Thad Roberts has already pleaded guilty to stealing Moon rocks from NASA. He is also being investigated for stealing from the Utah Museum of Natural History.
----------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.museum-security.org/02/105.html#2 Historical artifacts (university property) found in student's home By Laura Hancock Desert News August 2002 A University of Utah physics student charged in an alleged conspiracy to sell NASA moon rocks is now being investigated in connection with Utah Museum of Natural History artifacts and equipment that were found in his apartment. University police returned to the museum three trays of fossils, including a pine cone and a trilobite, a hard-shelled creature that was one of the first arthropods on Earth. It dates back about 300 million years. They also returned about a dozen gems, a two-way radio and a global positioning satellite device belonging to the museum, university police detective Mike McPharlin said. Thad Ryan Roberts, 25, was arrested by the FBI July 20 with two other students. They are accused of arranging with a fourth person to sell moon rocks brought back by Apollo missions. Roberts was working at the Johnson Space Center in Houston before the arrest. The rocks, in a 600-pound safe, were discovered missing from NASA July 15 and were later recovered. Federal prosecutors charged Roberts with conspiracy to commit theft of government property and transportation in interstate commerce of stolen property, an FBI statement said. Roberts and three other suspects in the moon rocks case have posted bail, federal authorities said. U. police were unavailable Friday for a comment on Roberts whereabouts. Shortly after the arrest, Roberts' wife contacted the FBI with information about artifacts and equipment in their university-area apartment, McPharlin said. Roberts and his wife enjoyed collecting rocks, and some items in the apartment legitimately belonged to them. "But there were some things she wasn't certain about," McPharlin said. "She has been very cooperative and helpful in finding stuff all over the apartment," McPharlin said. He said the department is in the preliminary stages of an investigation into how the items ended up in Roberts' apartment. Sarah George, director of the Utah Museum of Natural History, said Roberts was an unpaid intern who received college credit for researching and cataloging items. He has worked at the museum on and off since January 2000, usually taking summers off to work for NASA. "I met him a number of times. He was a nice young man," George said. Museum officials had not noticed anything missing, except for the GPS device, until police detectives told them of the investigation. They took inventory of the collection and determined there were items missing, and they matched those found by police, George said. Museum officials did not notice the artifacts missing sooner because there are more than 1 million items in the collection, and less than one- tenth are on display, George said. "So we don't check them constantly. Everything catalogued is placed in its appropriate place. When we need an object we go to its appropriate place," she said. The artifacts come from Utah and around the world. It is difficult to estimate the value because the gems were returned without their tags. Not all gems have been identified, and it is unknown if they are rare. "The ones we've seen are lovely," George said. "We are really grateful we're able to get these things back." ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
