[meteorite-list] Meteorite Man Arrested Again (Gibeon Meteorite)
From: James_TOM Knudson <peregrineflier_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:13 2004 Message-ID: <F286v4MSFPWDR8BrZZa00007f78_at_hotmail.com> <html><div style='background-color:'><DIV> <P>This article gives us "good guys" A bad name!!!! I wish selfish people would think of the rest of us.<BR><BR></P></DIV> <DIV></DIV><BR><BR><BR> <DIV></DIV> <DIV>Thanks, Tom</DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV>>From: Ron Baalke <BAALKE_at_ZAGAMI.JPL.NASA.GOV> <DIV></DIV>>To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com (Meteorite Mailing List) <DIV></DIV>>Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Man Arrested Again (Gibeon Meteorite) <DIV></DIV>>Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 09:19:54 -0700 (PDT) <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>http://www.namibian.com.na/2002/august/news/027A5E63D9.html <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>'Meteorite man' arrested again <DIV></DIV>>WERNER MENGES <DIV></DIV>>The Namibian <DIV></DIV>>August 13, 2002 <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>A WINDHOEK resident who was arrested last year after a stolen <DIV></DIV>>meteorite was allegedly found in his possession is back in Police <DIV></DIV>>custody, again on charges related to the rare and sought after space <DIV></DIV>>objects. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Members of the Police's Protected Resources Unit arrested Walter <DIV></DIV>>Horst (58) on Friday, after a crate he was trying to send to <DIV></DIV>>Johannesburg was opened at a courier company's premises and found to <DIV></DIV>>contain four meteorites. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Namibian meteorites are protected by law, and may not be removed <DIV></DIV>>from where they are found or taken out of the country without a <DIV></DIV>>permit. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>A lucrative trade appears to be flourishing in these rare objects <DIV></DIV>>which rained out of space - there are numerous web sites which offer <DIV></DIV>>Namibian meteorites for sale. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Dr Gabi Schneider, Director of the Geological Survey and Vice <DIV></DIV>>Chairperson of the Monuments Council of Namibia, said yesterday that <DIV></DIV>>while the illegal export and trade in Namibia's meteorites had <DIV></DIV>>become a major problem in the past 10 years, the extent of the <DIV></DIV>>damage to Namibia's natural heritage remained difficult to assess. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>However, a survey of the numerous web sites on the internet where <DIV></DIV>>Namibian meteorites are offered for sale indicates that a large <DIV></DIV>>number have already been taken out of the country, she said. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Namibia is home to the world's largest meteorite - at Hoba near <DIV></DIV>>Grootfontein, and is also the site of the largest meteorite shower, <DIV></DIV>>which came down in the Gibeon area thousands of years ago. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Schneider said it appears from the thefts of meteorites in recent <DIV></DIV>>years that meteorite smugglers have been adapting their tactics, <DIV></DIV>>possibly because the objects are no longer so easily found in the <DIV></DIV>>areas where they landed. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Two meteorites were stolen from the Geological Survey's museum in <DIV></DIV>>Windhoek at the end of last year, another vanished from there a year <DIV></DIV>>earlier, one was stolen from the Post Street Mall meteorite display <DIV></DIV>>in Windhoek last year, and before that one was stolen from the <DIV></DIV>>Monuments Council. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>The communities in whose home areas the meteorites are found are the <DIV></DIV>>major losers in the illegal trade, said Schneider. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>While foreign meteorite dealers ask - and readily receive - <DIV></DIV>>astronomical prices for Namibian meteorites, most of which come from <DIV></DIV>>the Gibeon area, communities for the most part earn a pittance from <DIV></DIV>>selling the meteorites to dealers and their middlemen, she said. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>On the sites offering Gibeon meteorites, the prices vary from US$1 <DIV></DIV>>per gram for small objects, to some US$1 400 (N$14 500) for a <DIV></DIV>>seven-and-a-half kilogram object. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Another web site advertises a Gibeon meteorite of some 2,5 kg for <DIV></DIV>>sale for US$975 (about N$10 000), while yet another states that <DIV></DIV>>Gibeon meteorites, weighing some 103 kg and 105 kg, had been sold <DIV></DIV>>for US$50 000 and US$75 000 respectively. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>The meteorites which Horst allegedly tried to send out of the <DIV></DIV>>country weighed 181 kg. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Horst had been free on N$10 000 bail on two other charges - one of <DIV></DIV>>illegally possessing a rhino horn, and one of receiving stolen goods <DIV></DIV>>in the form of another meteorite weighing some 296 kg - when he was <DIV></DIV>>arrested last week. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>He was held on those charges in September last year, after the <DIV></DIV>>meteorite stolen from a display in Post Street Mall in the capital <DIV></DIV>>allegedly found its way into his hands. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Horst appeared before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs in the Windhoek <DIV></DIV>>Magistrate's Court yesterday on a charge of the illegal removal and <DIV></DIV>>export of meteorites. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>He was told that he is to remain in custody. His defence lawyer, <DIV></DIV>>Kobus Potgieter, told the court that a formal bail application will <DIV></DIV>>be brought on Thursday. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>______________________________________________ <DIV></DIV>>Meteorite-list mailing list <DIV></DIV>>Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com <DIV></DIV>>http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list <DIV></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: <a href='http://g.msn.com/1HM1ENUS/c152??PI=44364'>Click Here</a><br></html> Received on Tue 13 Aug 2002 01:28:05 PM PDT |
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