Posted on 05/03/2012 12:28:31 PM PDT by Red Badger
LOTUS (CBS13) – People from all over the world are in the tiny town of Lotus in El Dorado County looking for something that’s out of this world, but leave it to a stay-at-home mom walking her dog to find a precious meteorite.
The rock Brenda Salveson found is 17 grams, equal to just over a tablespoon of sugar. But when it comes in the form of an asteroid, its weight has no boundaries.
“I was lucky, blessed, good karma,” Brenda said. “It was sitting there at my toes like an Easter egg.”
An egg? More like a diamond in the rough. That gem from outer space was found at the Lotus park where Brenda, her kids and her collie come to nearly every day.
“I had jumpy puppy in one hand and rock in another,” she said.
Meteorites landed in California’s Gold Country several days ago, creating a modern day gold rush.
“I’ve been out here my third day now,” said Robert Clark of Grass Valley. “Found one piece, one gram.”
Gold is so 1840s out here. Meteorites are the new treasure.
“I was really excited for this much,” said Rick Nelson of Grass Valley, who found some gold. “I was more excited for my wife’s find. She found a meteor.”
A couple thousand or so people from as far as Australia and Canada have descended to the area, practically doubling the population of Lotus.
Geologists, treasure hunters and scientists all took a look at Brenda’s find.
“As I opened my hand, there was a huge gasp,” she said.
Scientists have told her what she had in her hands could be 4 to 6 billion years old.
So what does an earthling do with something that’s been cruising the galaxy longer than our sun? Take it to her kids’ school for show and tell of course.
“A little freaky when I shared it in my class,” her son Tommy said.
Now it’s locked up for safe keeping. It could be worth nearly $20,000, but Brenda’s not ready to part with it.
She never set out to find it, so she considers this some sort of gift from above.
There are plenty of rocks to sift through, so how do you know what’s a meteor? Brenda had geologists and NASA scientists confirm it. And they all say the chances of that happening — astronomical.
CNN Headline: “The 1% Just Keeps Getting Richer as Gold Falls From the Sky and Into the Lap of Undeserving Woman Who Never Worked a Day in Her Life”.
LOL. Ain’t it the truth?!
Probably $10000 for the woman, and $10000 for the IRS
IRS probably already started a file on her over this.
As soon as the county learns of this she will be asked to give it back. She said she found it in the park. I am certain that that park will have laws against removing items from the park.
You can bet the farm on it.
sonic boom ping
Thanks for the ping! I had to go back and read your posts to find out when you added your tagline. It was so perfectly phrased, and you were the first person I saw who posted it. I see you added it as a tagline on April 22nd.
It makes me so sad that Newt was never really able to regain traction after Romney spent $14M to take him down at the knees in Florida. We needed Newt, we really did. This one’s going to take me awhile to get past.
And the media's fascination with the childish word "mom" continues. Why not this for the headline:
Woman Stumbles Onto Meteorite Worth About $20,000.
Anybody notice that you rarely see the word "dad" in the media? Only "MOM."
Quick someone teach this woman quickly about Bartering and keeping her mouth shut ... (IRS may already want their half)
It may be 4 billion years old ... but the IRS had dibs on it 3.9 billion years ago
TT
Just be happy that you don’t live in England.
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