The only person to ever be hit by a meteorite was hit while sleeping in bed

The only person to ever be hit by a meteorite was struck while sleeping in bed, which begs the question: was she extremely lucky or unlucky?

Given that Ann Hodges survived, we're inclined to say the former.

The incredible story unfolded in the afternoon of November 30, 1954, when a space rock came plummeting through the earth's atmosphere, winding up in the town of Oak Grove, Alabama.

What would otherwise have been a peaceful week after Thanksgiving was interrupted by a fireball visible from at least three US states tearing through the sky.

For Hodges, who was 34 years old at the time, it was a rude awakening.

She had been minding her own business, having a nap on the couch, when a grapefruit-sized, 8.5-pound asteroid fragment came crashing through her rented home.

Rather than making an immediate impact, it bounced off Hodges' radio console and onto her body, leaving her with a humungous bruise.

Mary Beth Prondzinski, the collections manager at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, where the meteorite is on exhibit, spoke to Insider about this unlikely incident.

"Ann Hodges was taking a nap on her living room couch and she was under a blanket, which probably saved her life somewhat," she told the outlet.

"The meteorite came down through the roof in the living room and it ricocheted off a stand-up console radio that was in the room and landed on her hip."

Hodges' mom, who was in the next room, ran to help her daughter after hearing her scream.

"All she knew is that something had hit her," added Prondzinski. "They found the meteorite, this big rock, and they couldn't figure out how it had got there."

Flickr/Flickr/wrightbrosfan

Authorities soon rushed to the house to tend to the injury and try to figure out what happened, and it's here that they noticed the massive hole in the ceiling.

Though the event happened long before the advent of social media, word about the event spread fast, and soon enough people were flocking to Hodges' home.

"She had this incredible bruise on her hip," Prondzinski continued.

"She was taken to the hospital, not because she was so severely injured that she needed to be hospitalized, but because she was very distraught by the whole incident.

"She was a very nervous person, and she didn't like all the notoriety or all the people around."

The space rock was initially confiscated by the Sylacauga police chief, who later handed it over to the US Air Force.

Proving that conspiracy theories have always been around, Prondzinski said that they thought it could be some sort of alien spacecraft.

But alas, a quick study showed it was, in fact, a stony meteorite, believed to have broken off the 1685 Toro asteroid.

What followed was a battle between the Hodges family and their landlord Birdie Guy over the ownership of the rock, with the latter claiming it belonged to her as it fell on her property.

They eventually settled with Hodges, paying $500 for the meteorite and to cover the repair job on the roof.

But by the time it was back in her hands, she had grown sick of the media attention.

"She became famous for 15 minutes. She had all these photo shoots," Prondzinski said.

CBS

"She was invited to go to New York City to be on Garry Moore's show where the panel had to guess what's her profession or what happened to her, why she is a notable figure."

The collections manager went on to say: "By the time she had got the meteorite in her possession, she was so sick of the whole thing."

In 1956, she donated it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

Hodges sadly passed away in 1972 from kidney failure aged 52, but her story has gone down in history – she remains to be the only person in the world who's survived being hit by a meteorite.

To put it in perspective of how unlikely that really is, Florida State College astronomer Michael Reynolds previously told National Geographic: "You have a better chance of getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at the same time."