[meteorite-list] Mike Farmer repost: Park Forest Winslow St.

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jul 19 11:16:11 2004
Message-ID: <BAY4-F7YzWXH1pVLy5u000b1d0b_at_hotmail.com>

Mark note: The following, related to the last few postings, was posted to
this list April 20, 2003. Taken from the list archives.

Please visit, www.MeteoriteArticles.com, a free on-line archive of meteor
and meteorite articles.


[meteorite-list] Park Forest Saga continues.
Michael Farmer farmerm at concentric.net
Sun Apr 20 19:44:22 EDT 2003
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Hello everyone. I am announcing a bit of news about Park Forest.
I have been in negotiations with the Park Forest police dept for the
last two weeks regarding the meteorite from Winslow St. I purchased 1/2
kilo of fragments from the owners, including the main mass, shortly
after the fall.
The owner had called the police when the fragments showered their house
and car doing damage to both. The stone had impacted the street and
apparently shattered, with most landing on the homeowners porch. They
called the police and the police took the meteorites that night as
evidence. When I went to Park Forest the next day, I made them offers
and they went to the police and retrieved the specimens. I bought over
500 grams of fragments.
One week later, the police chief contacted me in Tucson and demanded
the meteorites back, saying that they were stolen property and belonged
to the city. I told them how hard I found that to believe since they
landed on the peoples property and damaged their home and car, and the
police had relinquished it back to the homeowner. He told me that they
didn't care, that now that the police knew the value, that they wanted
them back, and that they were only going to go after my since I had the
largest pieces. They did not care that almost 10 other people got
specimens from the Winslow Street meteorite, they just wanted my pieces
back. I refused and forgot the matter. Then they contacted me again this
week and demanded the stones back or they would start legal action
against me!
    Well, what I am here to announce is that I have made a binding
agreement with the Park Forest police Dept. I am giving them the endcut
of the largest piece, and they are relinquishing all rights to any other
pieces from that specimen. Unfortunately, I must give back a 116 gram
endcut to the city. I paid several thousand dollars for the pieces and
will get no compensation from the city. We decided that I would "DONATE"
the specimen back to the city and they would allow me to keep the rest
of the pieces.
    I am so offended that I had to do this, that I was the only target,
even though they knew about so many other pieces. My attorney told me
that undoubtedly I would prevail in any court case, but we decided that
it was in my best interests to negotiate a quick settlement to avoid the
hassle of the police.
    I am just warning people that even in America, sometimes due process
is a joke. In order to save myself the problems, I just had to give in
and submit to the police demands.
Since this problem is solved, I have completed cutting the remaining
pieces and will ship them to all the buyers tomorrow. This is one reason
that many of you have not received your pieces yet.
    Does anyone have anything to input regarding the treatment by the
Park Forest Police?
I am not so sure that they want this piece back for the city, so I am
taking it back personally and want to present it to the city council,
NOT the police dept. If anyone is offered this endcut for sale by the
police, PLEASE let us all know.

Mike Farmer
Received on Mon 19 Jul 2004 11:13:52 AM PDT