Feds nab granny in moon rock sting
74-year-old who tried to sell husband's pressie arrested
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A Californian grandmother was taken down in a sting operation by government agents when she tried to sell a tiny piece of moon rock dust she claims to have owned for nearly four decades.
Moon rocks tend to be worth quite a lot, due to their scarcity and the difficulty in getting more of them, and estimates suggest this dust could be worth more than $1m.
Joann Davis, who is 74 years old, hoped to sell the tiny speck of moon rock encased in a paperweight that she said her space engineer husband gave to her, according to a CBS News report.
She contacted NASA to help her to find a buyer, but the agency suspected her of dealing in stolen government property. When she went to her local Denny's in May to seal the deal, federal agents were waiting.
Davis insists that the moon debris is not stolen.
"I know it and they know it too," she said. "But how else are they going to credit themselves with how they took it? How do they justify it?"
She was detained and questioned for two hours, but has yet to be charged with anything.
Her attorney Peter Schlueter said there was "no such law that moon rocks belong to the federal government" and the feds hadn't shown that Davis' dust was stolen.
Davis said she now just wants NASA to return the moon rock to her and that she and Schlueter were considering legal action to try to get it back. ®
COMMENTS
From another point of view
Turning the story around ever so slightly to view it from the supposed point that neither NASA or the Feds have ANY evidence this old lady has done anything wrong and you have;
Feds/NASA kidknapp old lady, hold her hostage for two hours and only release her after stealing $1m from her purse.
Just saying....
This isn't a 1st.....
....NASA have a history of this.
In the 60's and 70's momentos and kit were given to engineers and people associated with the Space programme, usally as a "hey Dave, good job, here have this", so no paperwork.
Now they are worth something, NASA are trying to play the "it was stolen" game.
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/07/02/nasa-sues-former-apollo-14-astronaut-over-lunar-camera/
When moon rock is banned...
...only criminals will have moon rock.
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