[meteorite-list] Metal Object Crashes Through New Jersey Home

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 16:18:18 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200701040018.QAA16238_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120AP_Fallen_Object.html

Metal object crashes through N.J. home
By CHRIS NEWMARKER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 3, 2007

[photo]
A metal, rock-like object about the size of a golf ball is seen in
this undated photograph provided by Det. R. Gelber of Freehold Township
Police Department in Freehold Township, N.J., Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007.
Nobody was injured when the oblong object, weighing more than 13 ounces,
crashed into the a Monmouth County home Tuesday night. Federal officials
sent to the scene said it was not from an aircraft. (AP Photo/ Det. R.
Gelber of Freehold township Police Department )

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- A metal, rock-like object about the size of a
golf ball and weighing nearly as much as a can of soup crashed through
the roof of a Monmouth County home, and authorities on Wednesday were
trying to figure out what it was.

Nobody was injured when the oblong object, weighing more than 13 ounces,
crashed into 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-feeling 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 said he had enlisted.

Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had
punched a hole in the roof of a single-family, two-story home, damaged
tiles on a bathroom floor below and then bounced, sticking into a wall.

The object was heavier than a usual metal object of that 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 before.

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."

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 were a meteorite.
Received on Wed 03 Jan 2007 07:18:18 PM PST