The three were working last summer at the NASA Space Center in Houston when a safe containing about 270 kg of rocks from the moon and meteorites from Mars disappeared from the scene
Three students admitted to stealing rocks from the moon and meteorites from Mars worth more than a million dollars and trying to sell them on the Internet - according to the American space agency NASA.
The three were working last summer at the NASA Space Center in Houston when a safe containing about 270 kg of rocks from the moon and meteorites from Mars disappeared from the scene. In July, NASA and FBI agents arrested Tiffany Fowler, Gordon McWhorter and Thad Roberts at a restaurant in Florida, on suspicion of stealing the safe. Shai Lin Sauer, who is suspected of complicity in the crime, was arrested at the same time in Houston.
Roberts, a physics student at the University of Utah who aspired to be an astronaut, pleaded guilty to charges of attempted conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transfer of stolen property, along with Fowler and Sauer. McWhorter, who did not work at NASA, is an acquaintance of Roberts, and his trial is scheduled to begin in January, 2003.
The maximum penalty for conspiracy to commit theft of government property is five years, while the offense of transferring stolen property between states can carry up to 10 years in prison, said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the Orlando attorney general's office. The sentence is expected to be handed down on March 7, 2003.
The FBI discovered the theft following a May 24 ad on the website of the Antwerp Mineralogy Club earlier this year. The ad, titled "For Sale: Rare Moon Stones," offered between $1,000 and $5,000 for one gram of lunar soil.
An undercover agent posing as a potential buyer began to correspond by e-mail with one of the suspects, who claimed to have the world's largest private collection of Apollo stones (samples collected on the moon between 1969 and 1972 by the astronaut crews of the "Apollo" spacecraft).
The two agreed on the price to be paid for the samples: $300 per gram, and arranged to meet at a restaurant in Orlando. During the meeting, the students described how they stole the safe from the NASA facility. Following the confession, FBI agents arrested the three.
