A strange, large object washed up on a New England beach this week.
NBC 10 WJAR received several photos from viewers showing a big black mystery object with "NASA" insignias washed up on Conimicut Point in Warwick, Rhode Island following strong winds on Monday. The "NASA" insignias is believed to have been painted on by a local resident at some point this week to make the unidentified object seem like it came from space.
Aime Bureau, who lives nearby, told NBC 10 WJAR the area typically gets a lot of storm debris, which has included cars, boats and furniture washed ashore.
"We think it's a space alien," Bureau jokingly told NBC 10 WJAR.
The object appears to be plastic and capable of holding up to 1,500 gallons of water, according to NBC 10 WJAR.
"We're trying to establish custody. We're trying to find out whose it is," said Mike Healey with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. "Then, we want to figure out, does this homeowner have the means come over here and pick this thing up?"
The debris makes for a curious case, but past instances of objects washing up ashore have had much greater implications.
In 1996, the tug Scandia caught fire trying to outrace a winter storm, which led to it losing its barge and spilling more than 800,000 gallons of home heating oil on beaches in the North Cape area, causing "significant environmental damage [from] fish to marine birds," Healey told NBC 10 WJAR.
In 1993, 25 cargo containers slipped of a barge in heavy weather off Little Compton, which littered the ocean and coastal areas with stuffed animals, sneakers and other items for months at a time, NBC 10 WJAR reports.
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