Posted on 05/21/2011 5:25:22 AM PDT by Libloather
California woman trying to hawk moon rock for $1.7M to undercover NASA agent detained in sting
By Robert Jablon, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
1 hour 3 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - She promised the moon, for a sky-high price. He wasn't buying.
A woman who tried to sell what she said was a rare piece of moon rock for $1.7 million was detained when her would-be buyer turned out to be an undercover NASA agent, officials said Friday.
The grey rocks, which are considered national treasures and are illegal to sell, were given to each U.S. state and 136 countries by then-President Richard Nixon after U.S. moon missions and can sell for millions of dollars on the black market.
NASA investigators and Riverside County sheriff's deputies detained the woman after she met Thursday with an undercover NASA investigator at a restaurant in Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (110 kilometres) 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, whose name has not been released, 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
>> How do people get their mitts on a moonrock to sell?
They’re not really from the moon, you know... she pulled them out of Heranus.
Will aluminum foil block the rays ?
I saw that episode earlier this year when was in the hospital for a couple of days.
That was one of the classic episodes of a classic series! I hope you weren’t in the hospital for something that hurt when laughing!
Actually Married With Children was far more painful (funny) when I wsa hospitalized last year. A great episode nonetheless.
stolen material ... :-)
NASA has an enforcement department?????????
It’s been over 10 years since I left the Army as a Military Police officer. While I wanted to move into the private security/investigations (where I ended up), I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket and kept my options open by looking into continuing employment with the FedGov. Even then I was amazed/shocked/appalled at all the bureaus, agencies, etc. that were looking to fill criminal investigator positions, NOAA, Bureau of Indian Affairs, NASA, you name it.
Don't laugh...It starts at $105K.
Give me a break.
One part says it's illegal to sell them and this other part says it's not.
If the rock turns out to be genuine but not from the 2,200 Apollo samples (100 of which are missing), does she get an apology and the rock back or just a bill for authentication services?
Who is investigating the government investigators?
Lemmme guess, the government right?
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