[meteorite-list] ParkForest story today

From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:13:08 2004
Message-ID: <20030423154202.77029.qmail_at_web20910.mail.yahoo.com>

Hi everyone, here is an article in the Chicago Tribune
today! I am on my way to Colombia today, so if anyone
in the area can buy me a copy or two, I would be most
grateful.
Mike Farmer



Stolen or not, meteorite on way back to Park Forest

  
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By Joseph Sjostrom
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 23, 2003

A meteorite that crashed through the atmosphere to
land on a Park Forest street and bounce into a yard on
Winslow Drive was sold by the homeowner to an Arizona
dealer, but is coming back to the village after police
demanded its return.

The 116-gram meteorite, carved from one that weighed
180 grams, is being relinquished by Michael Farmer of
Tucson, a globe-trotting meteorite dealer, who says he
resented the implication of police that the rock was
stolen.

  
  
 
"It would be worth fighting over, but I don't have
time for that," Farmer said Tuesday. "I'm leaving for
South America tomorrow morning. I'm going to Africa
next week."

Police say it was all a big misunderstanding. Farmer
does not expect to be reimbursed, and police say there
are no plans to offer him compensation. The dealer
wouldn't disclose what he paid, but said on average he
spent $5 to $12 per gram for meteorites that fell on
Park Forest and other south suburbs on March 27.

It's not clear exactly what the village plans to do
with the meteorite. Village Manager Janet Muchnik said
the hope was it would be displayed with the 1.2-pound
meteorite the village sold last week to a consortium
of institutions including Chicago's Field Museum, the
Adler Planetarium and the University of Chicago. The
price for the rock that punched a hole in the village
fire station was $5,448, or $10 a gram.

The saga began when a meteor described as "the size of
a Volkswagen" entered Earth's atmosphere in a
spectacular display of light and sound over the south
suburbs. It broke into thousands of smaller pieces and
rained onto streets and yards in Park Forest, Matteson
and Olympia Fields with at least five pieces crashing
through roofs of four homes and the Park Forest fire
station.

Farmer, who has made a living buying and selling
meteorites for the last seven years, was on an
airplane to Chicago the next day, and spent the next
two weeks buying pieces of the meteorite from
residents who found them outside and inside their
homes.

Farmer said he spent about $40,000, paying premium
prices in some cases because that's what finders
demanded and because his customers will pay more for a
meteorite with a documented story behind it.

"They were worth more money because some of them hit
houses, some of them hit cars," he said, and because
the meteorite's entry to Earth was such a widely
witnessed and reported event.

Several days after returning home, Farmer said he
received a phone call from Capt. Francis DioGuardi of
the Park Forest police who contended Farmer had bought
a stolen meteorite. Farmer said DioGuardi didn't
threaten specific civil or criminal action but implied
the consequences would be severe if he kept the rock.

"He said, `We're treating this as stolen property' and
`We're ready to take this to the next step,'" Farmer
said.

The dealer bought the rock from a resident who found
it and several others on his property on Winslow Drive
in Park Forest and turned them over to police--as did
many other finders--for temporary safekeeping. The
resident retrieved it from the police and sold it,
Farmer said.

Farmer said DioGuardi told him the rock rightfully
belonged to the village because it had landed on the
street before bouncing onto the homeowner's property,
where it hit the man's house and damaged the siding.

DioGuardi said Tuesday that no threats of legal action
were made or implied and no accusations of trafficking
in stolen goods were made against Farmer. He also said
police recovered the rock from the street and
inadvertently gave it to the Winslow Avenue homeowner,
who sold it to Farmer. The dealer said police agreed
to let him cut the rock into two pieces of 116 grams
and 64 grams, polish the cut side on the larger one
and return that one to Park Forest. He said he expects
to ship the rock in several days.

"I'm happy to let the village have it," he said.


Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
Received on Wed 23 Apr 2003 11:42:02 AM PDT