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How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks
schwit1 submitted a story telling the strange tale of how in 2002, rogue NASA interns stole millions of dollars in moon rocks from a building designed not to let that happen. I'd suggest taking the whole thing with a little bit of salt.
Back when I was in high school my father was the chairman of the historical society in town and someone had at one time donated a pretty large moon rock to the museum.
We looked in to selling it because the interest of the money in the bank would pay all the museums bills indefinitely.
Turns out...
NASA is the only place that can verify the authenticity of a moon rock. They would not guarantee that they would give it back. A moon rock is a national treasure. A national treasure can not be owned so it can't be legally sold.
What's funny is I had no idea of the potential value of the small object we had in our house. The rock was almost the size of a small lemon.
Rats would be more funny if they could fart.
My father used to work for ILC-DDC, a chip manufacturer out on Long Island. Some of their chips went to use with NASA. As I recall it, years ago, we children were given a tour on a "factory open to families" day, and they had a NASA space suit on display in the hallway. Well, it turns out that (1) this suit had been on the moon, (2) this suit hadn't been cleaned properly, and (3) NASA eventually recalled the suit to have any errant moon dust sucked out of it, and never let them have the suit again. At least, that's the story I was told.
My point exactly. "I just stolen several million dollars worth of moon rocks... what do I do with them now? I know! I'll sell them on eBay! They'll never think to look for them there!" Not exactly the thought processes of a genius. More like something out of a Three Stooges movie. And yes, most of the Mission Impossible stuff is bullshit, although I do believe they got an ex-employee to give them access codes.
I once worked at a USAF AWACS station, where the regulations said I was not allowed in the radome without an escort, since my security clearance was still pending. My first day there, one of my coworkers said "Here's the keycode to the door. Behave yourself." At other jobs, I've been able to access computer accounts I was not supposed to be in because the administrators made the passwords so complicated that their subordinates simply wrote them down and stuck them in their desk drawers. The point is, anybody who has dealt with bureaucratic bullshit long enough is perfectly willing to bend the rules to help their coworkers actually do their job. These interns got help from lots of people who assumed they were just doing their job. Needless to say, none of them is going to volunteer a "Oh yeah, I helped these kids get in" after the fact.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I too call BS on the thermal wetsuit trick.
Mythbusters had a 2006 episode in which they tested tricks done in movies to defeat security measures. In particular, they tested trying to defeat thermal sensors, including the method of wearing a wetsuit. They even tried spraying down the suited person with a fire extinguisher to cool them.
The result? The person regained heat fairly quickly, and showed up easily on the thermal sensors.