The Sky is Falling!

Jersey City, New Jersey, July 19, 2007:

A hunk of metal that crashed through the roof of a home has NASA, Federal Aviation Administration, and New Jersey Transit officials scratching their heads.

Ron, who lives in the house, was watching television Wednesday when he heard a crash and saw a cloud of dust. In the next room, he found a hunk of gray metal, 3 1/2 inches by 5 inches, with two hexagonal holes in it.

Experts say it's manmade, but nobody can say where it might have come from.

New Jersey Transit has railroad tracks about 100 feet from the house, but spokesman Dan Stessel said the object isn't something that would have flown off a train.

FAA officials said it wasn't a part that would have fallen from a plane headed into or out of nearby Newark Liberty International Airport.

"It doesn't look very 'space-y,'" said Henry Kline, a spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's obviously made for something ... But we wouldn't know what to do with it."

U.S. Air Force Major Costas Leonidou at the Pentagon said he couldn't identify the fallen object, either. "It could be Air Force, Navy, Marines, commercial. It could be anything," he said.

Authorities in Jersey City just want to get it identified. Ron wants more: monetary compensation.

"I think I deserve some cash for this nonsense," said an irate Ron. "I mean, whose sh*t fell through my roof?!? I'm still waiting for that airline to cover the other hole in my roof (see Chicken Little)."

"It belongs to somebody," Police Director Mark Smith said. "We just need to find out who."

Posted by Bittle at July 19, 2007 08:21 AM