The Tiago Machado Case
The account
A young street vendor saw a landed object and small beings in metallic suits, and came away from the encounter injured.
What investigators found
The account was investigated by ufologists, but there is no official confirmation or physical evidence that holds up to independent analysis.
The story
In February 1969, young Tiago Machado, a street vendor in Pirassununga, in the interior of São Paulo state, said he saw an object descend near an agricultural research area in the town. According to his account, short beings in shiny clothing came out of it. He said he tried to approach and was hit by a beam of light, which left him with marks and feeling ill.
The case was studied by Brazilian researchers and is considered a classic close encounter in the country. Machado repeated the story in interviews for many years, including recordings from the 1990s. Even so, there is no public medical report linking his injuries to the episode, and no other direct witness to the landing. For skeptics, there is no evidence that goes beyond the protagonist's word.