Mystery shrouds IOP's floating orb

Charleston Post and Courier ^ | Thursday, June 13, 2002 | BY GLENN SMITH

[vannrox]

Mystery shrouds IOP's floating orb Thursday, June 13, 2002 BY GLENN SMITH Of The Post and Courier Staff      <!summ!>ISLE OF PALMS-When a giant silver orb washed up in front of her rented beach house Monday night, Marie Segneri wondered for a moment if aliens had landed in the middle of her family reunion.<!end!>      The smooth, metallic ball was at least 3 feet in diameter and weighed a couple hundred pounds or more. Aside from a series of numbers stamped on its slightly dimpled surface, the sphere offered few clues as to its origin.      "It looked like it may have been in the sea for awhile, but we just had no idea what it was," said Segneri, a vacationer from Tampa, Fla.      Segneri's family wasn't alone. A parade of authorities from local, state and federal agencies examined the odd ball Wednesday. All came away scratching their heads.      "Strange," said Isle of Palms Fire Chief Ann Graham, shaking her head. "We're calling it a UFO - an unidentified floating object."      Two Segneri family members first spotted the sphere Monday afternoon when the sun glinted off its surface as it bobbed in the ocean. Thinking it was giant beach ball or a stray buoy, they swam out to grab it.      "We tried to push it toward shore, but it was just too heavy, and we had to let it go," said Tony Segneri, Marie's nephew.      The ocean eventually coughed up the ball later that day. Someone called authorities about the sphere, and the town sent a firefighter to investigate. A decision was made to leave it there and take another look when the sun was up. But when firefighters returned, it was gone.      That's because Segneri stumbled across the silver sphere while walking along the beach that night with her nieces and nephews. Concerned that it was a hazard to children, her relatives pushed the sphere up a ramp from the beach and deposited it in the dunes in front of their Ocean Boulevard house, where it became something of a curious lawn ornament.      "We just didn't know what to do with it," she said.      Unable to determine what it is was and tired of looking at it, the family called police Wednesday. In no time, the area was roped off with yellow tape and official-looking people were crawling all over the sphere.      The Segneris had planned to spend the day visiting local sights, but instead cracked sodas and pulled up lawn chairs to watch the action from their back porch. In the course of the afternoon, police, firefighters, the Air Force bomb squad, Coast Guard personnel and an inspector from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control came to examine the orb, which was parked on the ground beside a barbecue grill.      Various people poked, rubbed, studied and photographed it. They contacted agencies such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but no one claimed ownership.      The Coast Guard's best guess was that the sphere was some sort of flotation device used in a dredging operation. But the ball had no hooks or clamps where a line might be attached to hold it in place, Graham said.      Finally, at about 4 p.m., crews hauled the sphere to the town's public works department for safe keeping. In the process, the orb cracked in half along a seam. No little green men came out, just some old seawater.      "There was nothing green, nothing glowing," Graham said. "It will probably just go to the scrap yard."      Glenn Smith covers police and crime. Contact him at 937-5556 or at gsmith@postandcourier.com.

[isom35]

ufo: unidentified floating object.

[Mo1]

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[MississippiMan]

Nobody took a picture?

[dixie sass]

To bad there weren't any pictures taken. I'd like to have seen it. Maybe they should put the "UnIdentified Floating Object" on display for curious vistors to see. lol.

[Maceman]

The Thing
As I was walking down the beach one bright and sunny day.
I saw a great big wooden box a-floatin’ in the bay.
I pulled it in and opened it up and much to my surprise,
I discovered a -, -,- right before my eyes!
Oh, I discovered a -, -,- right before my eyes!

