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FBI Arrests 4 College Interns For Stealing Lunar Materials
An anonymous reader "Today, the fourth member of a group of college interns working at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston turned herself in after being charged with conspiracy to steal government property. Click2Houston.com has an article with a video feed covering many details of the case. Apparently, three of the alleged theives went to Florida and tried to sell, online, the 5 oz. of moon rocks and meteorite material they lugged out of the JSC in a 600lb case. Here's another article from the Houston Chronicle."
And they didn't expect to get caught? I might understand if they were trying to sell a harddrive they had stolen from work, or a 2nd hand base unit they had sneaked out. But a few hundred pounds of moonrock are sure to be noticed, especially when you sell em on eBay!
They deserve to get caught..
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
...brings no
money.
sorry for the youngs here. A long time ago, there was some band named Pink Floyd...
The rocks in their heads, instead.
"We put two and two together," Houston FBI spokesman Bob Doguim said Monday. "We had missing rocks in Houston, and some people trying to sell them online."
Heck, they're clever these FBI chaps, eh?
Why is it government property? I thought there was an agreement that the moon was not owned by any country or government. Surely taking the rock from the moon doesn't actually mean that you then own it (as you've then stolen it from the rest of the world). If it belongs to anyone one earth, then maybe the UN, but not an individual government.
There is, last time I checked, *one* moon rock in the U.S. (or the world?) that is in any way available to the public. You can go and touch it. I did. Whee. Looked like a rock, to me.
My deviantArt site
oz? lbs? People living somewhere on the southern hemisphere and a harddisk access format? What do they have to do with moonrocks?
0x or or snor perron?!
They would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those kids and that dog!
-.-
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
one year ago there was a big diamond theft in amsterdam. No guns were used.
# th iev]
the diamonds wee carried out thtough the front door in a microwavebox!
[http://www.preciousgemstones.com/gffall01.html
$8 Million in Diamonds Stolen in Microwave
In the Netherlands, a 25-year-old man calmly walked out of the offices of Amsterdam's Gassan Diamonds carrying a box stuffed with uninsured diamonds. He had arrived at the office with the box at the start of the working day, saying it contained a microwave oven. Benno Leeser, director of the 56-year-old family-run firm said, "He came with a microwave in the box, but he left with the diamonds." The suspect, said to be a former army cook who had worked for the firm since April, has vanished without a trace.
Privacy is terrorism.
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)
.. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.
Is there a market out there to make any money off this? I mean - if I ran across "L@@K - real MOON ROCK from SPACE MISSIONS!!!!! N/R!!!!!!!" on eBay, I'd assume it was just a joke at best, or a scam at worst. I mean, sure, you can sucker someone into paying $100 for a fake moon rock, but a million or so for a rock that, as far as the public is concerned, may or may not be real? It doesn't seem like all that great a plan - perhaps it would've been better to contact some private collectors directly.
Quoting Thad Roberts:
Somehow, I don't think NASA had his type of adventures in mind...(More on this story here.)
Sure it does
What is the real story here? 10oz of rock fragments for $2000-8000 per oz = $20-80k, not really a million dollar heist. This amounts to a theft of around 1/1400th of the total brought back from the moon. Big deal. It's the price of one new car.
It's maybe worth commenting how law enforcement is starting to use the Internet to cross reference thefts with sales. But seriously: doing manual searches of e-Bay is not what I'd consider automation.
Summer time... and the news is slow.
My blog
It'll be interesting to see them use the defense that "it was the moon rock gnomes!" ...can't resist this one.
1. Steal moon rocks.
2. ???
3. Profit!
"I may be quite wrong." - Socrates
for making life hard for the rest of us at NASA. Because of this, every person interning at NASA is going to be put under the microscope.
For any far reaching businessman, the Moon means ready cash. Heck, and $8000 an ounce, this should make a private enterprise trip to the Moon financially viable. Send up an unmanned probe with a big scoop and bucket and you should be able to get a few hundred pounds back no problem. 100 pounds of the stuff will get you almost 13 million dollars. With all the money leaving the stock market, the rich need to invest in something. Forget gold, invest in Moon rocks!
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Its even been discussed on /. before.
Now that being said, its very common in the art world for works of art - sometimes priceless ones at that - to be stolen and to disappear into private collections.
And I could fully understand if any one of these geeks took the rocks and stashed them away in their bedrooms. Hell, who wouldn't want a chunk of the moon in their bedroom?
But to try to sell on the 'Net?!??
I'm missing something here, but I guess its because was assuming they were bright.
