Lot 127
Park Forest
The Robert Elliott Meteorite Collection
Auction: 18 August 2009 at 15:00 BST
Description
Three fusion crusted individuals (3)
Dimensions
15.2g, 9.6g & 7.1g
Footnote
Park Forest (Park Forest, Illinois, USA) L5 (stone) - fell 26th March 2003
At 11:30pm on 26th March 2003, a bright fireball was seen and heard in Chicago. Moments later, chunks of stony meteorites began falling over the town of Park Forest, Illinois, peppering the area with space rocks ranging from the size of a pea, up to larger masses of several kilograms.
Several homes were also hit, including that belonging to Noe Garza of Indiana Street, Park Forest. Noe's 14-year-old son Robert was fast asleep in his bedroom when a meteorite narrowly missed him. It blasted through the roof, smashed a 5x10cm wooden support joist in the attic, broke apart, and made three holes in the bedroom ceiling. The meteorite then wrecked a plastic window blind, smashed the glass window, caused a hefty dent in the metal window sill, bounced on the floor and completely smashed both mirror-fronted wardrobe doors. The damage was incredible, but it soon became clear that Robert Garza was very lucky to be alive, as the meteorite had missed hitting him by less than a metre!