Most of the time when we think of police stings, we think of some major drug bust that nets millions of dollars in narcotics and takes an evil drug lord off the streets.
But a sting held at a Denny’s restaurant in Lake Elsinore, California brought in a rogue grandmother trying to sell a moon rock that’s barely the size of a grain of rice.
Joan Davis was trying to sell the lunar souvenir in order to help take care of her ill son and to leave an inheritance for her grandchildren. The 73-year-old woman came into possession of the tiny rock as part of her husband’s estate. Both she and her husband were employees at NASA, and she claims he received the moon rock as a gift from astronaut Neil Armstrong during the 1970s. I wonder if there’s any footage of Armstrong picking up this particular rock in the long-lost moon walk footage found in Australia.
All lunar materials are considered government property and thus it is illegal to sell them.
Davis tried to sell the rock online, but without finding a buyer then contacted NASA and offered to sell the rock back to the government agency. NASA set up the sting by offering to buy the fragment and scheduled the “Grand Slam” meeting at Denny’s. Once Davis put the moon rock on the table, a half dozen officers swooped in and jerked the tiny 4-11 grandma out of the booth and questioned her for two hours in the parking lot.
NASA gave moon rocks to all 50 states and 130 foreign countries back in the 1970s. Just like the entire moon during a lunar eclipse, some of those rocks have disappeared. The moon rock given to Colorado was missing for a time before it was found at the home of a former governor.
While NASA is worried about things they brought back from the moon, I wonder if they think very much about the original Warhol art they left behind on the moon.