The Cergy-Pontoise Case
Three young men near Paris said one of them was taken by a glowing sphere. He reappeared a week later, and decades afterwards a friend admitted it was a hoax.
What was reported
Early on 26 November 1979, three young men loading a car near Cergy-Pontoise, a new town outside Paris, said a ball of light surrounded the car while one of them, Franck Fontaine, sat inside. When it vanished, so had he.
He reappeared a week later, saying he had been aboard a craft. The case caused a sensation in France and was investigated by the police, who found no sign of a crime.
Explanations offered
Many investigators doubted the story at the time. In 2004, Jean-Pierre Prévost, one of the three, said in a book that they had invented the whole affair, and that Fontaine had been hiding with friends. The case is now widely regarded as a hoax.
- When
- 26 November 1979
- Where
- Cergy-Pontoise, Val-d'Oise, France
- Witnesses
- Three young men
- Status
- Hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.