I picked it up and ran to town as happy as a king.
I took it to a guy I know who’d buy most anything.
But this is what he hollered at me as I walked in his shop,
“Oh, get out of here with that -, -,-before I call a cop!”
[Repeat]

I turned around and got right out a-runnin’ for my life,
And then I took it home with me to give it to my wife.
But this is what she hollered at me as I walked in the door,
“Oh get out of here with that -, -, -, and don’t come back no more.” [Repeat]

I wandered all around the town until I chanced to meet
A hobo who was looking for a handout on the street.
He said he’d take most any old thing, he was a desperate man,
But when I showed him the -, -, -, he turned a-round and ran.
[Repeat]

I wandered on for many years, a victim of my fate,
Until one day I came upon Saint Peter at the gate.
And when I tried to take it inside he told me where to go;
“Get out of here with that -, -, -, and take it down be-low!”
[Repeat]

The moral of this story is; if you’re out on the beach
And you should see a great big box, and it’s within your
reach,
Don’t ever stop and open it up, that’s my advice to you,
‘Cause you’ll never get rid of the -, -,-no matter what you
do! [Repeat]

[Izzy Dunne]

at least 3 feet in diameter and weighed a couple hundred pounds or more [...... ] its slightly dimpled surface

Religious question - If God plays golf, does he land one in a water hazard every now and then?

[Jhoffa_]

"We tried to push it toward shore, but it was just too heavy, and we had to let it go," said Tony Segneri, Marie's nephew.

Daschle's ego?

[hergus]

There's a photo here:

'Unidentified Floating Object' Washes Up On Beach

[archy]

[archy]

[Linda]

Ask gore, he invented it.

[dixie sass]

If it's the Wild Dunes course, he does!

[dixie sass]

How pretty Archy.

[piasa]

Given that there is a waterline around it, that suggests that it had at one time been fixed in a vertical position with a portion of it extending above the water. Without external attachment points, then it looks like its ability to stay upright is related to its contents, rather than having been attached to some other object. If its contents were just water, why would it have a waterline when a liquid would be free to move inside the ball? The ball would presumably still be able to rotate freely in the water, prohibiting a waterline of barnacles and scum from forming on the outside, would it not? In other words, did it have some fixed weight inside of it which was preventing free rotation in the waves at sea?

[swampfox98]

Geeze, I'll bet there is some kind of alien life form inside the orb that will kill half the state before the police will believe the witnesses. Re: "Body Snatchers".

[hergus]

This is crazy, you shouldn't throw away something like this, at least stick in some local museum until someome figure's out what it is:

Orb's history mysterious, future isn't

Friday, June 14, 2002
The Post and Courier Staff
     ISLE OF PALMS-The mysterious silver orb that washed ashore this week may soon be recycled like a giant beer can unless someone steps forward to claim it.    

  So far, no one has figured out what it is, let alone whom it belongs to. The smooth, metallic sphere, which is at least 3 feet in diameter and weighs 200 pounds or more, came in with the tide Monday night and landed on the beach near Ocean Boulevard.     

Local, state and federal authorities have examined the buoyant globe, but don't have a clue to its origin. As speculation mounted Thursday, Mayor Mike Sottile stepped in to oversee the matter and handle briefings on the odd ball."No one really knows what it is, and I don't think we'll ever know what it is," he said.     

Several people called City Hall Thursday to offer ideas. Among other things, they suggested the sphere was part of a Polaris missile or an overflow stopper for a gas tanker, Sottile said.    

  A caller to The Post and Courier thought the sphere might be part of a pressure release vent on a large ship. At the Coast Guard, some believed it was a target practice decoy used by the Navy.   

   After finding the orb Monday, a vacationing family rolled it to the dunes beside their rented beach house. Not sure what to do with it, they called police Wednesday. Everyone from firefighters to the Air Force bomb squad came to examine it.    

  "The way homeland security is now, we wanted to take all the necessary precautions," Sottile said.

     City officials later carted it away to the public works department for safekeeping. There it will sit for at least a few days while the city waits for someone to claim it. If no one does, its final destination likely will be a scrap yard.

     "As soon as we exhaust all avenues and talk to as many people as we can, we will dispose of it accordingly," Sottile said.

[yianni]

IOP = Infant of Prague

[MissAmericanPie]

Something from that Russian sub that went down, the Kirsh?