What are those loud booms rocking Wake/Franklin community?

Strange noise from an unknown location is keeping some residents in Wake and Franklin counties concerned. Loud booms are rolling through the Barham Crossing neighborhood, which straddles the county line.

“We have no clue what it is,” homeowner Melondey Giron said while wrestling shoes onto her youngest child. “It's pretty startling first thing in the morning,”

Lately, the peace and quite of Giron's neighborhood has had occasional interruptions.

“Boom!” Giron says, imitating the loud noise. “It's pretty big.”

She lives here with her husband and three children.

“Of course with three kids we always check to see if it's one of them,” Giron said.

Some of her Barham Crossing neighbors are reporting windows rattling and the house vibrating.

“It's kind of ground shaking, you know? It sounds a little distant, but close enough to have concern,” she said.

The Wake County Sheriff's Office received at least eight calls in two days.

A spokesperson for the department said they had a deputy parked in the area for a while recently, and he heard nothing. But just after he left, there was another report of the loud boom.

At first, some area residents believed it was coming from U.S. Highway 401 construction nearby, but the state Department of Transportation said it's not doing blasting in the area.

Other ideas floating around include military exercises or meteors hitting the earth. And of course, the occasional mention of spacecraft.

Giron said the booms seem to come very early in the day or late in the evening. Some neighbors say the boom is so loud it wakes their dogs. Giron wants it to stop.

“I have no idea what it is," she said, "but I'd like to know.”