[meteorite-list] Four Accused Of Stealing Moon Rocks In Houston

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:00:09 2004
Message-ID: <200207230029.RAA26475_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/space/1503835

Four accused of stealing moon rocks in Houston
Associated Press
July 22, 2002

TAMPA, Fla. - Four people have been charged with stealing
moon rocks and meteorites from Johnson Space Center in
Houston, where three were student employees, the FBI said
Monday.

Undercover FBI agents arrested Thad Ryan Roberts, 25,
Tiffany Brooke Fowler, 22, and Gordon Sean McWorter,
26, Saturday in Orlando and charged them with conspiracy
to commit the theft of government property and transportation
in interstate commerce of stolen property.

Shae Lynn Saur, 19, was arrested Saturday in Houston, and
charged with conspiracy, FBI officials said. Roberts, Fowler,
and Saur were student employees at Johnson Space Center.
They have all been fired, space center spokesman Kyle
Herring said.

Agent James Jarboe said the undercover operation started in
May following an e-mail tip from Belgium, and continued with a
series of e-mail communications with a person offering "priceless
moon rocks" collected by Apollo astronauts in 1969 and the
early 1970s.

The ad was placed May 9 on the Web site of the Mineralogy
Club of Antwerp, Belgium, according to the criminal
complaint filed Monday in federal court in Tampa.

Investigators say that Roberts offered to sell the rocks from
between $1,000 and $5,000 a gram.

"As you well know, it is illegal to sell Apollo lunar rocks in
the United States," one e-mail read. "This obviously has
not discouraged me since I live in the United States.
However, I must be cautious that this deal is handled with
delicacy in that I am not publicly exposed."

The messages were sent from the University of Utah,
Johnson Space Center and a Houston public library, the FBI
said.

The correspondence, soon taken over by an FBI agent,
continued until a meeting was set up at a restaurant in
Orlando over this past weekend to finalize the purchase.

On July 15, a 600-pound safe containing lunar samples from
every Apollo mission was discovered missing from the
space center, and the FBI was notified, Herring said.
Officials said the inventory being offered by the suspects
came from the safe.

"There is no legitimate way to sell this stuff, so that's why
immediately when we get information, we pursue it," said
Lance Carrington, assistant inspector general for NASA.

Carrington said the theft took place from a NASA researcher.

"He maintained the samples in a secure safe, in a laboratory
setting," he said. "And we had, basically, a breaking and
entering take place, and the safe was stolen."

During the correspondence, the suspects promised they had
scientific papers written by the NASA scientists who had
studied the specimens.

"I would like to stress that this is the WORLDS (sic)
LARGEST private Apollo rock collection, not to mention the
ONLY VERIFIABLE Apollo rock collection," one e-mail
read.

Special Agent Wayne Nichols Nance Jr. wrote that Roberts
arrived at an Orlando restaurant and told two undercover
agents his name was "Orb." With him were Fowler, who is
his girlfriend, and McWhorter.

Roberts told the agents that Saur could not come to Florida
because she was completing her scuba diving certification in
Houston, according to the complaint.

The group then drove to a hotel to finish the $100,000 deal,
with Roberts telling agents during the trip that he and his
friends had stolen the safe, the FBI said.

When the group arrived at the hotel, Roberts, McWorter and
Fowler were arrested. Saur was later arrested in Houston.

According to the complaint, Roberts said Fowler and Saur
had helped him steal the safe and load it into a sports utility
vehicle.

Roberts said he and Fowler rented a motel room in Clear
Lake, Texas, where they took the safe and opened it.

No one answered the phone at the Tampa federal public
defender's office after hours Monday and it could not be
determined if the suspects have attorneys.

The samples were displayed Monday in the Tampa FBI
office in the green and white tackle box and small blue
suitcase that brought them to Florida.

"Right now we're comfortable that we've recovered all of
them," Jarboe said.

Jarboe said that with the current charges the suspects each
face up to five years in prison, but more charges are likely.

"This was good, solid police work," Jarboe said. "Luck had
nothing to do with it."
Received on Mon 22 Jul 2002 08:29:17 PM PDT