NASA moon rock sting leaves grandmother terrified

[The Annoyed Man]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-201 ... terrified/

(AP) LOS ANGELES - The elaborate mission to recover a moon rock led NASA agents to one of the most down-to-earth places: a Denny's restaurant in Riverside County.
But at the end of the sting operation, agents were left holding a speck of lunar dust smaller than a grain of rice and a 74-year-old suspect who was terrified by armed officials. Five months after NASA investigators and local agents swooped into the restaurant and hailed their operation as a cautionary tale for anyone trying to sell national treasure, no charges have been filed, NASA isn't talking and the case appears stalled.

The target, Joann Davis, a grandmother who says she was trying to raise money for her sick son, asserts the lunar material was rightfully hers, having been given to her space-engineer husband by Neil Armstrong in the 1970s.

"It's a very upsetting thing," Davis told The Associated Press. "It's very detrimental, very humiliating, all of it a lie."

{snip}

When officers in flack vests took a hold of her, the 4-foot-11 woman said she was so scared she lost control of her bladder and was taken outside to a parking lot, where she was questioned and detained for about two hours.

Bruises left after arrest

"They grabbed me and pulled me out of the booth," Davis claimed. "I had very, very deep bruises on my left side."

Our government dollars at work.

[mamabearCali]

You know there really needs to be some comeuppance for abuses of power such as this. When authorities injure/terrorize common citizens with no cause whatsoever there needs to be consequences for their actions, they should not be above the law. She was not an armed and dangerous felon, she was a grandma that was trying to sell something that she had been given. There was 0 need to manhandle her.

[philip964]

I think they don't have enough to do. Hunting real criminals also involves risk as apposed to hunting the elderly.

Apparently someone whose job it was to clean out the space capsules decided on his own to use scotch tape rather than a vacuum cleaner. So he carefully removed all the moon dust from inside the capsule this way. He took the tape and gave it out to people at NASA and his friends. For many years the tape was sold "on the black market" by the inch of tape.

[bilgerat57]

Are you absolutely sure that BATFE isn't working for NASA now? This certainly sounds like one of their projects to me........

[Heartland Patriot]

Are you absolutely sure that BATFE isn't working for NASA now? This certainly sounds like one of their projects to me........

Sounds just like the sort of thing they are known for...busting people over the tiniest little thing. And no one was ever in danger, either.

[VoiceofReason]

You know there really needs to be some comeuppance for abuses of power such as this. When authorities injure/terrorize common citizens with no cause whatsoever there needs to be consequences for their actions, they should not be above the law. She was not an armed and dangerous felon, she was a grandma that was trying to sell something that she had been given. There was 0 need to manhandle her.

I imagine there are lawyers lining up to sue for her. She should also sue the officer personally.

[txjim42]

Department of Fraud, Waste and Abuse by any other name... Bunch of overpaid, underworked, gubmint special program 1811's taking yet another small step for mankind. Hopefully Granny gets even more money from the lawsuits than she would've from her pet rock...

[Purplehood]

I am just happy to know that our government is making sure that they clamp-down on the trafficing of Moon-rocks in this nation.

We can't allow this type of flagrant violations of the law to continue.

[PappaGun]

Remember when the first moon missions were launched?

I don't recall how long they isolated the astronauts or the rocks not knowing how infectious or dangerous they might be.

And now we have little old ladies selling moon dust in restaurants.

If this weren't such an abuse of her and power there might be some humor in this.

I hope she gets her piece of the moon back

I hope she gets more than it's worth out of a settlement.

I hope she finally sells it for a tidy profit.