What on Earth (or other planets) is this object?
Shropshire has become known as a haven for suspected UFO activity with experts being called in to try to determine what strange sights in the sky actually are.
Shropshire has become known as a haven for suspected UFO activity with experts being called in to try to determine what strange sights in the sky actually are.
But now a county man is calling for help for another unidentified object - which he found underground with a metal detector. Bill Thibert, from Ludlow, discovered the metal object while out with a metal detector in woods opposite Moor Park School.
Mr Thibert, who has been metal detecting for 30 years, said he discovered the item six years ago but is still no closer to finding out what it is.
The 66-year-old, who is a retired caterer who became interested in metal detecting after reading stories of Roman hoards, today appealed for help.
He said: "You see in the papers all these hoards that have been dug up and when I looked into it, I noticed that when people like the Romans went off to battles, they got killed and left all their hoards behind.
"Before banks, people used to bury all their household silver in the garden."
He said he had also been inspired by tales of highwaymen hiding their ill-gotten gains in hollow trees and then not being able to claim them.
Despite not finding a hoard himself, he said he still enjoyed metal detecting enough to keep going.
He added: "Some farmers like you to go on their land, because you can find metal objects that would damage ploughs."
The most valuable thing he has found was a half groat coin, which was more than 400 years old.
Mr Thibert is not currently metal detecting due to a health problem but hopes that following surgery, he may be able to get out and about again.
He has dubbed his unknown find an "unidentified found object" and although he has ideas of what it could be he does not know for definite.
He said: "It's total weight is 70 grammes and it has the appearance of stainless steel, but I think it could be an apprentice engineer's test piece.
"The ball is a perfect fit in the circle."
Do you know what the item is? Contact Mr Thibert at bmtiber@yahoo.co.uk
By Hannah Costigan
