THE LATEST
DEVELOPMENTS--
ON A STORY WE'VE BEEN
TRACKING FOR WEEKS.
A MYSTERY OBJECT--
BURIED IN AT LEAST A
FOOT OF SAND AT A
WESTERLY BEACH--
FINALLY REMOVED.
CREWS USED AN
EXCAVATOR TO REMOVE
THE OBJECT OFF EAST
BEACH TODAY.
NOW THE QUESTION
REMAINS--
WHAT IS IT?
EYEWITNESS NEWS
REPORTER JARED PLINER
REPORTS
FROM WESTERLY.
An alien device? A piece of
military
history? It was fun on Twitter
today.
People saying it reminds them of
lawn furniture, an airboat fan,
others
believing it's scrap metal off a
barge. A lot of ideas.
"It's just baffling."
From these now viral photos of
an
underwater Watch Hill mystery
for at
least a year...
To this -- in the flesh on East
Beach.
Dug up from the sand and water,
Thursday. Shaped like a a camp
fire
or a tent. With eight metal legs
leading from a circular base to
a
single point.
Dozens of locals and visitors
huddled around , to get a look.
"The excavator was digging about
five, six, seven feet on either
side,
and was hitting it."
"Unfortunately, it didn't come
out in
one piece, as you can see. This
would have been very, very
difficult
to get out in one piece. It's
just so
large. We got, hopefully, it all
out."
Double the size of what the
beach
association says experts
predicted.
But what is it??
"Not a clue. We haven't solved
anything here today."
Brockmann says he's reached out
to
the Army Corps of Engineers,
URI,
fishermen, a naval history
museum
in D.C. and no one's sure.
One guess?
" An acoustic Doppler current
profiler. ADCP."
Oceanographic equipment used to
study currents. But no one's
claimed
it as such.
Officials wanted the object
gone,
concerned a swimmer could get an
arm or a leg caught in it.
Later driven away in the bed of
a
pickup...
"To an undisclosed location."
Now the hope is that experts
will
figure this out. As for who paid
for
the removal? The East Beach
Association says it budgeted 25-
hundred dollars and the cost
looks
to be under that. New at 6 --
what
locals think about all this...
JP EWN.
(CG)
MORE LOCAL COVERAGE
NOW ---
THAT ODD, METALLIC
OBJECT .... THAT'S BEEN
SITTING OFF A WESTERLY
BEACH ... IS NOW OUT OF
THE WATER ---
BUT PEOPLE ARE STILL
HOPING TO KNOW
EXACTLY WHAT IT IS ---
AND WELL, MANY ARE
STILL WAITING TO FIND
THAT OUT TONIGHT.
EYEWITNESS NEWS
REPORTER JARED PLINER
WAS THEIR FOR THE
REMOVAL THIS MORNING
---
HE HAS NEW REACTION
AT SIX FROM WESTERLY,
WITH THE SOUTH COUNTY
MOBILE NEWSROOM.
The East Beach Association paid
for
this removal. We're told the
object is
About two times larger than
expected. And it's been around
for
at least a year. This all took
off
recently when pictures of it
were
circulated online.
A popular word in a crowd of
onlookers, waiting to see a
Westerly
sea mystery...
"It's intriguing."
"It sounded sort of intriguing."
Brian Wood
Westerly
"I have friends on Facebook from
all
over the world who are asking
me,
'What is it? Have you dug the
thing
up yet?'"
They did, Thursday. Off East
Beach.
This object -- now all over
social
media -- is this
Shaped like a camp fire. With
eight
metal legs leading from a
circular
base to a single point. So we
now
know, right?
"Not a clue. We haven't solved
anything here today."
East Beach Association president
Peter Brockman says he's reached
out to the Army Corps of
Engineers,
URI, fishermen, and others --
but
there's no certainty.
And Thursday wasn't just an
expedition...
"Swimmers could be hurt badly by
it.
So that's one big reason to get
it out
of there."
Mission accomplished there. But
tonight -- the mystery remains.
"So today I get to go back and
say,
'We dug it up, but we still
don't know
what it is!'"
A lot of theories on social
media.
One guess among the involved
group is it's an acoustic
Doppler
current profiler. Used to study
currents. But no one has claimed
it
as such.
Now hopefully experts will put
the
speculation to an end. JP EWN.