On the evening of 24 January 1972, Yokoi was discovered in the jungle[5] by Jesus Dueñas and Manuel De Gracia, two local men checking their shrimp traps along a small river on Talofofo. They had assumed Yokoi was a villager from Talofofo, but he thought his life was in danger and attacked them.[3] They managed to subdue him and carried him out of the jungle with minor bruising.[3]