It gives "sheets of rain" a whole new meaning.

Waiting to pick up her boyfriend outside the Richardson Building about 11 a.m. Saturday in miserable rainy, windy weather, Winnipegger Tanya Slusarczyk received a shock from above.

"I was reading my book because I got there early and then I heard this huge, loud bang," Slusarczyk said.

A piece of sheet metal about 3 1/2 feet in diameter crashed down on the windshield of Slusarczyk's 2004 Nissan Sentra as it was parked on Lombard Avenue beside the Richardson Building.

"If it would have hit a person -- oh my God," she said.

The windshield was scratched in multiple spots and damaged beyond repair, she was told by a glass repair shop.

Slusarczyk, who works in the Winnipeg Sun's advertising department as national sales co-ordinator, found the saucer-shaped chunk of metal on the ground beside her car and kept it.

She is most likely on the hook to pay her Manitoba Public Insurance deductible as the public insurer only steps in for cases of clear negligence on the part of a property owner.

Slusarczyk said she contacted the management at the Richardson Building after the incident.

They determined the metal piece did not originate from the building.

It is not know where the debris fell from.

jason.halstead@sunmedia.ca