On March 27, 1974, the Betz family walked their fire-damaged property on Fort George Island, Florida, and came across something that did not belong there. Sitting in the open, untouched by the flames that had scorched the ground around it, was a gleaming metal sphere roughly the size of a bowling ball, eight inches across and weighing close to 22 pounds. It showed no rust, no scorch marks and no obvious sign of where it had come from. The family first assumed it was a Spanish colonial cannonball left behind from Florida's early history. Within days, though, the sphere seemed to take on a life of its own, rolling across floors, vibrating and reportedly reacting to music, setting off a chain of events that pulled in journalists, ufologists and eventually the United States Navy.
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