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NASA wants grandma's moonrock

MJ LEE |

A 74-year-old grandmother who was the target of a NASA sting operation to uncover a piece of lunar dust said the incident was so frightening that she lost control of her bladder and was left with bruises from rough handling by federal agents.

In an Associated Press exclusive, Joanna Davis said the moon rock – which the wire says is smaller than a grain of rice – was given to her husband by Neil Armstrong in the 1970s, and she was trying to sell the item to take care of her sick son.

“The rock in demand is reportedly smaller than a grain of rice. | AP Photo

It’s a very upsetting thing,” Davis told the wire. “It’s very detrimental, very humiliating, all of it a lie.”

Davis reportedly wrote to a NASA contractor in May in an attempt to sell the rock. “I’ve been searching the internet for months attempting to find a buyer,” she said in an email. “If you have any thoughts as to how I can proceed with the sale of these two items, please call.”

She later told a NASA agent that she wanted to sell the lunar rock for “big money underground,” and reached a deal to sell the piece of dust for $1.7 million, the AP said.

Davis and her current husband met with Norman Conley, an agent for the inspector general, at Denny’s restaurant in Riverside County, Calif., as a part of the sting operation. When she took out the moon sample, Davis said she was forced out into the parking lot and questioned and detained for two hours.

“They grabbed me and pulled me out of the booth,” Davis told the AP. “I had very, very deep bruises on my left side.”

Davis’s attorney called the incident “abhorrent behavior by the federal government to steal something from a retiree that was given to her,” the wire said.

Rene Juhans, NASA Inspector General Executive Officer, told POLITICO her office did not have any comments regarding the AP’s story.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66694.html#ixzz1bo8bJMCB

OCt. 24, 2011

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