Jenny Braswell arrived at Epting Automotive like any regular workday in December, but something was not normal about this morning.

A round metal-looking object was perched on the edge of the roof of the automobile parts shop.

Braswell was curious, but did not think any more of the mysterious object.

A few weeks later, while workers were on the roof of the Wilson Road store, Braswell asked the workers to retrieve the object.

When the workers went to remove the object, they also found a surprise. A hole the size of the mysterious object was discovered in the roof.

Braswell immediately sought answers. What is this mysterious object? Where did it come from?

“Maybe it came through the atmosphere,” Braswell said. “The object looks like it has been made to sustain a lot of heat, and it has been exposed to a lot of heat because it is has carbon compounds covering its surface, so it looks like it could have come through the atmosphere.”

The mysterious object is not magnetic and resembles carbon, but Braswell does not think it is made of carbon.

It weighs five-eighths of a pound, is 2 7/16 inches in diameter and is seven-eighths of an inch thick. It even has green streaks running through it.

No one really knows what the object is.

The mysterious object also had an impact force hard enough to break through the roof.

“That roof is made to not have anything go through it. That object could not have been thrown on the roof and done that type of damage,” Braswell said.

On New Year’s Eve, roofers at Epting Automotive found another mysterious round object and a hole in the roof on the other side of the store.

“It is no coincidence,” Braswell said, “They both had to have hit at the same time. And they look like the same thing, except the new one is broken in half.”

Some passerbys at Epting Automotive have guessed that the mysterious objects came from a plane flying overhead, or even a piece of satellite reentering the atmosphere.

Mike Evans, a local involved in aeronautics, looked at the objects and identified that they were not off of any type of spacecraft.

Todd Clamp of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) also looked at the objects, but did not know what they could be either.

When asked if the objects could be radioactive, Braswell laughed.

“If these things were radioactive, half of Newberry County and I would all be sick. I have been handling them for about a month and nothing has happened to me,” Braswell said.

Customers have suggested Braswell send the objects to Clemson University to be analyzed and hopefully identified.

She has yet to send the objects away, but soon will.

Until then, Braswell, and her customers, will continue to guess what the mysterious objects could be.

WHASSUP? — Two small objects pierced through a roof in December and are as yet unidentified.

—Staff photo

by Heather Brickley