CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina – George and Emily Neylander, a married couple known for frequently and brazenly throwing stones, were killed by a giant meteor just a few yards outside of their glass house, which was completely undamaged. “I told them this kind of thing could happen, but they didn’t listen,” says Rhodes Bomars, a neighbor of the Neylanders. “I’d say, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t throw stones because some day someone will, like, also throw things at you or, like, near where you live,’ or something like that. I guess I wasn’t clear enough.”

Many residents of Chapel Hill remember how the Neylanders would throw stones with seeming impunity at a variety of targets, including people, small animals, other homes, and sometimes even other stones. “They were frequently brought up on misdemeanor or felony charges,” says Officer Tina Kimball, who arrested the Neylanders on a number of occasions. “And the judge would lecture them about—and I’m paraphrasing—how people shouldn’t throw stuff because it was bad, especially if they lived in certain kinds of houses. It may have been meant as some kind of analogy.” 

Friends of the Neylanders were quick to defend the deceased couple, with nearby resident Jacob Boomil saying, “People really shouldn’t be so critical. It’s like if you had a kettle and a pot that could talk and the kettle said to the pot, ‘Hey—stop saying mean things.’”