Stanley Fosha continues to search for what woke him up with a flash of white light and a thunderous boom early Wednesday morning.
The sky erupted around 2:15 a.m. near his home at 56th Street and Pinnacle Vista Road in Scottsdale, he said.
"I seriously thought someone was in my back yard taking a picture," Fosha said. "It sounded like someone taking a sledgehammer and banging a big metal drum."
Worried he imagined the flash, Fosha asked his neighbor Tami Biggs about it that afternoon.
Biggs said she saw it, too.
"I was outside saying goodbye to some friends. It was a big, bright light and a loud bang," said Biggs, who lives two doors away from Fosha. "It certainly caught our attention."
Whatever it was appeared to fall near Horseshoe Trails Elementary School, south of Dynamite Road on 56th Street, Fosha said.
While the Phoenix and Scottsdale police department said they received no reports of the incident, Fosha searched for remnants Thursday and Friday in the surrounding desert terrain.
It wasn't easy, he said.
"It's kind of like finding a rifle shot in the forest," Fosha said. "(But) something crashed into the ground up here."
So what exactly could this mysterious falling object have been?
A bolide, suggested Prof. Jeff Hester with the Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Bolides, or large meteoritic fireballs descending from the sky, are known to hit ground on occasion, Hester said.
In fact, he has seen a few himself.
"They are just spectacular, remarkable things," Hester said. "They can literally explode."
The incident captured the interest of Arizona meteorite hunter Robert Ward, who has studied about 240 of the fallen rocks, he said.
Ward, who is holding off a search until he hears more about the incident, emphasized the importance of "fresh finds."
"Anytime anything comes down afresh, that's the most important part of field work," said Ward, of Prescott.
He urged Fosha's community to pay extra attention to its environs.
"People should just basically look for roof damage, or damage to a vehicle, or they might find a black stone they haven't seen before," Ward said. "It would be charcoal-looking black on the outside and grey on the inside."
Meteoritic pieces should be taken "immediately" to a nearby university lab for analysis, he added.
"It's important to get the piece in while it's still pristine," Ward said.
The unidentified bolide made its entrance just days before the annual Perseid shower is expected to peak.
Hester said it is on Sunday this year.
Though likely not as large as Fosha's sighting, the meteors should be quite plentiful, he said. And with no moon on Sunday, it should also be a clear show.
(Original headline: Search on for object that fell from sky )
