A weird metal object that washed up on a beach in North Carolina has left both residents and officials stumped. The odd debris first appeared along the shore of the town of Corolla at the start of the year following a series of winter storms. It subsequently sat in the sand for the next six months or so, seemingly without anyone really paying much attention to it.
However with summer now in full bloom and the popular tourist destination welcoming a number of visitors to the area, the strange object has captured the attention and imagination of the community. The enigmatic piece sports a solar-powered light, which amazingly still works, extending from a pole near the center of the object. Aside from that detail, there is little about the object that indicates where it came for or what it purpose may have been.
As one can imagine, speculation about the nature of the object has run the gamut of possibilities. Some have proposed a prosaic explanation, such as that it is simply a mundane piece of equipment from a ship or perhaps a buoy, while others have offered more fantastic suggestions, including that it came from Russia or even outer space. There are even a few who have noted that what we are seeing could merely be a glimpse of something much larger that is buried on the beach.
According to one local website, a spokesperson for the National Park Service has conceded that they "don't know what the object is." Meanwhile, a different media outlet determined that neither the Navy nor the Army Corp of Engineers have taken ownership of the orphaned object. And its position in the sand has made removing the object, should someone step up to do so, a particularly difficult task.
To that end, with tourists expected to swarm the area over the next few months, the community may, at this point, be less concerned about the mystery surrounding the object and more worried about getting rid of it. Alas, until someone steps forward to claim the object, they just may be stuck with it. Do you have a guess as to what the piece may be? Let us know at the Coast to Coast AM Facebook page.