received national media attention and remains unexplained to this day.
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