by Chris Menahan, Information Liberation:

A hobby club known as the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade suspects a $12 weather balloon of theirs that went “missing in action” was one of the unknown objects shot down with a $400,000 Sidewinder missile by the US government last week.

From Aviation Week, “Hobby Club’s Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF”:

The club’s silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool–the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)–projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area.