[meteorite-list] Peru insanity continues

[Darren Garrison]

This whole situation started as a drama, turned into a comedy, and ended up a
farce.

http://www.livinginperu.com/news-4953-environmentnature-villagers-puno-peru-guard-meteorite-keep-scientists-from-studying-area

Villagers in Puno, Peru Guard Meteorite and Keep Scientists from Studying the
Area

(LIP-ir) -- Regional Geology Director for Peru's Geological, Mining and
Metallurgical Institute (INGEMMET), Hernando Núñez del Prado, stated yesterday
that the townspeople of Carancas, Puno, Peru were suffering from "a type of
collective psychosis" due to the fact that they had established a 24-hour watch
around the crater where the meteorite  had landed.

Núñez explained that the townspeople were treating the crater as a "treasure
which had to be protected day and night," explaining that they feared losing
fragments of the meteorite. 

Núñez affirmed that this behavior was only getting in the way of scientists
which were attempting to study the meteorite.

Furthermore, it was reported that a group of townspeople kept INGEMMET
scientists which had traveled to Carancas from getting close to the crater and
studying it. Núñez also stated that a group from Peru's Geophysics Institute
(IGP) was also kept from doing research in the area.

Núñez assured that the townspeople's behavior was due to the fact that the
'meteorite hunter' Michael Farmer, who was in Carancas, Peru and bought pieces
of the meteorite, had told the people that they had one million dollars in the
crater.

It was reported that Farmer paid villagers US$1000 for 300 grams of the
meteorite. Since then, 400 locals have organized themselves into two groups
which guard the crater day and night. Núñez has stated that the situation in
Puno, Peru is "very tense."