By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MIDDLETOWN - Intruder alert!

Kristy Blair and her 7-week-old son, Josiah, were half-asleep in bed Monday afternoon when a hunk of metal, larger than a softball, burst through their ceiling.

Crumbled plaster rained down. Startled and confused, Blair grabbed the baby and rushed out of the room. They avoided injury as the metal bounced from the bed and landed on the floor with a thud.

The unidentified object left a 6-inch-diameter hole in the ceiling - and a mystery that has involved the Federal Aviation Administration and even NASA. "We're holding it (the object) for NASA," said city Police Sgt. John Magill. "They'll come and examine it. They'll probably take it."

Blair, 27, laughed and said, "I feel like I'm in the middle of an X Files."

A police report gives this description: "some type of metal, silver or aluminum in color, having a circular hole through the center ... damaged and possibly burnt with discoloration."

That appearance, coupled with what appears to be the letters, "U.S.," make Blair and her husband, Scott, wonder whether the metal could have fallen from an aircraft - or if it could be space junk.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com