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| (Reddit u/thatsboots3101) |
This is a story about science, the internet and the panic of the unknown.
You may remember the UFO panic of 2010, when a large, cylindrical object floated through New Jersey skies, causing frenzied residents to briefly paralyze 911 call centers and setting off a caper that captured the attention of state news organizations large and small.
Well, the case has finally been closed. On Reddit on Monday night, a Green Brook native confessed, in charming detail, how he unwittingly created a UFO panic in Central Jersey all those years ago.
It started innocently enough, a combination of scientific curiosity and boredom.
Two college kids in Green Brook were on summer break in May 2010 and remembered an old high school science experiment: creating a solar balloon.
"This was just a really thin black plastic bag you'd fill with air, seal, and then set out in the sun," said the man, who asked not to be identified but posted under the Reddit handle thatsboots3010. "The sun would heat the air in the black bag and the bag would become buoyant and float."
They set out to replicate it and succeeded in creating a more than 30-foot balloon made of trash bags that floated to the heavens when warmed by the sun. And they didn't give it a passing thought.
"We thought nothing at the time of it getting away other than, 'Well damn, now we have to make another one,'" said one of the backyard scientists in an interview with NJ Advance Media.
What they didn't know was their trash balloon almost immediately caused a panic up and down the Route 22 corridor.
People quickly spotted the long, slender object in the sky and began calling into local radio stations. Others, apparently more concerned about the unidentified flying object, called 911, briefly tying up phone lines at several law enforcement offices in Somerset County.
There was ultimately no harm done, and the frenzy quickly passed. Several years later, he happened upon the news story I wrote about the event as a cub reporter for The Star-Ledger.
"I had read some other UFO sighting with strange lights in the area so was googling around about Somerset County UFOs," said the man, who now lives in Maryland. "I came across the article, saw the picture and bust out laughing. I immediately knew it was us."
It was a labor of love. The Green Brook native said he and a friend, who both have STEM-related careers today, scoured the state for days to find the right materials.
They went to dollar stores and Walmarts, trying to find the thinnest possible plastic bag and tape for the task.
"Finally we took a number of them, cut off the bottom ends, and taped them together into a huge balloon which we filled up with a leaf blower and then tied the end," he said in his Reddit post, on the subreddit Confessions. "After sitting out in the sun for a half hour or so we had done it."
He said they got some funny looks from people driving by but didn't hear a word about it again. The internet wasn't quite what it was today and it remained fairly contained.
To my knowledge, the balloon was never recovered. It likely floated east based on the prevailing winds of the day, according to data from the National Weather Service.
His confession exploded in popularity on Reddit on Monday night. I happened to be the sole reporter on the late shift for Labor Day. Shortly before I signed off for the night, an editor messaged me to say one of my old stories was suddenly surging in traffic. We traced the referrals back to the Reddit and I found the answer to the mystery that had eluded me for so long.
Sometimes the internet is a wonderful and magical place.
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