[meteorite-list] Rockhound Helped FBI Get Stolen Moon Rocks

From: Troy <Troy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:00:11 2004
Message-ID: <000a01c23750$5a392100$0ea9afce_at_default>

Another true rockhound. Kinda makes me proud to be one.
Troy Bell (Pro rock hound-Amateur Meteorite hunter)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 10:59 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Rockhound Helped FBI Get Stolen Moon Rocks


>
>
>
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locmoonrock29072902jul29
.story?coll=orl%2Dnews%2Dheadlines
>
> Rockhound helped FBI get stolen moon rocks
> By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez
> Orlando Sentinel
> July 29, 2002
>
> To his wife of six years, Thad Roberts was an ambitious academic
> achiever who would be an astronaut some day.
>
> To Axel Emmermann, a Belgian amateur astronomer and rockhound
> who helped the FBI recover stolen lunar and meteorite samples,
> Roberts was an opportunist who hatched a plot to steal historic
> Apollo mission treasures and sell them on the Internet.
>
> Roberts, fellow NASA intern Tiffany Fowler, 22, and his friend
> Gordon McWhorter, 26, were arrested July 20 in Orlando, where
> authorities say they traveled to sell moon rocks and meteorite pieces
> stolen from Houston's Johnson Space Center. Another NASA
> intern, Shae Saur, 19, was arrested in Texas.
>
> "What were those guys thinking? 'I'm going to steal a part of the
> moon from the mightiest nation on earth,' " said Emmermann, before
> breaking into laughter in a telephone interview. "You can't get away
> with it . . . or you would be a fugitive for the rest of your life. You
> really have to be daft to do so."
>
> Emmermann, a 50-year-old lab chemist, in late May alerted the FBI
> Tampa office to an ad that appeared on the Mineralogy Club of
> Antwerp's Web site: "Priceless Moon Rocks Now Available!!!"
>
> Emmermann first thought it was a hoax. But he grew suspicious after
> posing as a buyer and getting e-mails from an "Orb Robinson," who
> claimed to be from Tampa. "Orb" was an alias for Roberts, who along
> with Fowler and Saur, confessed to investigators after their arrests.
>
> With Emmermann's help, undercover FBI agents set up a sting in
> Orlando where they lured the would-be sellers with promises to pay
> at least $100,000 for the goods.
>
> "Since moon rocks are somewhat of a natural treasure, property that
> various people risked their lives to get, I thought this is not right.
> Let's try to stop them," he said.
>
> Emmermann's feat did not go unnoticed. The mayor of his
> hometown, Mortsel, Belgium, personally delivered flowers to his
> home. And the European media hounded him.
>
> While he doesn't consider himself a hero, he certainly saved the day.
>
> "No, I don't consider myself Superman or Spider Man. I'm just a guy
> trying to do the right thing," he said.
>
> Pursuing degrees in geology and physics, Thad Roberts also seemed
> to be doing the right thing. His now-estranged wife, Kaydee
> Roberts, said he is a certified pilot and scuba diver who used to dig
> for minerals and fossils with her. She said he had what looked like a
> promising future at NASA.
>
> Kaydee Roberts is a Salt Lake City dental assistant. She has been
> separated from her husband for about a year.
>
> Thad Roberts, founder and president of the University of Utah's
> astronomical society, had worked for NASA as part of the space
> center's cooperative education program. Last summer, he worked in
> the same lab that contained the 600-pound safe and 10 ounces of
> space material that investigators said he stole.
>
> In a NASA biography earlier this year, Roberts said, "I've been
> able to break real Apollo moon rocks and catalog them. I have also
> been learning how to make thin sections of meteorites and moon rocks
> for scientific distribution."
>
> Roberts' knowledge of the lab, NASA investigators say, helped him
> plan the heist.
>
> "He had worked there for a summer so he was well acquainted with
> the doors, the entrance and exits," said Lance Carrington, head of
> the NASA inspector general's office in Houston.
>
> Roberts and McWhorter remained in a Tampa detention facility last
> week after each failed to post $25,000 bail set by a federal
> magistrate. Fowler, who was identified by agents as Roberts'
> girlfriend, and Saur were released last week after posting bail.
>
> Roberts' arrest has shocked friends, professors and family.
>
> "He has ruined his whole career over this," said Kaydee Roberts,
> 24, a Utah native who was Thad Roberts' high-school sweetheart and
> married him in 1996. "Maybe he saw an opportunity to make money."
>
> She said she is saddened by what happened.
>
> "He would have been an astronaut if he had not done this," she
> said of Roberts' planned future career with NASA. "But he chose
> the wrong path, and he didn't think about the consequences. I just
> don't think he was expecting to get caught."
>
> Pedro Ruz Gutierrez can be reached at pruz_at_orlandosentinel.com or
> 407-420-5398.
>
>
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Received on Mon 29 Jul 2002 06:36:14 PM PDT