[meteorite-list] Park Forest - The Pulling of Teeth Part I

From: Tim Heitz <midwestmeteor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:01 2004
Message-ID: <3E8A3899.7000405_at_earthlink.net>

Thank You for telling it like it is.


 
Tim Heitz






Adam Hupe wrote:

> Dear List Members,
>
> Wow, lots of emails concerning the new Chicago fall. I was going to
> try to get back into the meteorite scene slowly but could not resist
> the temptation of a new fall and was thrust back into the fire. Al
> Lang and I decided to leave Park Forest yesterday because the feeding
> frenzy and greed was getting to be too much.
>
> Here is a long rundown of some of our experiences in case anybody is
> interested.
>
> Day one
> Had a deal on the only oriented stone we observed the entire time we
> were there and had a museum director destroy our deal by telling the
> seller not to sell to us until the museum had a chance to make an
> offer on it first. The seller was then encouraged to donate the stone
> for a write-off. Most of these people are not in a position to take
> advantage of a tax write off because they are in the lowest income
> bracket. A donor can only write-off expenses incurred so basically
> they were giving these stones away free or they will unknowingly break
> the law if they try to write them off at $15.00 a gram. This shows
> blatant disrespect and abuse of perceived power. I am so disgusted in
> these three professionals that I will discourage any donations
> of material to their respective institutions unless they are
> reprimanded. On the positive side meteorite dealers and collectors
> behaved themselves for the most part in a much more professional manner.
>
> We were at the police station when we heard a gunshot fired around the
> corner at about 7:00 p.m. prompting us to leave the area and find a hotel.
>
> Purchased very little material at the initial $1.00 a gram price
> because we only wanted the best stones, we observed about 40 kilograms
> found in less than 10 hours and thought hundreds of kilos would show
> up by the next day.
>
> Day two
> Scoured the neighborhood for deals but the word was spread on the news
> not to sell to meteorite dealers who were there to take advantage of
> the finders. A new street price was established at $3.00 a gram
> because this is what a museum was offering. We purchased a single
> stone at this price.
>
> Went searching for meteorites and found a 24 gram
> specimen laying between a curb and a sidewalk. An old woman observed
> me picking it up and accused me of stealing it. Then she called me a
> hippie freak (I don't even have long hair) and told me she saw me pick
> up the stone from a yard. She went on to tell me that her part of the
> neighborhood did not like strangers poking around. She also mentioned
> that she heard about us "meteor people" on the news and knew we were
> up to no good. A small crowd was beginning to gather so I walked
> quickly back to the car. Our group, now consisting of four
> members decided it was time to go somewhere else to search so we
> left. We had to drive by her house on the way out and the next
> thing she did was chase us in her car. It took about 20 blocks and
> three turns to shake her. I am sure she wrote down our license plate
> number and reported the supposed theft to the police. We were given
> permission by the city to check the areas between the sidewalks and
> curbs.
>
> That night somebody was ran over by a car three times in front of our
> hotel. We saw all the police cars and ambulances but did not know
> what had happened until the next morning when we found out the
> person had been killed.
>
> See next posting for part II
>
> All the Best,
>
> Adam Hupe
>
>
Received on Tue 01 Apr 2003 08:10:49 PM PST