Residents report late-night activity at rural property

A stretch of open land off a county road southeast of Dallas in Balch Springs drew an unusual amount of traffic late Saturday night, according to two residents who live nearest the property.

Both described a line of vehicles parked in the mud near an open-sided equipment shed sometime after 11 p.m., during the heaviest part of the storm. One said headlights were angled into the structure for close to an hour.

Neither could say how many people were present. Both estimated fewer than two dozen.

"You could hear it over the rain," one said. "That's what I keep coming back to. You shouldn't have been able to hear anything over that rain."

The property owner could not be reached. County records list the parcel as agricultural and show no permits filed for any event.

Sheriff's deputies were not called to the location and no incident report was filed. A department spokesperson said no complaints have been received regarding the address.

The residents said the vehicles left within a few minutes of each other and the road was empty by midnight. One reported a truck leaving well ahead of the others, driving faster than conditions allowed.

By Sunday morning there was nothing at the site but standing water, scattered timber, and a great deal of wet sawdust that had been walked through repeatedly.

No one has reported anyone missing. No one has reported anything at all.