A large, circular object rose in the air, traveled a short distance and then gently touched down in Elllie Murphy’s backyard.

Time to call the UFO Reporting Center?

Nope. Time to go outside and enjoy the trampoline, which blew into Murphy’s yard during Wednesday morning’s wind storm.

Murphy, a grandmother and nurse who works at Whidbey General Hospital, had to do a double-take when she looked out the window into her backyard before noon. There was a trampoline where there had been none before.

How it arrived would have been easier determined had it simply crashed in a wind-blown fashion. But the big trampoline with its heavy steel frame surrounded by six-feet of nylon safety netting looked like it had been carefully placed in the corner of her yard, perhaps by a trained crew of trampoline installers. Only a single bent branch on an ornamental shrub suggested anything amiss. It was rock solid, safe enough for Murphy to crawl through the netting and try it out.

“It’s amazing,” Murphy said as she stood on the trampoline’s bouncy surface. “I was in the front room and it didn’t make a sound.”

Murphy knew that her neighbor had a trampoline, but she couldn’t believe this was it. It turned out that it was, even though it had to fly over a fence to change locations.

“What’s really amazing is I have a six-foot fence,” she said. “The wind picked it up and put it right there.” The fence-hopping trampoline flew approximately 60 feet thanks to winds that topped 60 miles per hour. Murphy lives on the steep hill above Wal-Mart, so there must have been a big updraft.

Across the fence lives another grandmother, Sharon Osorio, who is retired. “I went to school to pick up the kids, came home and the trampoline was gone,” she said. “My granddaughter said ‘grandma, where’s our trampoline? Who took our trampoline?’ I never expected it would fly out of our yard.”

From Osorio’s perspective, the flight of the trampoline was even more impressive. It had to wend its way between tall fir trees and fly over a small shed to reach the fence, parts of which are eight feet high including the lattice work.

“It went between the fir trees and had to lift really high to get over there,” she said. “It was kind of a miracle. That thing is not light.”

Murphy said her grandchildren would no doubt enjoy playing on the trampoline, but it’s going back to its rightful owner.

There’s only one problem, according to Osorio. “How in the world am I going to bet it back over here? How can we lift it over that fence?”