Look Closely: Can You Figure Out What 'Spooky' Thing Vandalized This Cop's Car?

When a Hartford, Conn., police officer went to his car and saw one of his side mirrors had been ripped off, he suspected vandals.

Naturally, his next step was to look at surveillance footage taken in the lot in an effort to catch whoever had done it. But it turns out "whoever" was really a "whatever."

"Some of the officers said they think the parking lot's haunted," Hartford Police Department Spokesman Lt. Brian Foley told WVIT-TV.

Look closely at the upper left corner of this image to see what the security camera caught on tape. (Image source: TheBlaze/WVIT-TV)

When you see the video footage, which the WVIT anchor described as "spooky," you might understand why:

But turns out, it wasn't anything paranormal.

The security camera over the parking lot instead recorded a wispy, tornado-like vortex sailing into the lot, tearing off the mirror from the officer's personal car, flinging it around in the air a bit and then dropping it right next to the car it had damaged.

Meteorologist Brad Field called it "incredible video." Looking at the phenomenon more closely and researching the weather the day it had occurred, Field found that the conditions made it favorable for a dust devil to form, WVIT reported.

"The only way you can see the dust devil is that it picks up dust and debris into it," Field said.

It's not that officers aren't convinced with this explanation, but they are surprised at the dust devil's strength.

"To be able to rip a mirror off a car, throw it around and then put it right back below where it was ripped off is interesting ... to say the least," Foley told the local news station.

(H/T: Yahoo News)

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