[meteorite-list] Lunar loony Thad Roberts speaks up

From: Rob McCafferty <rob_mccafferty_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Sep 12 19:18:49 2006
Message-ID: <20060912231846.73954.qmail_at_web50915.mail.yahoo.com>

Haha!

I know of this theft! I know because I borowed a
similar set of lunar rocks to show at my school from
PPARC (Particle Physics and Research Astronomy
Council) in the UK just this February. They were mega
shit-hot on the security of the samples I borowed due
to the theft in the US.

However, not is all as it seems!

In the UK we are forced to provide a location for
storage and have it confirmed by an inspector that
it's sufficiently secure to meet NASA's strict
guidelines.

Now I know that the US has always been paranoid of
everything outside thier borders but how I hear this
scheme runs in the US is hilarious.

I take it the black market is too smart to use the
internet!

The samples (photo enclosed for scale, it's my son by
the way) are delivered in an armoured van, bank style,
from their storage location. The van has a registered
driver who stays with the van/samples, wherever they
are delivered. (I guess each state has it's own van)
then delivers them to a secure loction for overnight
storage.

Now there lies the weak link, but not in the way you
think! My understanding of this theft was that they
couldn't find a secure location for the night but they
instead decided to leave it in the van's safe deposit
thing!

So obviously, the theives just stole the whole van and
I suppose opened the safe at their leisure sometime
later.

Duh!


I take it the black market is too smart to use the
internet!

The only virgin moondust I've seen recently is USSR
Luna stuff sold in 199x for about $600k if i recall.
At $15000/speck it seemed a little pricey. I believe
the stuff is genuine but it makes NWA773 prices look
like a bargain. No shame, some people!

--- Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_charter.net> wrote:

> There is an (apparently excerpted) letter from lunar
> meteorite theif Thad
> Roberts in the letters page of the current (Sept.
> 2006) issue of Discover
> magazine. This is the article to which he was
> responding:
>
>
>
http://webpages.charter.net/garrison6328/whatmoon.jpg
>
>
> Here's the letter:
>
>
> As the former NASA intern serving eight years for
> the theft of moon rocks, I
> thought you might be interested in my response to
> "Whatever Happened to Moon
> Rocks?" [Data, July]. Imagine being able to give a
> piece of the moon to a young
> girl. Imagine watching her face as her little
> fingers slowly grasp that piece
> of heaven. She will embody the admirable essence of
> what it is to be human.
> She will be, at heart, an explorer ... with a little
> piece of the moon in her
> pocket.
>
> Thad Roberts
> Federal Prison Camp
> Florence, Colorado
>
>
> I wonder if his comments were so off-the-wall BEFORE
> meeting his boyfriend
> Bubba?
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>
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>


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Received on Tue 12 Sep 2006 07:18:46 PM PDT