A fallen space wizard from Michigan found in a Canadian crop field sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but it became reality for one Dresden farmer and his son.
Steve Richardson and his son Landon were harvesting soybeans on his farm in late October when they saw something strange in the distance. At first, Steve thought it was a weather balloon, something he said is a common occurrence on his farm. He sent Landon out to get it and put it on the side of the combine. Richardson realized it wasn't just a weather balloon as it had a parachute attached to a disposable styrofoam cooler.
When they got back from harvesting they decided to check out the alien object.
"When we opened it we saw a GoPro and a GPS device," Richardson said. "There was a little wizard inside the box so we took it all apart and there was a phone number in there. We called the number because we wanted to get all the stuff back to the owner and it turned out to be a little girl in Grand Rapids, Michigan."
Richardson found out the girl, Britt Stek, was making a video with her father, Brian Stek, of a wizard's adventure into space attached to a weather balloon. After talking to Brian, Richardson found out they didn't expect to get the contents back because the GPS device had stopped working.
"The night I called I could hear her in the background and both were really happy it was found," Richardson said. "He said to me 'I have one very happy little girl here.'"
According to Richardson, Brian and Britt thought the balloon's trajectory would take it into Ohio and they never guessed it would end up in a small Canadian community over 300 kilometres away.
Richardson said after finding out about the video, he and Landon decided to help Britt out by recording a reenactment of them finding the wizard in their field.
Richardson added he didn't look at any footage on the GoPro when he found it. He said it was partly due to not knowing how it worked, but also because he noticed potential water damage to the device. He and Landon put the camera in rice and that's how they sent it back to Michigan.
Richardson added it provided a unique learning experience for Landon and his Grade 3 classmates at Dresden Area Central School.
"A lot of the kids were really happy to be able to touch a wizard that had been in space," Richardson said. "They were able to learn about temperatures outside the atmosphere. I think it was a win-win for everybody."
The students sent Britt a letter with information about Dresden along with personalized cards about themselves.
Richardson said he was blown away with how well the final video came out and was happy to help out, as strange a situation it was.