AN insurance policy against being "abducted, impregnated or eaten by aliens" always seemed a poor investment for the holder.
But now it is unusual risks insurer Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams Pearson Ltd who seem to have got the worst of the deal.
Managing director, Mr Simon Burgess, announced yesterday the payment of £1 million to policy holder Mr Joseph Carpenter, who provided the underwriters with a transparent webbed claw as proof of his ordeal.
Grip, which has made its names offering bizarre policies, including one for virgins concerned about immaculate conception, handed over the cheque on Christmas Eve, Mr Burgess said.
Mr Carpenter, a self styled "hardcore UFOlogist", said his ordeal began during a "sky search" with friends near RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire on November 14th.
The group spotted a "triangular craft" which Mr Carpenter approached. "An intense beam of light shone on me and I was physically lifted off the ground and passed out. All this was captured on film," he said.
"When I woke up I was in a rather surreal place. It was like a dome with greenhouse vegetation for miles around. I was then approached by an orange luminous object. I was just blinded by the light and then I felt the presence of someone behind me.
"When I turned around there was an extraterrestrial entity with a triangular head, two tiny slit nostrils and olive, dolphin like skin .. . I passed out. I presume it put me to sleep and when I woke up I was back on terra firma."
At first Mr Carpenter (23), from Enfield, London, thought he been dreaming but then noticed a claw stuck in his coat sleeve.