Naples man says metal object fell into his home from sky, leaving hole, debris on the floor

Matt Trezza
·2 min read

NAPLES, Fla. - Alejandro Otero sent us a photo of an object he said came through his ceiling into his home in Naples, leaving a hole and debris on his floor. He wondered whether it was something from space. Space expert David Denault said thousands of pieces of space junk are orbiting around the earth. "We have almost about 26,000 pieces of space junk up there floating, and how we really started to survey this was Gemini IV, in 1965."

NASA says the junk is pieces of spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that weren't working anymore, and stuff like that. It's all whizzing around above our heads at speeds up to 18,000 miles per hour. Otero said whatever came through his roof was about four inches long.

Space expert Dr. Ken Kremer said it was unlikely that it fell from orbit. "I don't think you can assume it's space debris. I think there's a really good possibility it could be from an airplane."

That has happened before. Images from a California home in 2017 show where ice from a plane crashed through a roof. They found a hole in the ceiling of their upstairs bathroom and chunks of ice in the bathtub. Thankfully, no one was in the bathroom at the time.

Kremer said another possibility was that the object was a bullet that somebody fired up into the air. "Yeah, a bullet's definitely possible, that was round, it could have been a projectile and that's really scary if that's what it is."

That was something that had happened before, unfortunately. Images from 2020 show the damage to a Florida home that a falling bullet hit on New Year’s Eve. Deputies said it was likely the result of celebratory gunfire. "There's things falling from the sky, no doubt about it," Kremer said.

Experts said if something like this happens to you, it's best to call your local law enforcement and report it. They may discover what it is, or connect you with the Federal Aviation Administration. It's also illegal to keep debris or other man-made objects that fall from space.