IN A crime disconcertingly similar to the one committed in East London just over a year ago, the meteorite Mafia has struck again, this time in Queensland, Australia.
Truth be told, we are not sure whether there really is such an organisation, but let me lay out the facts of these and other similar cases and see if you can come up with a better explanation.
In the latest incident, last Monday, a space rock about the size of a soccer ball was stolen from a museum in Athertown, Australia.
Police say two men wearing hooded jumpers and white masks broke into the Crystal Caves museum and removed the 11.25kg space rock, reportedly worth more than A$16000 (R153000).
To find out who might be behind this deed, investigators should be looking for an oddball character who is willing to pay big bucks for something that is nothing more than an old piece of stone.
The theft in East London happened just over a year ago. According to the Daily Dispatch (March 27) the thieves stole the local museum’s entire meteorite collection with an estimated value of more than R1-million.
The largest of the seven meteorites stolen from the East London Museum weighs 20kg.
In both cases, the criminals seem not to have been random opportunists looking for a quick hit.
They knew exactly what they wanted and where to get it.
They ignored all other exhibits that were potentially more valuable and went directly for the space rocks.
Police believe an eccentric collector must have masterminded the museum burglaries because only a collector would value such items. The space rocks, estimated to be between 4.5 and five billion years old, have no intrinsic value as they are composed mostly of iron and nickel.
Meteorites are rare enough so that experts or non-criminal collectors can identify each one.
They are not like diamonds or other minerals that can easily be fenced or internationally traded.
Can you imagine explaining to a customs officer why you are carrying a 20kg rock in your personal luggage?
And surely someone would notice if you put it up for sale on eBay.
The burglaries are particularly strange when you consider that most people collect objects as a way of scoring bragging rights.
They show off their collections to others who have the same interests. Surely having a rock that is older than Earth itself is something to boast about, but not if it is stolen. Meteorite collectors, both crooked and straight, know which rocks have been stolen and which have not.
Criminal meteorite collectors are surely operating in a very small niche market. But it exists nevertheless.
In February this year, an Argentinean newspaper reported that a meteorite and a fossil fish were stolen from the Natural History Augusto Schulz Museum in Chaco. Police found fingerprints of two individuals but were not able to make any arrests.
In the Netherlands, meteorite mayhem erupted when a rare space rock was reported missing from the Sonnenborgh Museum and Observatory in Utrecht in August last year. It was one of only five meteorites to have ever been found in the Netherlands.
But things took a strange turn a few days later when it was found – broken in pieces, in a bag left in some bushes alongside a tennis court.
Getting their space rocks off?
Truth be told, we are not sure whether there really is such an organisation, but let me lay out the facts of these and other similar cases and see if you can come up with a better explanation.
In the latest incident, last Monday, a space rock about the size of a soccer ball was stolen from a museum in Athertown, Australia.
Police say two men wearing hooded jumpers and white masks broke into the Crystal Caves museum and removed the 11.25kg space rock, reportedly worth more than A$16000 (R153000).
To find out who might be behind this deed, investigators should be looking for an oddball character who is willing to pay big bucks for something that is nothing more than an old piece of stone.
The theft in East London happened just over a year ago. According to the Daily Dispatch (March 27) the thieves stole the local museum’s entire meteorite collection with an estimated value of more than R1-million.
The largest of the seven meteorites stolen from the East London Museum weighs 20kg.
In both cases, the criminals seem not to have been random opportunists looking for a quick hit.
They knew exactly what they wanted and where to get it.
They ignored all other exhibits that were potentially more valuable and went directly for the space rocks.
Police believe an eccentric collector must have masterminded the museum burglaries because only a collector would value such items. The space rocks, estimated to be between 4.5 and five billion years old, have no intrinsic value as they are composed mostly of iron and nickel.
Meteorites are rare enough so that experts or non-criminal collectors can identify each one.
They are not like diamonds or other minerals that can easily be fenced or internationally traded.
Can you imagine explaining to a customs officer why you are carrying a 20kg rock in your personal luggage?
And surely someone would notice if you put it up for sale on eBay.
The burglaries are particularly strange when you consider that most people collect objects as a way of scoring bragging rights.
They show off their collections to others who have the same interests. Surely having a rock that is older than Earth itself is something to boast about, but not if it is stolen. Meteorite collectors, both crooked and straight, know which rocks have been stolen and which have not.
Criminal meteorite collectors are surely operating in a very small niche market. But it exists nevertheless.
In February this year, an Argentinean newspaper reported that a meteorite and a fossil fish were stolen from the Natural History Augusto Schulz Museum in Chaco. Police found fingerprints of two individuals but were not able to make any arrests.
In the Netherlands, meteorite mayhem erupted when a rare space rock was reported missing from the Sonnenborgh Museum and Observatory in Utrecht in August last year. It was one of only five meteorites to have ever been found in the Netherlands.
But things took a strange turn a few days later when it was found – broken in pieces, in a bag left in some bushes alongside a tennis court.
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