Carolina crop circles

By William R. Toler

Courtesy WCTI-TV

Alien intervention, paranormal prank or weather weirdness?

Mysterious crop formations in western Craven County have locals buzzing.

According to NewsChannel 12, the formations appeared in several wheat fields nearly two weeks ago along Rollover Creek Road. The stalks were bent, not broken, as in most crop circle cases. Unlike most circles, some of the edges were squared off.

“I told my girlfriend that the aliens were coming to take her home,” said Charles Boyette, who lives near the scene. His neighbor Crystal Fulcher sent photos to local televison stations shortly after discovering the “crop circles.”

Local meteorologists have dismissed the phenomenon as being weather related.  WITN’s Matt Englebrecht produced a two-and-half-minute explanation for the circles. He says the wheat was blown down by a microburst or downdraft from a storm cloud.

Meanwhile, back at NewsChannel, 12, Chief Meteorologist Skip Waters agrees. “In that particular event, we had a couple of funnel clouds,” he told the Independent Register. As for the squaring off, he says, “Someone did that.”

Fulcher said she doesn’t believe the weather explanation. “How could the wind cause this,” she asked. Reporter Jon Erickson asked if she stays “up at night thinking about this.” She replied, “I think about it all the time.”

A similar crop circle was discovered a few hours away in Elizabeth City in 2007. The report says it was also probably weather-related. Several other have been spotted in the western part of the state.