By Roberto Enrique Banchs and Richard W. Heiden

Investigation by one of the authors (Roberto Enrique Banchs) for the Centro de Estudios de Fenomenos Aereos Inusuales (CEFAI) of Buenos Aires has shown that the Argentine abduction case reported in the APRO Bulletin of March 1975 was a hoax, as the events could not have occurred as the witness claimed.

To briefly summarize the incident, Carlos Alberto Diaz said that after getting off work in Bahia Blanca at 3:05 a.m. on Sunday, January 5, 1975, he walked seven blocks to the bus stop at Plaza Rivadavia, where he took the bus to his home city of Ingeniero White, arriving at 3:30. Diaz was 100 meters (330 feet) from home, walking on a deserted street, when, just before 3:50, he saw a bright light, and then became paralyzed before being pulled up off the ground and then fainting. Diaz came to in an empty ovoid. After 15 minutes three humanoids appeared, who proceeded to hold down the witness, and pull out some of his hair. Diaz again fainted, and woke up at about 3:00 p.m. near Buenos Aires (400 miles away), lying off the side of a highway. He hitchhiked to the Railway Hospital, where he arrived at 4:15. The doctors were impressed by his story when Diaz showed them the morning Bahia Blanca newspaper, which indicated that he had been there not too many hours before, and they gave him a thorough examination. (Some of these details vary from those in the Bulletin; several versions of the story have been published.)

Investigation revealed the following:

1. The abduction site, on Daniel de Solier Street, is always busy, even at that time, yet Diaz said he saw no one around. Also, house-to-house inquiries found that no one in the neighborhood had noticed anything unusual, nor had any watch dogs acted up.

2. The bus leaves Bahia Blanca at 3:30, and takes 25 minutes to get to Ingeniero White, whereas Diaz said he arrived at Ingeniero White at 3:30, only 25 minutes after leaving work.

3. Finding the above discrepancies, it was realized that Diaz probably went directly to Buenos Aires; he could have taken the train. The train originating in Zapala passes through Bahia Blanca at 6:15 a.m. (the newspaper having come out at 2:45 a.m.), though it is often behind schedule. During the investigation, Train 142 making this run passed through Bahia Blanca at 7:07, arriving at Buenos Aires at 4:10 p.m.

4. The records of the hospital guard show that Diaz arrived there at 5:30 p.m., not 4:15.

5. Psychological assessments of Diaz found these characteristics, among others: rich imagination, quick intelligence (but without depth), inclination to exaggerate, good memory, occasional use of poor judgment, and maladjusted personality.

We think that under these circumstances we have enough sound arguments of the inauthenticity of the episode, and are able to consider the case a hoax, made up by the witness himself.