NASA sting nets woman offering moon rock for $1.7M

[limoshawn]

[news.yahoo.com ]

undercover NASA investigator

illegal to sell moon rocks

investigation was conducted over several months

Are you kidding me? Is this a late April fools joke? I am now completely disgusted at how we are spending my money here in the US. NASA Investigator... REALLY? Who's brother's wife's cousin's half dumb kid did we create this job for and how much are they making as we cut teachers pay? Yeah, we better hold on to them moon rooks cause this country is never going to make it back to the moon. I used to wonder how civilizations could be as advanced as the ancient Egyptians, Mayans, and Chinese only to have so little knowledge pass forward, now I think we are seeing exactly how it happened.</rant>

[g1smd]

I would think there is a huge amount of loss within NASA, a large number of people looking for a "souvenir". I would expect them to have a team of investigators; protecting assets that taxpayers have paid for. Just waiting for the eBay ads to appear offering five space shuttles for quick disposal...

[limoshawn]

I would expect them to have a team of investigators

F.B.I., Secret Service, State Police, Local law enforcement, I would expect maybe one of them could have it covered...

[g1smd]

In the UK, transportation, nuclear and military each have their own police forces, so likewise I'd expect a big organisation like that to have similar setup.

[limoshawn]

Internal security is one thing however I would have to say that there is a huge difference in protecting nuclear material or military weapons and stopping the sale of moon rocks! NASA investigator is a BS position wasting money enforcing a BS law. Is it illegal to sell moon rocks in the UK? When Sir Richard starts visiting the moon is he going to be prohibited from opening a "Virgin Moonrocks Superstore" here in the U.S. because of this BS law?

[Samizdata]

Is it illegal to sell moon rocks in the UK?

It would be if they were stolen property or offered in a deliberate fraud.

Which, despite the misleading journalism, appears to be the case in USA:

Gutheinz said most purported moon rocks offered for sale on the Internet are bogus, though authentic moon rocks can be purchased if they came to Earth in a meteorite.

Selling cheese, of course, remains legal in most jurisdictions.

...

[londrum]

it was all faked anyway wasn't it, the moon landing. so now they've got to keep up the ruse by pretending to arrest someone selling fake rocks. what a joke. the coppers were probably fake too

[g1smd]

there is a huge difference in protecting nuclear material or military weapons and stopping the sale of moon rocks!

I'd guess the same people that investigate missing moon rocks also keep an eye on rockets and computer parts and specialist machinery and many other things that could go missing.

[Samizdata]

people that investigate missing moon rocks

Missing moon rocks and the people who investigate them are discussed on Wikipedia:

[en.wikipedia.org...]

The usual caveats apply, but the wikicontent suggests that any notion of a major NASA moonrock-busting department squandering tax dollars probably has more to do with poor journalism than with reality.

After leaving NASA for a teaching position at the University of Phoenix, Arizona, Gutheinz challenged his criminal justice graduate students to locate the goodwill moon rocks. He subsequently extended this project to also cover the missing Apollo 11 moon rocks President Nixon gave to the states and nations of the world in 1969. Hundreds of graduate students have participated in this project from 2002 to present and while many moon rocks have been found, others are now known to be missing, stolen or destroyed.

It seems that much of the work is voluntary and carried out by students.

If their teacher's pay is cut the work might not happen at all.

...

[ron15]

Moon rocks? We landed on the moon? When?

[Old_Honky]

Moon rocks? We landed on the moon? When?

It was 1901 the private enterprise British Expedition of Mr Bedford and Professor Cavor. I refer you to the Historical record written by the contemporary Journalist Mr Herbert Wells, it was called "The first men in the Moon" I believe it is still available from some libraries.