Tall, near-human

On the night of 16 October 1957, 23-year-old farmer Antônio Vilas-Boas said he was forcibly taken from his tractor by short figures and brought inside a landed object in São Francisco de Sales, where he was examined and subjected to a reproductive-type interaction. What sets the case apart from a mere tale is that physician Olavo Fontes examined him months later and documented skin lesions and symptoms consistent with radiation exposure. It is, chronologically, the first documented modern abduction —four years before Betty and Barney Hill— and a foundational landmark of all subsequent casework.

In the early hours of 16 August 1974, five Chilean popular artists —among them folk singer Tito Fernández, «El Temucano»— were driving back from a performance at the Oficina Victoria toward Antofagasta when, on the desert stretch of Pampa Soledad, they were followed by an orange light that split into two and then merged into a single object, beneath which they said they saw a tall humanoid figure. They fled at over 130 km/h; a truck driver who crossed their path independently corroborated having been chased by the same lights. The phenomenon stopped once they reached a Carabineros post in Quillagua, where they gave statements. Tito Fernández later wrote «El mensaje de Sirio», describing an alleged subsequent telepathic communication with the entity.

In June 1994, lumberjack Meng Zhaoguo, of the Red Flag camp in Wuchang (Heilongjiang, China), saw a metallic shine on Mount Phoenix and went to investigate what he thought was a downed helicopter; he said he was struck and, that night, had an intimate encounter with a very tall woman. It is China's most famous contact case, examined by local UFO societies.