[meteorite-list] Park Forest - The Pulling of Teeth Part I

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From: magellon <magellon_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:00 2004
Message-ID: <3E8A09F2.C5A31D80_at_earthlink.net>

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Adam,
What a great report!
Who are the three museum professionals?
Thanks for sharing.
ken newton

Adam Hupe wrote:

> Dear List Members, Wow, lots of emails concerning the new Chicago
> fall. I was going to try to get back into the meteorite scene slowly
> but could not resist the temptation of a new fall and was thrust back
> into the fire. Al Lang and I decided to leave Park Forest yesterday
> because the feeding frenzy and greed was getting to be too much. Here
> is a long rundown of some of our experiences in case anybody is
> interested. Day oneHad a deal on the only oriented stone we observed
> the entire time we were there and had a museum director destroy our
> deal by telling the seller not to sell to us until the museum had a
> chance to make an offer on it first. The seller was then encouraged
> to donate the stone for a write-off. Most of these people are not in
> a position to take advantage of a tax write off because they are in
> the lowest income bracket. A donor can only write-off expenses
> incurred so basically they were giving these stones away free or they
> will unknowingly break the law if they try to write them off at $15.00
> a gram. This shows blatant disrespect and abuse of perceived power.
> I am so disgusted in these three professionals that I will discourage
> any donations of material to their respective institutions unless they
> are reprimanded. On the positive side meteorite dealers and
> collectors behaved themselves for the most part in a much more
> professional manner. We were at the police station when we heard a
> gunshot fired around the corner at about 7:00 p.m. prompting us to
> leave the area and find a hotel. Purchased very little material at the
> initial $1.00 a gram price because we only wanted the best stones, we
> observed about 40 kilograms found in less than 10 hours and thought
> hundreds of kilos would show up by the next day. Day twoScoured the
> neighborhood for deals but the word was spread on the news not to sell
> to meteorite dealers who were there to take advantage of the finders.
> A new street price was established at $3.00 a gram because this is
> what a museum was offering. We purchased a single stone at this
> price. Went searching for meteorites and found a 24 gram specimen
> laying between a curb and a sidewalk. An old woman observed me
> picking it up and accused me of stealing it. Then she called me a
> hippie freak (I don't even have long hair) and told me she saw me pick
> up the stone from a yard. She went on to tell me that her part of the
> neighborhood did not like strangers poking around. She also mentioned
> that she heard about us "meteor people" on the news and knew we were
> up to no good. A small crowd was beginning to gather so I walked
> quickly back to the car. Our group, now consisting of four members
> decided it was time to go somewhere else to search so we left. We had
> to drive by her house on the way out and the next thing she did was
> chase us in her car. It took about 20 blocks and three turns to shake
> her. I am sure she wrote down our license plate number and reported
> the supposed theft to the police. We were given permission by the
> city to check the areas between the sidewalks and curbs. That night
> somebody was ran over by a car three times in front of our hotel. We
> saw all the police cars and ambulances but did not know what had
> happened until the next morning when we found out the person had been
> killed. See next posting for part II All the Best, Adam Hupe

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Adam,
 What a great report!
 Who are the three museum professionals?
 Thanks for sharing.
 ken newton
  
Adam Hupe wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style>
Dear
List Members, Wow,
lots of emails concerning the new Chicago fall.  I was going to try
to get back into the meteorite scene slowly but could not resist the temptation
of a new fall and was thrust back into the fire.  Al Lang and I decided
to leave Park Forest yesterday because the feeding frenzy and greed was
getting to be too much. Here
is a long rundown of some of our experiences in case anybody is interested. Day
oneHad a deal on the only
oriented stone we observed the entire time we were there and had a museum
director destroy our deal by telling the seller not to sell to us until
the museum had a chance to make an offer on it first.  The seller
was then encouraged to donate the stone for a write-off.  Most of
these people are not in a position to take advantage of a tax write off
because they are in the lowest income bracket.  A donor can only write-off
expenses incurred so basically they were giving these stones away free
or they will unknowingly break the law if they try to write them off at
$15.00 a gram.  This shows blatant disrespect and abuse of perceived
power.  I am so disgusted in these three professionals that I will
discourage any donations of material to their respective institutions unless
they are reprimanded.  On the positive side meteorite dealers and
collectors behaved themselves for the most part in a much more professional
manner. We were at
the police station when we heard a gunshot fired around the corner at about
7:00 p.m. prompting us to leave the area and find a hotel. Purchased
very little material at the initial $1.00 a gram price because we only
wanted the best stones, we observed about 40 kilograms found in less than
10 hours and thought hundreds of kilos would show up by the next day. Day
twoScoured the neighborhood
for deals but the word was spread on the news not to sell to meteorite
dealers who were there to take advantage of the finders.  A new street
price was established at $3.00 a gram because this is what a museum was
offering.  We purchased a single stone at this price. Went
searching for meteorites and found a 24 gram specimen laying between a
curb and a sidewalk.  An old woman observed me picking it up and accused
me of stealing it.  Then she called me a hippie freak (I don't even
have long hair) and told me she saw me pick up the stone from a yard. 
She went on to tell me that her part of the neighborhood did not like strangers
poking around.  She also mentioned that she heard about us "meteor
people" on the news and knew we were up to no good.  A small crowd
was beginning to gather so I walked quickly back to the car.  Our
group, now consisting of four members decided it was time to go somewhere
else to search so we left.  We had to drive by her house on the way
out and the next thing she did was chase us in her car.  It took about
20 blocks and three turns to shake her.  I am sure she wrote down
our license plate number and reported the supposed theft to the police. 
We were given permission by the city to check the areas between the sidewalks
and curbs. That night
somebody was ran over by a car three times in front of our hotel. 
We saw all the police cars and ambulances but did not know what had happened
until the next morning when we found out the person had been killed. See
next posting for part II All
the Best, Adam Hupe  </blockquote>

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Received on Tue 01 Apr 2003 04:51:47 PM PST

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