[meteorite-list] Faulty Safe Cited in Moon Rock Theft

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jan 23 16:35:26 2006
Message-ID: <200601232133.k0NLXcw17845_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128769406298

Faulty safe cited in moon rock theft
Educator whose van was broken into says safe didn't always lock

BY A.J. HOSTETLER
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
January 19, 2006

NASA moon rocks stolen from a parked van were tucked in a safe whose
combination lock worked sporadically, says the Virginia Beach
educational specialist who used the rocks to teach about space.

NASA and Virginia Beach police are investigating last week's theft near
Oceana Naval Air Station. One Lucite disk about 6 inches wide held three
moon rocks and three soil samples weighing a little more than a paper
clip, and another disk contained six meteorite samples.

"I really feel bad about what happened, losing a national treasure,"
aerospace education specialist Rudo Kashiri said yesterday.

The van's alarm sounded shortly after 3 a.m. Jan. 10, but by the time
Kashiri awoke in her condo and ran outside to her driveway, someone had
forced open the van's side door and snatched the moon rocks from the
safe, which was bolted and welded to the van, she said.

A silver suitcase, a projector and a cooler were also taken. The cooler
was found nearby by police who arrived and searched the area, she said.

Kashiri said the safe's lock had been troublesome lately, but she
thought the safe was closed that night.

"Once in a while, sometimes it would not stick [shut], and sometimes it
will, and maybe this is one of the times I thought I locked it all the
way and it didn't," she said.

Her employer says the problem was not reported but an official is going
through e-mails to see if it had been overlooked.

Kashiri works for the NASA Aerospace Education Services Program, which
has 32 education specialists around the country assigned to NASA
centers. They visit classrooms and give teacher workshops and lectures
to the public.

The program is run by Oklahoma State University. After the theft in
Virginia Beach, the specialists were reminded of NASA's requirements to
safeguard their samples, said the program's director, Steve Marks of OSU.

"They are to be under lock and key at all times," he said.

Marks said he is waiting for reports on the investigation by police and
NASA's Office of Inspector General before determining whether to take
any action against Kashiri.

Kashiri, a former teacher trained in physics, joined the edu- cational
program in 2004 after working at Atlanta's Fernbank Science Center for
several years. As one of three instructors at Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Kashiri is scheduled to present a program in Franklin on
Saturday to fourth- and fifth-graders.

Instructors must follow strict guidelines for safeguarding NASA's moon
rocks. They are not to leave the samples unattended and may display the
samples only at NASA-approved locations. When not in use, the samples
are to be secured in a vault or the safes in their vans.

Most of the Apollo soil samples and moon rocks, more than 800 pounds
collected by astronauts from 1969 through 1972, are still held at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The stolen samples are uninsured and have no official monetary value,
according to NASA. If the moon rocks have been removed from their
containers, they lose their scientific value.

Federal law prohibits private ownership of lunar samples brought back by
the Apollo missions, and they cannot be legally sold.

However, an unscrupulous collector might seek one illegally, says a
retired NASA employee who investigated missing moon rocks given in
goodwill gestures to 135 foreign nations in the 1970s.

Given that the asking price eight years ago for a NASA moon rock taken
from Honduras was $5 million, Joseph Gutheinz said he's concerned for
the specialists' safety.

"What would the average criminal do for $5 million?" said Gutheinz, now
a lawyer in private practice in Houston. "The good news is that the moon
rocks in this case were taken from a vehicle and not a person."

Marks defended the program's policies, saying that the moon rocks stolen
in Virginia Beach are the first such theft for the 28-year-old
educational outreach program.

A reward of $1,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest.
Received on Mon 23 Jan 2006 04:33:36 PM PST