Nothing new? You mean you think they have been confiscating peoples cars for years because they pick up a rock? I suppose you are ok with the government being able to seize your property whenever they get the whim. They are passing more and more confiscation laws. The drug laws were a foot in the door and now they want to confiscate everything we own and won't stop until they can do it for a traffic violation.
The Greeks have similar laws around the Parthenon and some of their other treasures. To protect these sites they have a crew that “salts” the area around them with small stones every week. God be praised, no one has successfully taken a 2 ton granite block yet and the thieves are overjoyed to have a 1 inch chunk of rock to show the idiots back in Iowa. Somehow we have been blessed with too many idiots in our park service lately.