An evacuation and subsequent shut down at the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico has left area residents scratching their heads and conspiracy theorists offering some truly fantastic suggestions for why it happened. The strangeness reportedly started last Thursday when the facility, which is located in the town of Sunspot, as well as a nearby post office were inexplicably closed citing unspecified safety concerns. Since then, some intriguing details about the closure have begun to emerge and they have raised more questions than answers.
Specifically, a local sheriff revealed that, for reasons unexplained, the FBI are somehow involved in the matter and their arrival at the site was rather odd. According to sheriff Benny House, the agency swiftly swooped in to evacuate and lock down the observatory as he and his colleagues watched in confusion. He recalled that "there was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers, but nobody would tell us anything." Asked to be there to help with the evacuation, House and his colleagues eventually realized that they weren't really needed and so they left the scene.
However, he observed that, at the time, there appeared to be no immediate threat and a statement from the postal service suggests that the closure wasn't exactly sudden as employees at the office which was also closed were informed of the decision on the previous day. Meanwhile, the company that manages the observatory has been pretty cagey about the entire affair, refusing to say what the security issue is or even that the FBI is involved.
Learn more about this baffling story at the Coast to Coast AM website.