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A New Jersey couple got quite the surprise Sunday when a one-pound bluefish fell from the sky and landed right in the middle of their Tesla’s windshield, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
Cynthia and Jeff Levine, who had parked their 2023 Tesla Y in their driveway, heard their car alarm go off and were baffled to see a massive spiral-like crack on their windshield, the Asbury Park Press reported.
The couple noticed blood splotches and fish scales. The fish, however, was missing.
“We looked at the garage camera and there was nothing. Then we went to the Tesla’s dashcam and saw the fish fall out of the sky, bounce off the windshield and land in the garage,” Cynthia Levine told the outlet.
According to Levine, the bluefish, which is common to the Jersey Shore, seemed to have talon marks, suggesting an eagle or other large bird dropped the fish from above.
The Levines have towed their car for repair. Now the only mystery for the couple is proving to their insurance that the fish was, indeed, the cause of the accident.
It wasn’t the first time marine life crashed into a vehicle.
In 2021, a carp smashed into a city employee’s car in Neenah, Wisconsin, leaving a giant crater in the hood. City building inspectors went looking for the culprit, only to find the fish a few feet away in the parking lot.
“The police said there’s no way someone could have hit [the car] with the fish hard enough to do that kind of damage,” Neenah office manager Samantha Jefferson told the Appleton Post Crescent.
In August 2023, another fish from above caused a power outage in New Jersey after it hit a transformer. Police officers drew a sketch of the likely suspect: a gray eagle perched on a branch.
Sometimes the weather is to blame. A remote community in Australia was stunned last February as fish “rained from the sky.” According to weather experts, tornadoes and other strong updrafts can sweep sea life from the waters and cause accidents on land. Meteorologist Bill Evans wrote that creatures, from fish to snakes, fall from the sky about 40 times a year.
