|
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 one
Had 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 two
Scoured 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
|
