On March 3, 1965, at about 02:00, John Reeves, a Brooksville resident aged 65, was out walking when he came upon a disc-shaped object twenty to thirty feet in diameter, and about eight feet thick in Weeki-Wachi Springs, Florida, USA. Around the rim were a number of slats similar to a Venetian blind, which opened and closed. The object was resting on four struts, and a fifth extended from its underside, holding several disc-shaped "steps". Then a humanoid figure with a transparent, spherical helmet, dressed in a silver grey, tight fitting suit approached Reeves and examined him. The entity's head was similar to a human's head except for the very wide-set eyes. Then the humanoid fetched a small box-like instrument from inside the UFO and pointed it at Reeves, who decided to run away, but the instrument was apparently harmless: as he looked over his shoulder, Reeves saw that the box was flashing. He also said that the entity had come so close to him that his helmet banged against Reeves's head. Later, footprints were found at the landing site, and Reeves also discovered two pieces of tissue-like paper at the scene of the encounter which bore strange symbols of handwritten appearance, which he gave to US Air Force investigators at McDill Air Force Base and the Pentagon, who then said the paper-like stuff is common material and that they have partly decoded the message that said "Planet Mars. Are you coming home soon? We miss you very much. why did you stay away too long?", and concluded the story was a hoax. According to Coral Lorenzen of APRO, it has been suggested that the silly message was an attempt to mislead humans, for some reason, if the encounter itself was assumed genuine. Other ufologists charged that the US Air Force did not give him the message back and invented its meaning to ridicule the sighting, while most wisely stated that it could simply be a hoax as the witness was alone, as extraterrestrials are unlikely to handwrite silly messages on pieces or tissue, as anyone can create footprints and as no corroboration of the sighting was found whatsoever.
