By CHRIS NEWMARKER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 4, 4:35 AM ET
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FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Authorities were trying to identify a
mysterious metallic object that crashed through the roof of a house
in eastern New Jersey.
Nobody was injured when the golf-ball sized object, weighing nearly
as much as a can of soup, struck the home and embedded itself in a
wall Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the scene said it was
not from an aircraft.
The rough-surfaced object, with a metallic glint, was displayed
Wednesday by police.
"There's some great interest in what we have here," said Lt. Robert
Brightman. "It's rather unusual. I haven't seen anything like it in
my career."
He said he hoped to have the object identified within 72 hours, but
declined to name the other agencies whose help he has
enlisted.
Approximately 20 to 50 rock-like objects fall every day over the
entire planet, said Carlton Pryor, a professor of astronomy at
Rutgers University.
"It's not all that uncommon to have rocks rain down from heaven,"
said Pryor, who had not seen the object that struck the Monmouth
County home. "These are usually rocky or a mixture of rock and
metal."
Pryor said laboratory tests would have to be conducted to determine
if the object was a meteorite.
Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had
punched a hole in the roof of the single-family, two-story home,
damaged tiles on a bathroom floor, and then bounced, sticking into
a wall.
The object was heavier than a usual metal object of its size, said
Brightman, who added that no radioactivity was detected.
Brightman would not disclose the address of the house or the names
of the people who lived there, citing the family's desire to not
talk to the media. He would only say that the couple and their
adult son live in a township housing development.
Brightman said one man who lives at the home found the object at
about 9 p.m. Tuesday after returning from work and hearing from his
mother that something had crashed through the roof a few hours
earlier.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which sent investigators to
the town, did not know where the object came from, said spokeswoman
Arlene Murray.
"It's definitely not an aircraft part," she said. "I can't speak
beyond that as to what it might be."
In the neighborhood later in the day, residents chatted with each
other in the streets about the fallen object, but none said they
knew which house had been hit.
Robert Nalven, 55, said nothing this exciting had happened in the
six years he's lived in the affluent development. "I'm happy it
didn't hit my house," he said.
