A man identified as Josua Hutagalung has become a millionaire after a five-pound meteor from outer space crashed through his roof and buried itself in his garden.
Josua, who is a coffin maker, was assembling a coffin when the 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite slammed itself into the earth beside his home and buried itself six inches deep.
As soon as the news that Joshua had the meteor, valued at £1.4 million got out, an expert raced to his home in Kolang, North Sumatra, to purchase it.
He said: “I was working on a coffin near the street in front of my house when I heard a booming sound that made my house shake. It was as if a tree had fallen on us.”
The 33-year-old said the rock was still warm from its journey through the Earth’s atmosphere when he carried it.
“When I lifted it, the stone was still warm and I brought it into the house,” he told Kompas.
He added: “The sound was so loud that parts of the house were shaking too. And after I searched, I saw that the tin roof of the house had broken.”
After scientific analysis, the meteorite was classified as CM1/2 carbonaceous Chondrite, an extremely rare find that carries the chemical building blocks believed to have seeded life in the early Solar system.
A Bali-based Meteorite expert named Jared Collins, was sent to secure the rare meteorite,
“My phone lit up with crazy offers for me to jump on a plane and buy the meteorite.
“It was in the middle of the Covid crisis and frankly it was a toss-up between buying the rock for myself or working with scientists and collectors in the US.
“I carried as much money as I could muster and went to find Josua, who turned out to be a canny negotiator.”
After striking a deal with Josua, Jared shipped the rock to the United States, and it is currently in the custody of Jay Piatek, a doctor and meteorite collector from Indianapolis.
Josua, who has three sons, said he now plans to retire, but would use some of the money to build a church in his local community.
“I have also always wanted a daughter, and I hope this is a sign that I will be lucky enough now to have one,” he told The Sun.
