NASA Sting Nets Woman Offering Moon Rock for $1.7M
- Posted on May 21, 2011 at 6:05pm by
Scott Baker
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who tried to sell a rare hunk of moon rock for $1.7 million was detained when her prospective customer turned out to be an undercover NASA investigator, officials said Friday.
It is illegal to sell moon rocks, which are considered national treasures. The gray rocks, which were gifted to each U.S. state and 136 countries by then-President Richard Nixon, can sell for millions of dollars on the black market.
NASA agents and Riverside County sheriff’s deputies detained the woman, who was not immediately identified, after she met Thursday with an undercover NASA investigator at a restaurant in Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the sheriff’s office said. The investigation was conducted over several months.
Authorities swooped after the two agreed on a price and the woman pulled out the rock.
NASA planned to conduct tests to determine whether the rock came from the moon as the woman claimed. “We don‘t know if it’s lunar material,” said Gail Robinson, deputy inspector general at the space agency.
Joseph Gutheinz, a University of Arizona instructor and former NASA investigator who has spent years tracking down missing moon rocks, said a lunar curator at a special lab at Johnson Space Center would carry out the testing. Among the substances the rock could contain is armalcolite, a mineral first discovered on the moon and named for Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, who was on the Apollo 11 lunar mission crew.
The woman has not been arrested or charged. It was unknown how she obtained the rock or came to the attention of NASA.
Gutheinz said the woman could face theft charges if the rock is genuine, or fraud charges if it is not.
About 2,200 samples of lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand and dust — weighing about 840 pounds — were brought to Earth by NASA’s Apollo lunar landing missions from 1969 to 1972. A recent count showed 10 states and more than 90 countries could not account for their shares of the gray rocks.
Gutheinz said most purported moon rocks offered for sale on the Internet are bogus, though authentic moon rocks can be purchased if they came to Earth in a meteorite.
NASA houses 70 percent of its lunar rock and soil samples at Johnson Space Center, and another 14 percent are in New Mexico. The rest are either on loan for study or display — or are unaccounted for.
In 2009, the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands confirmed that one of its rocks was a fake and not an artifact collected by the Apollo 11 crew.
A rock presented to Honduras was recovered in a 1998 NASA sting after a Miami collector offered $5 million for it.
___
Associated Press writer Thomas Watkins contributed to this report.
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Winning!
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 11:46pmWhat about Moonbats? We have alot of those!
Report Post »chips1
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 6:34pmFind a rock, but lose an illegal alien. I don’t think so.
Report Post »Meez
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 3:26pmNASA had to get diversify since they are no longer in the space business.
Report Post »alcarfl
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 10:16amExcuse me, but isn‘t NASA’s job to be improving global moslem relationships? Who authorized them to do CIA, FBI, and DOJ onvestigations? The IRS wants the tax on the $1.7 mil, too. Is it time for superhero Obamaman to intervene?
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 7:31amSo, if you pulled your pants down, exposing your derriere to a pile of rocks, couldn’t one call them “moon” rocks?
Report Post »USAMEDIC3008
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 12:03pmHolly crap Batman
ted have another drink
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 6:56amThe real crime is the cost of those rocks. We wasted billions and all we have to show for it is another useless government agency lying to the people about climate to keep getting funding and a box of rocks.
Report Post »Whyismynamealwaystaken
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 6:16amDear, BrianLocke
Finders Keepers!
Report Post »EP46
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 5:48amAnother case of acting without the facts. Maybe this woman went to the moon and collected her own rocks !! Maybe she has relatives living there who sent them to her . Maybe she has a house built out of them…..why immediately ‘assume’ she has ‘something forbiden’ ??? Everything does NOT belong to the government. Go lady go….if you have more….let us know! lol
Report Post »Okie from Muskogee
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 3:10amWow….Didn‘t know you can’t sale moon rocks…… Who has moon rocks though? So much for private property!
Report Post »BrianLocke
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 3:30amThe point is that the only moon rocks you can’t sell are the ones brought back by the Apollo astronauts. Those rocks are national treasures, owned by the United States. They were presented to Universities and the Governments of other nations on loan for study and display. The only way to have one of those moon rocks is through theft. As the story states, the only legal way to obtain a moon rock is if they fell to earth as a meteorite (the result of lunar material ejected from the moon by an impact on the moon). There is only one other way to obtain authentic moon rocks legally, and that is to go there and get them yourself.
This is not about private property rights, but about the theft and sale of property of the the People of the United States.
Report Post »Okie from Muskogee
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 3:43am“It was unknown how she obtained the rock or came to the attention of NASA.”
“Gutheinz said most purported moon rocks offered for sale on the Internet are bogus, though authentic moon rocks can be purchased if they came to Earth in a meteorite.”
First they don’t know how she has the rocks…Second they were given to State and University who carelessly secured their property, gift since given. The State or University could have given her the rock, she could of found in her yard, or she may of pulled them out of the trash…
If they knew she stole the rocks she would have been arrested for stealing…They just know she has “moon” rocks…
Report Post »BrianLocke
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 3:51amI hate to follow up my own post, but after I posted I thought of a better way to explain it. The moon rocks are something the United States as a whole worked hard for, paid for with the blood of Astronauts who died to get us there, the treasures of the USA ($25.4 Billion in 1973 Dollars), and the hard work of thousands of Engineers, Scientists and incredibly brave Astronauts. Now consider after all that hard work to bring back those rocks and the invaluable knowledge we gained from them, some parasite steals some of them to sell for their own personal gain.
That is why it is illegal to sell moon rocks brought back by the Apollo Astronauts. To allow otherwise would be to embrace socialism, and let one profit from the hard work of others while doing nothing themselves.
Report Post »BrianLocke
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 4:05ammeteorite moon rocks are very obviously meteorites as they have been exposed to the heat of re-entry. The only other way to get them is from the Apollo missions. As for the university being careless or giving her the rocks, it is irrelevant, since they were not theirs to give. They were on loan, meaning they were still owned by the U.S. Government. The reason they did not arrest her was because they didn’t know how she obtained it. If she received it as a gift, or if she purchased it, then she may not be aware it is owned by the U.S. I highly doubt that she was unaware it was illegal though because it sounds like she was attempting a black market sale, and was probably presenting it as an Apollo moon rock.
The reason they didn‘t charge her is that they didn’t know what to charge her with. Until they can verify it’s authenticity, which might take weeks, they can’t charge her. I doubt she is going anywhere, they know who she is, and were she to run, then her situation would just get worse. As it is, depending on her criminal history, she will probably get probation or a suspended sentence, or less if she cooperates and tells them where she got it.
Oh and one last thing, if she found it in her yard, how would she know it was a moon rock? Most people would take it to an expert, who could then verify it, and then she could sell it openly.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on May 22, 2011 at 12:59pmA Rocky story
Report Post »Dont-hate-on-me-2
Posted on May 23, 2011 at 1:47am@BrianLocke
Report Post »So the only other way to obtain them legally is to go and get them yourself thats pretty lame comment . Do you really think any goverment in the world especial ours is going to let a private citizen go to the moon. LOL. I hope you were kidding, Would love to do it tho. I would even be willing to pay a mill or two
Whirling Dervish
Posted on May 23, 2011 at 5:52am“theft charges if the rock is genuine”?? That is quite a stretch, don’t worry about proving theft you now you are guilty until proven innocent by association. What is this, Martian law I assume.
They have about 20 for sale on e-bay right now…In fact I am selling mine picked it myself on my last trip.
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