A young family in Gympie has survived a bizarre ordeal after a heavy piece of metal crashed through the ceiling of their home overnight, narrowly missing their baby's bouncer.
Tenika Lawther said she was still in shock after the unidentified object rocketed through the roof and into their tiled floor just after seven o'clock last night.
She said her five-month-old daughter, Oceana Gardner, was sitting in the bouncer moments earlier and would have certainly been killed if she was struck by the metal that was around 3 centimetres in length.
"It was very scary," she said.
Ms Lawther said her partner, Matthew Gardner, was holding Oceana in the kitchen of their home on Old Maryborough Road eating ice cream when they heard the loud bang.
"There was smoke and debris everywhere," Ms Lawther said.
"We both just looked at each other and right above his head and my daughter's head was this hole in our roof.
"It flew straight past my head onto the couch so, yeah, any of us could have died last night and not known it was coming. It was horrible."
Metal object still a mystery
Ms Lawther said she was trying to work out what the object was and where it came from.
The couple initially contacted police who told them it was not a police matter.
"They said just get up and put a tarp over your roof and then you need to fix it and probably get compensated for it," she said.
The pair have posted pictures of the mystery metal fragment on social media and have been inundated with suggestions on its origins, with everything from bullets to space junk and aviation debris.
"We don't think it's possible, so we think it may have come from an aeroplane or a helicopter, if it came through the roof smashing at that speed it needed to come from a height.
"We're not sure if it was space junk, because it's sharp, and it looks like it's come off something."
Couple hope insurance covers the cost
Ms Lawther said she wanted to get to the bottom of it so other people were not injured or hurt.
"We just need to find someone who can confirm if there was something going over at that time and to have a look at the plane or helicopter to see if it's damaged because people could be in danger as well," she said.
The couple would reach out to their home insurer to get the damage repaired.
"So it went through the tin on the roof, there's a complete hole, and then a hole straight through our gyprock and then tiles, so two holes and the tiles are smashed.
"We'd love to know if someone's responsible and who's gonna pay for it because now, obviously, we need to go through our home insurance and fix all of this."
