A Center Grove area family was startled by a loud pop they heard outside a window on Saturday night.
Homeowner Dan Duffer, who was sitting with his wife and friends in the dining room of their Wakefield home, suspected someone had set a ceramic plate on the stove and it had cracked.
But the stove wasn’t on, so he headed outside, looking for a rock, stick or any clue as to what made the sound. He found nothing.
The next day he found the cause: Someone had shot a glass marble at his home. It made a hole in the siding and was lodged in the insulation of his home. Police suspect a person shooting a slingshot or BB gun are to blame, Johnson County Sheriff Doug Cox said.
Duffer asked his neighbors if anyone else had heard the sound. A few residents had heard the noise, and another neighbor said they found a similar hole in their siding, Duffer said.
Duffer called the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. Across the county, police have taken two other similar reports.
The sheriff’s office is investigating and looking for who could have caused the damage.
In Bargersville, a homeowner reported hearing a loud pop or bang hitting their home on West County Road 500N.
Last week, a vehicle parked in Greenwood had a car window shattered after a marble crashed through it. The car was parked at Kentucky Fried Chicken off of State Road 135, the report said.
Residents playing with slingshots or BB guns can cause major damage to a home or another person, Cox said.
“I have not heard of any reports since that time (Saturday night) but every once in a while we will see these types of reports,” Cox said. “They can cause a lot of damage if they were to hit someone instead of an object.”
The incident at the Duffer home in the subdivision off Morgantown Road happened about 11 p.m. Saturday, Duffer said. The marble hit the siding of the dining room wall, he said. If the shot had been aimed six inches to the left, it would have hit the sliding glass door and could have shattered the glass or hit someone, Duffer said.
Due to how little damage the marble made, officers said a slingshot was likely used to propel the marble into the house. Duffer hopes to purchase a single panel to replace the broken siding, he said.
Duffer does not think his home was specifically targeted for any reason, but most likely it was kids being kids, he said.
