[meteorite-list] NPA, Chicago Tribune April 23, 2003; Park Forest, Winslow Dr.

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Chicago Tribune
City: Chicago, Illinoise
Date: April 23, 2003


By Joseph Sjostrom Tribune staff reporter
A meteorite that crashed through the atmosphere to land on a Park Forest 
street and bounce into a yard on Winslow Drive was sold by the homeowner to 
an Arizona dealer, but is coming back to the village after police demanded 
its return.

The 116-gram meteorite, carved from one that weighed 180 grams, is being 
relinquished by Michael Farmer of Tucson, a globe-trotting meteorite dealer, 
who says he resented the implication of police that the rock was stolen.

"It would be worth fighting over, but I don't have time for that," Farmer 
said Tuesday. "I'm leaving for South America tomorrow morning. I'm going to 
Africa next week."

Police say it was all a big misunderstanding. Farmer does not expect to be 
reimbursed, and police say there are no plans to offer him compensation. The 
dealer wouldn't disclose what he paid, but said on average he spent $5 to 
$12 per gram for meteorites that fell on Park Forest and other south suburbs 
on March 27.

It's not clear exactly what the village plans to do with the meteorite. 
Village Manager Janet Muchnik said the hope was it would be displayed with 
the 1.2-pound meteorite the village sold last week to a consortium of 
institutions including Chicago's Field Museum, the Adler Planetarium and the 
University of Chicago. The price for the rock that punched a hole in the 
village fire station was $5,448, or $10 a gram.

The saga began when a meteor described as "the size of a Volkswagen" entered 
Earth's atmosphere in a spectacular display of light and sound over the 
south suburbs. It broke into thousands of smaller pieces and rained onto 
streets and yards in Park Forest, Matteson and Olympia Fields with at least 
five pieces crashing through roofs of four homes and the Park Forest fire 
station.

Farmer, who has made a living buying and selling meteorites for the last 
seven years, was on an airplane to Chicago the next day, and spent the next 
two weeks buying pieces of the meteorite from residents who found them 
outside and inside their homes.

Farmer said he spent about $40,000, paying premium prices in some cases 
because that's what finders demanded and because his customers will pay more 
for a meteorite with a documented story behind it.

"They were worth more money because some of them hit houses, some of them 
hit cars," he said, and because the meteorite's entry to Earth was such a 
widely witnessed and reported event.

Several days after returning home, Farmer said he received a phone call from 
Capt. Francis DioGuardi of the Park Forest police who contended Farmer had 
bought a stolen meteorite. Farmer said DioGuardi didn't threaten specific 
civil or criminal action but implied the consequences would be severe if he 
kept the rock.

"He said, `We're treating this as stolen property' and `We're ready to take 
this to the next step,'" Farmer said.

The dealer bought the rock from a resident who found it and several others 
on his property on Winslow Drive in Park Forest and turned them over to 
police--as did many other finders--for temporary safekeeping. The resident 
retrieved it from the police and sold it, Farmer said.

Farmer said DioGuardi told him the rock rightfully belonged to the village 
because it had landed on the street before bouncing onto the homeowner's 
property, where it hit the man's house and damaged the siding.

DioGuardi said Tuesday that no threats of legal action were made or implied 
and no accusations of trafficking in stolen goods were made against Farmer. 
He also said police recovered the rock from the street and inadvertently 
gave it to the Winslow Avenue homeowner, who sold it to Farmer. The dealer 
said police agreed to let him cut the rock into two pieces of 116 grams and 
64 grams, polish the cut side on the larger one and return that one to Park 
Forest. He said he expects to ship the rock in several days.

"I'm happy to let the village have it," he said.



Chicago Tribune
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