Zanfretta, Pier Fortunato

Pier Fortunato Zanfretta is one of Italy's most famous abductees / contactees. Between 1978 and 1981 he was abducted on several occasions by beings, claiming to be from Teetonia.

For more information on the beings he encountered, see Teetonia.

Biographical data

Birth details: Most sources (Italian Wikipedia, IMDb, MYmovies) give his birth date as December 28, 1952, in Nova Milanese, Lombardy. One source (Paranormal Italia) instead says he was born in Chiavari, and another (nientepopcorn.it) says Monza — so there's some discrepancy on the birthplace, though Nova Milanese has the most corroboration.

Personal/professional background: At the time of the December 1978 encounter he was 26 years old, married with two young children, and worked as a private security guard ("guardia particolare giurata"/night watchman) for the Val Bisagno security cooperative in Genoa, patrolling the hilly Torriglia area at night. Colleagues reportedly described him as a calm, reliable, unremarkable person before the case broke.

Case Description

ZANFRETTA, THE NIGHT WATCHMAN WHO SAW A UFO

(ANSA) - Genoa, September 21 - The history of UFO sightings in Liguria and Genoa immediately calls to mind the name of Pier Fortunato Zanfretta, the night watchman that in the evening of December 6, 1978 claimed to have had a close encounter with alien beings. Zanfretta, a sworn guard at the private security institute, 'Valbisagno', was found in a state of shock near to the 'Casa nostra' villa of Marzano di Torriglia, in a small village in the Genovese highlands. So far as investigators have been able to glean, it was about 11.30pm when Zanfretta turned off state highway 45 and headed for Marzano. The night watchman drove up the narrow road that leads to the centre of the village, and from there, continued towards the 'Casa Nostra' villa. ''It was already fifteen minutes past midnight - recalls the operator at the security institute who was on reception duty that evening - when the first call arrived. Zanfretta was shouting and continued to say 'it looks horrible! '. So I asked him if he was being attacked and he replied: 'No, they are not human, they are not human...' At that point the line went dead.'' Zanfretta later spoke of a large triangular light that rose up from behind the house. The watchman described it as a very bright saucer, that was longer than the villa itself. When he came to, Zanfretta said he had seen ''a huge being, 3 metres tall, with rippling skin, as though he were very fat or dressed in a loose, grey tunic''. The being immediately moved away ''in a gigantic triangular shaped light, with coloured lights flashing overhead.'' The case caused a major scandal and became even more notorious after Enzo Tortora invited Zanfretta to participate in the famous 'Portobello' transmission. The affair also had serious behind-the-scenes consequences: the caribinieri of Torriglia, under Marshal Anotonio Nucchi, found 52 eyewitnesses and a large horse shaped imprint at the point in which Zanfretta was found. To this day the Zanfretta case remains one of the most curious and fascinating Italian 'x-files'.

Source: ANSA, the Italian national press agency, on October 25, 2004, 4.05 PM

Additional info:

Zanfretta reported a total of eleven close encounters (third and fourth kind) between 1978 and 1981, not just the initial December 1978 event.
He described the beings as green, wrinkled-skinned, nearly three meters tall, with large spikes on their heads and yellow triangular eyes, claiming they came from a dying planet in a "third galaxy" called "Titania," and that the beings called themselves the "Dargos." Wikipedia
A formal report on the sightings was sent to the Genoa magistrate's court by Marshal Nucchi on January 3, 1979, and Judge Russo ordered it archived on January 11, 1980, for lack of criminal elements. Wikipedia
Under regressive hypnosis, Zanfretta described invasive medical exams aboard a UFO, and said the aliens expressed intent to eventually relocate to Earth.
A second major episode reportedly occurred the night of December 2–3, 1979, when Zanfretta again vanished near Torriglia and his car was found without him; a strange cloud with two lights inside was observed, and a Lieutenant Cassiba claimed to have fired shots at it, after which it disappeared.

Legacy

Journalist Rino Di Stefano - often called "the father of the Zanfretta case" - wrote a 1984 book on the case that reached a sixth edition by 2014 and was released in English worldwide.

RAI3 produced a two-part TV dramatized investigation in December 1984 called "UFO a Genova? Gli incontri ravvicinati di Piero Zanfretta."

In 2004 the case resurfaced in the sci-fi film "InvaXön – Alieni in Liguria," in which Zanfretta played himself.

More recently, he was featured in 2024 on episodes of the podcast "Non aprite quella podcast," and in April 2025 the Genoa punk band Ratbones released a single titled "Piero Zanfretta," with Zanfretta himself appearing in the music video.

As mentioned in the introduction, it is one of the most famous Italian contactee / abduction cases. Many people have reported on the case; it appeared in Italian news papers and on Italian television. The Zanfretta case is even on the Wikipedia.

At the time of the first encounter a UFO was seen by dozens of witnesses.

The case is generally considered genuine.