[1][2] Some skeptics today consider the abduction story to be little more than a hoax, although Boas nonetheless reportedly stuck to his account throughout his life.

[3] At the time of his alleged abduction, Antônio Vilas-Boas was a 23-year-old Brazilian farmer who was working at night to avoid the hot temperatures of the day.

[4] On October 15, 1957, he was ploughing fields near São Francisco de Sales when he saw what he described as a "red star" in the night sky.

According to his story, this "star" approached his position, growing in size until it became recognizable as a roughly circular or egg-shaped aerial craft, with a red light at its front and a rotating cupola on top.

According to Boas, he first attempted to leave the scene on his tractor, but when its lights and engine died after traveling only a short distance, he decided to continue on foot.

She was the same height as the other beings he had encountered, with a small, pointed chin and large, blue catlike eyes.

[11][12] Following this alleged event, Boas claimed to have suffered from nausea and weakness, as well as headaches and lesions on the skin which appeared without any kind of light bruising.

Eventually, he contacted journalist José Martins, who had placed an ad in a newspaper looking for people who had had experiences with UFOs.

He notes that several months before Boas first related his claims, a similar story was printed in the November 1957 issue of the periodical O Cruzeiro, and suggests that Boas borrowed details of this earlier account, along with elements of the contactee stories of George Adamski.