Posted on 10/29/2003 1:42:16 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The last of four people convicted of stealing moon rocks out of a 600-pound safe inside a lab at Houston's Johnson Space Center received his sentence Wednesday, according to Local 6 News.
Thad Roberts, 26, who pleaded guilty to stealing the space rocks, which have been valued at between $2.5 million and $7 million, will spend the next eight years and four months in prison. The sentence will be followed by three years on a supervised release program.
In court, Roberts said he was ashamed and apologized to NASA for "abusing the trust he had with co-workers there."
His attorney said they will likely appeal the sentence.
The value of the moon rocks, which came from every Apollo mission from 1969 to 1972, was based upon what it cost the U.S. government to go get them back in the 1960s and 1970s. The U.S. District Court in Orlando determined that, in 1962-1973 dollars, it cost $50,800 per gram to collect the lunar samples, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.
The government recovered 101.5 grams of stolen rock. So the value assigned to the rocks was set at $5.1 million.
The co-conspirators apparently were trying to sell the rocks on the Internet for between $1,000 and $10,000 per gram.
The FBI in Tampa began investigating the moon rock theft in May 2002 after being tipped off by a Belgian investor.
In a fax sent to potential investors, Roberts boasted that he was offering the "world's largest private" and only "verifiable" Apollo rock collection. The fax went to an undercover agent he thought was a potential buyer.
Roberts' co-conspirators and fellow interns Gordon Sean McWhorter, Tiffany Fowler and Shae Sauer have all been convicted. McWhorter was sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail, while Fowler and Sauer were sentenced to 180 days house arrest and ordered to pay more than $9,000 restitution to the space agency.
The last of four people convicted of stealing moon rocks out of a 600-pound safe inside a lab
Why is the weight of the safe relevant to this story?
There are a lot of good people who would have given a limb for the oportunity to work at NASA. And this is what he did with it?! Aaaarrrrggggggghhhh!
This is stupid. More taxpayer money down the drain.
;^)
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