HEGINS - When LaRae Lucas began mowing her Hegins backyard June 18, something out of place caught her eye.
As she was trying to cut close to a nearby pine tree and doghouse, she noticed the ground below appeared dark and she saw a deep void had opened up below.
"I didn't know what to think, it was a little scary," she said.
LaRae and her husband, David A. Lucas, immediately examined the north side of their property at 320 E. Main St., and realized a sinkhole had developed either earlier that morning or the night before.
David, a retired coal miner, used his helmet light and a stick to peer into the hole and get an estimated measure of its depth. It appeared to be about 6-feet deep and extended back about another 6 to 8 feet. A row of stone was visible along the side, and it seemed to be something man-made, he said.
"The grandkids and neighbors play around here," David said as he stood near the void in front of the doghouse belonging to the family's late husky, "Shusheye." The Lucas's granddaughter, Bella, had previously placed a bouquet of flowers there.
David contacted Hegins Township police and also a friend from the Department of Environmental Protection to alert them to the subsidence.
Hegins Township police Sgt. Beau Yarmush came to the Lucas residence June 18 and brought caution tape to block off the area.
David said a friend from DEP had checked out the site, too, and thought the subsidence may be due to an old well or former septic system there. He suggested Lucas fill in the void as soon as possible.
"No one had remembered anything being there before," David Lucas said.
The couple has lived in their home for nearly 40 years, LaRae said, and they never had any sinkholes appear anywhere before.
David called Dennis Hand, whose family he believed had lived at the home in the 1940s. Hand said the site may have been where a former food cellar was once located.
"I'm going to be moving the doghouse, and then we'll fill it up," David said.