What the heck landed in Christ Beiler's cornfield nearly two weeks ago? A number of people in East Lampeter and Upper Leacock townships reported hearing a loud explosion Sunday, Dec. 2, about 5 a.m.

That noise coincided with what Beiler reportedly saw while he was milking cows on his farm along Hobson Road near Smoketown.

According to a friend, Sam Stoltzfus, of Gordonville, Beiler saw a light streak into his field before he heard a "boom.''

"He did find the spot in his field and you can still see it,'' Stoltzfus reports. "There was also a strong acrid smell. That's why they called the fire company.''

Christian Kauffman, assistant fire chief of the Witmer Fire Co. and Stoltzfus' son-in-law, says a number of people dialed 911 and the county's 9-1-1 Center alerted the fire company. Among the concerned were East Lampeter Township Police officers. They heard the explosion inside their station along Route 340, Kauffman says.

The fire company investigated and found nothing, according to Kauffman. Heavy fog that morning hindered the investigation, he adds.

"We said, officially, that the report was unfounded,'' Kauffman notes. "But now I'm beginning to believe it probably was a shooting star.''

Stoltzfus says he and others have walked all over Beiler's field looking for possible fragments of a meteor, also known as a shooting star. They have not found anything. But Stoltzfus has no doubt a shooting star landed in that field.

"It wasn't the Star of Bethlehem,'' he concludes. "It was the Star of Bird-in-Hand.''