When a Hartford, Connecticut police officer’s personal car was damaged while parked in the department’s lot, investigators turned to security video of the area. Hartford Police Department Lieutenant Brian Foley spoke to WVIT NBC News, "At the end of his shift, went off to his car and found a damaged, his rear view mirror had been damaged and it was lying right there next to the vehicle." The footage showed a very unusual “ghostly” image passing around the car then ripping off the driver side view mirror. The mirror is then thrown to the ground far away from the car and makes its way mysteriously back, landing right next to the vehicle.

The original assumption that the damage was caused by vandals was refuted by the video, but what explained the apparent paranormal display? Lt. Foley said, "Some of the officers said they think the parking lot's haunted." But as NBC Connecticut’s own meteorologist Brad Field explained, there’s a more scientific reason for the car’s curious damage. The atmospheric science expert was at first baffled by the video, but then realized that conditions that day in the parking lot were ideal for a dust devil, a tornado-like whirlwind, to form. Brad Field said, "The only way you can see the dust devil is that it picks up dust and debris into it.” The vertical columns of air tend to form over asphalt during dry, sunny, fair weather and can vary in diameter from 3 meters to greater than 30 meters.

No other cars were damaged in the parking lot and the Hartford PD was able to close the case on the mysterious “vandal.”

More info: WVIT