They Found a Steel Ball That Moved on Its Own

It’s March 1974, the Betz family, Gerri, Antoine, and their son Terry, are walking through the woods at their estate on Fort George Island. As they enjoy their spring walk, little do they know that today they’ll come across something that’ll change their lives forever!

As Terry walks ahead, he can feel something, pulling him towards an unknown object. Unsure what to make of this feeling, but curious to pursue whatever’s calling to him. “Terry, where are you going!” his mother calls out, but he ignores her, and frantically tries to find this unknown thing. He wants it, he NEEDS it!

And then, he can see something. A shining silver sphere, the size of a bowling ball, nestled amongst the grass. As Terry approaches it, he notices it’s eerily untouched, with no damage or dirt on it.

Terry picks it up; it’s heavy, but he holds it tight. “Always finding junk where you go!” his father laughs. Terry was always collecting strange metallic objects; he found them fascinating. “It’s just a souvenir, that’s all...” The three of them look at the ball, all intrigued by the perfect shiny sphere.

As they walk back home, they excitedly discuss its possible origins. Fantasizing the possibilities that maybe it’s a cannonball used by conquistadors, or that it could have fallen from a NASA satellite in orbit!

They arrive home, and Terry places the mysterious ball on a windowsill in his room, next to many of his other exhibits, and there it sits, for now... Two weeks pass, and Terry has a friend over, they hang out and take turns playing the guitar. Terry strikes a chord, and a vibration occurs that comes from the windowsill.

The boys sit silently, spooked by the unknown sound. They look around to find where it came from. “It’s probably just a possum,” Terry says calmly. But as he raises his pick, he looks towards the sphere suspiciously. As he strikes another chord, he sees the sphere vibrate. And this time, it’s also emitting a humming sound.

Terry puts down the guitar and approaches the ball, and as he reaches towards it, the sound slowly fades. Startled, he stands in silence before calling out to his dad. Terry explains the strange phenomenon to his father. Antoine looks at it closely, then holds it up to his ear. As he shakes it vigorously, he can feel something inside the ball moving.

Shocked, he places it down on a table. Once placed, it begins to roll. Moving towards one edge of the table, then circling around. Moving corner to corner in a rectangle, endlessly searching for something, possibly an exit. Until finally, it rolls back to the middle, becoming motionless once more.

They all look at the ball puzzled by the display, and Antoine places the ball on the floor. As soon as it touches the surface, it quickly rolls towards the door; this time it’s clear the sphere wants to make an escape!

This thing is too valuable to lose, and Terry quickly chases after it. He grabs it before it leaves the house. He places the ball somewhere safe inside a box, incapable of another escape attempt. Over the following days, Terry took it upon himself to make his own experiments.

He found that when within the sunlight, it appeared to be more active. His opinion was that it reacted to solar radiation. When hit with a hammer, it would ring out loudly, as though it felt the strike. Strange things also occurred in the Betz family home.

Doors would suddenly slam shut at night, and strange organ music played throughout the house, even though they didn’t own an organ. The family sat down to discuss the sphere. They felt it was something truly extraterrestrial, and they required professional advice. The authorities came to review the ball, puzzled by the object, as it moved in an unpredictable way. But they couldn’t recognize what it was or provide an explanation for it.

All they could confirm was that it didn’t come from another planet. The Betz family disagreed and wanted a second opinion. They sent it to Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer and expert in the extraterrestrial. He spent 6 hours reviewing the sphere.

Through his many examinations, the doctor found that the strange sphere emitted radio waves and had its own magnetic field! With this new information, the Betzes were interviewed by a reporter. The mysterious sphere quickly became famous. Its story spread in papers throughout the USA and even made the news internationally.

Everyone wanted to know more about this mysterious sphere. A television crew soon visited the Betz house, hoping to experience the extra-terrestrial object firsthand. The sphere was placed on the ground. It did its usual trick, and the visitors stood there, speechless at what they were witnessing.

The reporters asked to place the family’s poodle next to the ball, to provide an indication of the sphere’s size. As the dog sat next to it, it began to whimper and covered its ears with its paws. Something it had never done before around the ball.

The Betz family felt they had something truly valuable and insured it through Lloyds of London. And if they left it at home, they had someone stay to watch it. Ensuring no one would steal it, or let it escape! But what was the mysterious Betz sphere really?

When responding to the press, the spokesperson from the authorities [navy] revealed the sphere was made from high-grade stainless-steel. Although the sphere wasn’t something they made themselves, it was still likely created somewhere on Earth. If it came from outer space, they advised it would be made from different elements.

Their review showed the shell of the sphere is one inch thick and hollow inside. It weighed 22 pounds, the exact weight for that amount of stainless steel. It had no seams on it, the shell was scuffed in parts, and had a small triangular mark, 3 mm long. They were sure it was just a steel ball. But they wanted to confirm further by using X-rays.

They found small beads of residue inside. These beads would have been caught inside the object when it was manufactured. Clarifying why there was a feeling of movement within the ball. They also solved the mystery of the strange movement.

As it’s a perfectly balanced sphere, sitting on the slightest uneven surface would cause it to roll. The Betz’s house has uneven stone floors. And it had only ever been witnessed to move around there. The authority also wanted to cut it open to prove their assessment. However, the Betzes were adamant that it couldn’t be damaged.

It was identified further that the sphere was just a ball check valve produced by The Bell & Gossett company. The ball’s size, weight, and metallurgic composition matched perfectly with what they made. Confirming how it managed to make the journey to the Betz’s estate, 3 years before the discovery of the sphere, an artist, James Durling-Jones, had collected a few of these ball check valves.

He liked to use them in his sculptures. With no room inside his bus, he put them on top of the roof rack. His journey took him past the Betz’s estate, and along the way, a few of these balls happened to roll off and were lost. At least, until Terry came along one fine spring day.

But what about the radio waves and odd magnetic properties confirmed by Dr. Hynek? Well, although Antoine claimed that’s what was found, it was never confirmed to be true by the doctor. The 1970s were a heyday for all things out of our planet, and anything related would gain popularity immediately. The authorities only enhanced this by providing monetary rewards for supported evidence.

Finding something extra-terrestrial could have just been a ploy by the Betzes for a cash reward. The mysterious sphere has since disappeared without a trace. No one knows where it is now: it might be hidden away, or discarded. The Betz family could have realized the ball wasn’t the cause of the strange slamming of doors or mysterious organ sounds. And perhaps there’s more to that part of the story.

Before the Betz family moved into their home in 1967, the previous owners who’d built it went through a series of unfortunate events. And never actually set foot inside the house. Did the previous owners know some dark secret about the Betz’s land or the house itself? And could there be more to this story, that’s unrelated to the mysterious Betz sphere altogether...