Meteorite Strikes In Harleston?

A REMOVAL man from Long Stratton believes that a meteorite tore a gaping three to four inch hole in the roof of his 18-ton lorry.

James Barber, 34, had parked his lorry at the Harleston base of international removal firm Hamiltons in Speedwell Way, and believes he heard the incident which caused the rupture happen as he made his way back to the vehicle last Saturday afternoon.

The hole, big enough to comfortably slip a mobile phone through, was done to one of the sturdy, metal-thick corner joints on the green non-articulated Mercedes Benz Axor lorry.

Mr Barber said: “After walking back out in the yard to the lorry, I heard an almighty bang.

“At first I thought a tyre on my vehicle must have exploded, but after giving the outside a once over, it looked like nothing had happened.

“But after going into the loading bay, I noticed just what a great big whopping hole had been made in the roof.”

A meteorite is a meteoroid, a small particle from an asteroid or comet, that survives its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and impacts the Earth’s surface.

Around 10,000 hit the earth every year.

“It looked like a shotgun blast or something, the way it’s been punched clean through, but there’s no way something like that could have happened because of where the hole is and the fact there are no trees or ledges anywhere in sight to get above the vehicles and make the shot.

“Although I found nothing in the truck itself and nothing went through the floor, there were brown specks of what looked and felt like soil on the jagged edges.

“It went through about four feet behind I would have been sitting, and I suppose you do think of the what’s, if’s, but’s and maybe’s because I was on my way back to the truck when it appears to have happened.”

The hole has since been repaired and the truck is now back in service, Dissexpress