Unidentified object falls from sky and leaves pub staff in Pakenham baffled
A golf ball-sized object fell from the sky and hit a car at the Pakenham Inn, about 8.30am on Friday morning, before bouncing onto a wall and shattering.
Assistant manager, Lou Fleming, was outside when the object fell from the sky and said it was freezing cold to the touch.
“I don’t know what it is, it’s really weird,” she said. “I went out there to let a staff member in this morning and we were standing there and then this thing came flying out of the sky. I’m not even exaggerating, it hit my car, it didn’t damage the car and then it hit the wall of the hotel and then it smashed.
“It sounded like a gun going off.
“If I had been hit at the speed it came in I would not like to think what would have happened… it just narrowly missed us.
“It definitely came out of the sky; there was nothing else happening around us … nothing was broken.”
Ms Fleming said they would have the object tested.
Pakenham police said there had been no reports of odd behaviour or explosions near the pub at that time.
Monash University Assoc Prof Michael Brown said judging by photos the object was “almost certainly not a meteorite”.
“While some meteorites have small pieces of coloured glass embedded within the rock, I haven’t heard of a meteorite that is only clear glass.
“A meteor large enough to leave debris on the Earth should have been loud and visible over a large area.”
Comment has been sought from the Mount Burnett Observatory.
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