California- 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.”
The case was triggered by Davis herself, according to a search warrant affidavit written by Norman Conley, an agent for the inspector general. She emailed a NASA contractor May 10 trying to find a buyer for the rock, as well as a nickel-sized piece of the heat shield that protected the Apollo 11 space capsule as it returned to earth from the first successful manned mission to the moon in 1969. "I've been searching the internet for months attempting to find a buyer," Davis wrote. "If you have any thoughts as to how I can proceed with the sale of these two items, please call."
In follow-up phone conversations with a NASA agent, Davis acknowledged the rock was not sellable on the open market and fretted about an agent knocking on her door and taking the material, which she was willing to sell for "big money underground." "She must know that this is a questionable transaction because she used the term `black market,'" Agent Conley states in the search warrant.
Curiously, though, Davis agreed to sell the sample to NASA for a stellar $1.7 million. She said she wanted to leave her three children an inheritance and take care of her sick son.
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.
Only a professional and someone with years of experience dabbling in the "black market" could come up with a figure like $1.7 million off the top of her head. You don't just ballpark the price of your speck of moondust and guesstimate, "Meh, I don't know, I'll take $1.7 mil for it I guess." Not a chance. Everything about poor innocent Joann Davis screams that she's hiding something else. Something bigger. If she's not pawning illegal weapons and drugs and a running a prostitution ring from her basement then I don't know who would. Hiding in broad daylight is one of the best strategies there is for evildoers like Joann Davis and she's got it down. Unassuming tiny old woman just eating her grand slam breakfast busts out a fat sack of moondust when someone walks by and drops the code word. It's the perfect plan minus contacting NASA asking for tips on how to market her product. No one contacts the DEA asking what the best way to go about pushing the stash of meth you just inherited. That's poor form. So is pissing your pants after getting pinched, black market street cred gets knocked down a few points after that I'm sure. Really though Joann Davis was this close to cashing out on her retirement plan but I think the lesson to be learned here is that rookie mistakes will kill you whether you're an NFL quarterback or a veteran in black market dealings.
