GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- It's a story that began out of this world nearly a hundred years ago when a meteorite crashed down to earth near Edmore, Michigan. And now a man in Grand Rapids just found out the meteorite he has from that impact is worth at least $100,000.
The meteorite weights 22.5 pounds and fell from the sky in 1930's.
The man named David, who didn't want his last name used says the rock has been used as a doorstop in a barn for decades. He says the meteorite came with the barn he bought in Edmore back in 1988.
"I walked in there and there’s this rock and i said you got everything all cleaned up but what’s this? and he said oh that’s a meteorite,” says David, who owns the meteorite.
David says the man who sold him the barn described the amazing tale of the meteorite making an impact crater in the backyard.
“He said when he was a youngster, it came down on the property out back and you could actually hear when it hit," says David.
There was a big crater and David says the men dug a hole until they found the meteorite which was still warm. It made for quite a story and stayed in the barn for about the next 50 years.
David says his kids took the space rock to 'show and tell' at school. He got the idea of selling it when a meteor streaked across the sky in East Michigan back in January. So in February, he took the meteorite to Central Michigan University to have a scientist look at it.
“A real meteorite came to my door. It was brought by this gentleman and within minutes, within seconds i knew it was a real one," says Dr. Monaliza Sirbescu, CMU Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences.
Even though Dr. Sirbescu knew exactly what it was, it had to be sent to the Smithsonian Museum for verification, it wasn’t until Thursday word came back it definitively is a meteorite, the 6th largest ever found in Michigan.
“It is heavy it is made of iron and nickel, it is 88.5 percent iron and 11.5 percent nickel,” says Sirbescu.
David and his meteorite have a cosmic connection that shouldn't be going away anytime soon.
"I sat on it for 30 years, what’s another 2 years," says David.
David tells FOX 17 he's going to wait a while and let the price value go up on his space rock nest egg.