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Unlike the moon rocks, the TV in your example belongs to somebody else to begin with. The moon rocks were just sitting there on the moon until the US Gov't. (admittedly not my favorite institution) spent $billions to bring them back for scientific analysis. Therefore, I'd say they're the "owners". And it's not like they don't release the data to the scientific community by publishing it. That's far more useful than giving away the rocks themselves.
Freedom: "I won't!"
... one of them tried to smoke the moon rock in thier crack pipe.
"I've got moon rocks in my nose!"
-Ralph Wiggum
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
"And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night." Ergo, the God-given purpose of the moon is to provide light during the night. Ergo, there cannot be such things as moonless nights. Ergo, the moon cannot orbit the earth.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
The REAL Story.
.. Damn it. I knew I should have used Buy It Now. Now the auction is gone :( No moon rocks for me, and I was all ready to paypal those guys too.
Okay.. so if I'm in the US of A, and I pick up a rock off the ground, and take it home to Costa Rica...
have I 'stolen' US Property?
"FBI Arrests 4 College Interns For Stealing Lunar Materials"
:)
When I read this headline, the first image in my mind was of college kids building a rocket and 'stealing' lunar materials. I can see some MIT kids getting drunk and doing exactly that heh. As for the FBI getting involved: Anybody remember that Simpsons quote "The Moon belongs to America."
"Derp de derp."
Here's what I get from reading the actual article in the Houston paper, rather than just reading the little summary. Four friends decide it would be funny to post something about selling moon rocks. They haven't stolen the rocks at this point, and they probably don't really intend to. They have some good laughs over it, I'm sure. Then, someone actually replies about wanting them! (someone that is just a front for the FBI) Encouraged by the huge amount that he is supposedly willing to pay, they are enticed to actually steal the rocks. In fact, they don't even steal them till after the undercover FBI people set up a price and meeting place. By this point, they feel like they're in too deep to back out. The joke has gone too far. They feel they have no choice but to actually follow through. Hello entrapment! (anyone who actually read it, feel free to discuss...others please don't comment)
One of the arrested interns, was a student of mine when I was a teaching assistant at the University of Utah. He was quite a people-pleaser, but as I recall, had little academic ability. I was told, that he commonly cheated his way through classes. I can't substantiate such a claim, but given the difficulty he had with freshman physics, I don't find it difficult to believe.
He was instrumental in starting the University of Utah Astronomical Society, though this was probably largely a social exercise for him, as his knowledge of astronomy was weaker than that of the average high-school student.
Thad was quite fond of fantasizing about his future career as a Noble prize-winning astronaut (email was astronaut_thad@yahoo.com at one point). As great as my doubts were at the time about him achieving his ambitions, it seems quite unlikely that he shall succeed at this point; though it would be untrue to suggest that recent events are anything short of shocking, my perception of Thad as someone with a proclivity for dishonesty was apparently not entirely unjustified.
I thought a little (scandal-mongering) biographica would be appropriate, as I doubt very much any of the major news sources are likely to interview me.
Disclaimer: I am not presently affiliated in any way with the University of Utah, NASA, or Thad Roberts.
I recall the dust on lunar space suits was auctioned to public by a private collector at one time.
But the moon rock is not valuable because of some inherent value. It's valuable because it's from the moon. There is no shortage of moon rock; it's not unique, nothing has been 'stolen' from the moon.Anyone else who goes there can get truckloads of it.
So to say that the US has 'stolen' the rock from the moon because they don't have rights to the moon is absurd.
One of these things is not like the other... tell me, can you guess which one?
(Scroll down and look at the photos and descriptions)
When I first saw the lineup I laughed out loud:
Just look at those photos and descriptions and then try to guess which one was saying (in his best Steve from Dell voice), "DUDE! Like, if you could get some of those rocks, we could make... like... I bet at least 200 bucks!" (Suppressed laughter to hold his smoke)
Incidentally, I bet the University of Utah, Texas Lutheran University, and Lamar University are oh so happy with having their names displayed so prominently. Shining alumni indeed!
Slashdot comments... splitting hairs since 1997.
While I understand that the properties of lunar dust and rocks is unique, it is still just "dirt". Nothing really that special. What makes these things so valuable isn't their properties, or the rarity - but rather the amount of money and time it took to go there and get them, and bring them back.
The only way these items could ever drop in value would be if travel to the moon became more routine, especially if artifacts were brought back. However, I wonder if certain interests want to prevent this from happenning.
Here we are, the world, a couple of years into a new millenium, and the greatest acheivement ever in mankind's history happened 30 years ago, and has never been repeated. Instead, we wage war on each other, stifle each other's rights, are ground up and spit out, and if we are lucky, we die leaving a little something behind for our children.
So fucking pathetic.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon