[meteorite-list] Park Forest Winslow St., Diana Kasco (Homeowner) Letter

[MARK BOSTICK]

Mark Bostick note: The following was typed by Winslow homeowner, Diana 
Kasco. Letter is not edited.

Park Forest Fall

We were jarred awake bye our 19 year old son saying "You have to wake up the 
police and the fire department are here!" Well my first thought was oh no 
what did you do? Then he said a meteorite hit the house and jeep. I thought 
he lost his mind at that point. Sure enough we got up went outside fire 
trucks and police cars everywhere. There were two larger "rocks" on the 
banister of our porch which Chris found while trying to figure out what hit 
the house. Then we say many smaller pieces on the porch, driveway and 
street. Office Doyle was on his radio calling back to the station asking 
what should he do. He was told to bring the pieces into the police 
department. I went in the house and got some paper grocery bags and we began 
picking up "rocks". At this point no one was sure if they were dangerous yet 
we were picking them up with our bare hands. There was speculation perhaps 
the nuclear power plant had been attacked by terrorists. The fire department 
had checked to see if they were radioactive. There were not. We were 
gathering rocks for a good 15 to 20 minutes. Finally the police left to 
investigate other reports of damage including the Park Forest Fire 
Department. They hadn't had a chance to check out their own damage because 
of the calls from panicked residents."

Then came the first knock on the door. A very nice man named Jim, he asked 
if a lot of people had been here to actually see and talk to us about the 
meteorite fall. Once again I thought he was crazy...I 
said...ummmm...no....he said oh they will it is just a matter of time. I 
showed him the impact site in the street and the damage to the house and the 
jeep and showed him some of the smaller pieces of the meteorite Dale had 
picked up before going to work, He was very excited about the whole thing 
and kept asking me if I knew how big this was. While he was here another car 
came with a husband and wife...and it grew from that point, people came from 
all over the area news crews and lots of people walking around hoping to 
find a piece of the meteorite.

At first it was exciting so many people talking about all the statistics of 
past meteorite falls. And that such a populated area had never been hit like 
this. People began to show up from other states and eventually other 
countries. I couldn't believe it. And many of them knew one another. Like I 
said at first it was exciting, then it got to the point that some of them 
felt like they were vultures. This went on for a couple of days.

The police had still not released the meteorites back to us. They had people 
from museums in to look at the meteorites and news crews shot footage of the 
collection. They had lots of reporters asking questions. I was all exciting 
for our small village to be the spotlight for such a positive event. Finally 
theu announced that we could come get our meteorites. The people in my yard 
knew this before I did. So when I went to leave people were asking if I was 
going to sell them and asking for first pick. It felt strange to drive off 
with all the people in my yard but this has been going on for several days 
at this point I was getting use to it. I went to the police station and I 
could see right away there were not as many as they had collected from us on 
the night of the fall. I told them that we had a lot more meteorites than 
that. And they said well the officer that divided them up wasn't there at 
the time I could either take what was there or leave them and come back 
later. I took what was there thinking that it was an honest mistake. After 
all this type of situation had never occurred before.

So I took our rocks home and felt like I was carrying gold or something I 
cannot even explain how strange this was. Anyway I told all the people in 
the yard that they would have to talk to my husband about purchasing.  Dale 
generously fave the 2 largest meteorites to our son to sell.  As he was out 
or work and unable to walk because of a car accident in January.  And he 
gave several smaller ones to our daughter Bree which she sold and paid her 
house payment and some other bills.  The next few days were a whirlwind of 
activity with people int he street and bringing out scales to weigh the 
meteorites and people bidding different prices and many just being 
spectators.  I sold a few smaller pieces and got money for much needed 
prescriptions.  Who knoew that there are people that go all over the world 
to buy rocks! We certainly didn't.

About 2 days later I got a call from the police department wanting to come 
by and talk with me.  I said sure come over.  Now silly me 
thought...hmmm...they are going to me the rest of my rocks!  That was far 
from the case.  The chief of police himself came to my house and said well 
there has been a mistake made.  I am thinking how honorable for them to 
admit that and come here to bring me my rocks.  He said we gave you more 
than we should have because some of those were picked up on the street which 
would make them village property.  He went on to describe in detail a 
specific rock, rather flat and small compared to our larger pieces and half 
what and half black.  I told him I didn't even see rock that looked like 
that.  He asked who we had sold to and I told him Mike Farmer.  He than 
proceeded to tell me that they would pursue this, as stolen property and 
perhaps bring charges against us or a cival lawsuit.  I was in shock.  #1 
because they thought I was not being truthful #2 because they did us wrong 
by not returning all of the rocks they took from us and #3 all of this 
trouble because of some rocks.

They proceeded to track down Mike Farmer.  All of this was reported to the 
press by the police department.  When questioned by the reporters Mike 
Farmers story and ours was exactly the same as far as threated made by the 
police department.  Which the police department later denied.  It went on 
for a long time finally Mike agreed to send back part of one of the rocks we 
had sold him.  When the police received the rock they told us ti wasn't the 
rock they were looking for.  I asked so are you going to return it to Mike 
who bought it?  They said no they were keeping it to display at area 
schools. Finally it was all over when we proved with dated pichtres on our 
digital camera the 2 ocks we sold to Mike and neither of them was the rock 
the police wanted.  The police did apologize to me and my husband in private 
and wrote a letter saying they had no claim on any meteorites or propoerty 
damaged by the meteorite.



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