NASA swat team terrifies grandmother over Moon rock

happened a week ago

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/14/humiliating-sting-operation-against-elderly-widow-of-apollo-engineer-draws-court-rebuke/

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-woman-detained-moon-rock-20170413-story.html

>>133553
Not OP but I'll do better than that.

http://fox4kc.com/2017/04/14/widow-can-sue-nasa-over-sting-operation-to-forcibly-seize-moon-rock-speck/

>LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. – A 75-year-old widow in tough financial straits reached out to NASA about selling a speck of moon rock her late husband had given her.

>Joann Davis then became the target of a sting operation at a Denny’s that a federal appeals court suggested Thursday was outrageous overkill.

>The lead agent “organized a sting operation involving six armed officers to forcibly seize a Lucite paperweight containing a moon rock the size of a rice grain from an elderly grandmother,” wrote Judge Sidney Thomas of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in the decision allowing Davis to sue, per the Los Angeles Times.

>One awful detail from the 2011 incident: The agents refused Davis’ request to use the bathroom, and she urinated in her pants during the two-hour ordeal at the restaurant in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

>Agents also forcibly restrained her second husband, who had accompanied her to the supposed sale. Davis’ first husband, Robert, worked as an Apollo 11 engineer, and he saved a paperweight with moon material and another with a bit of the heat shield.

>He died in 1986, and years later Davis found herself raising grandchildren in her 70s following her daughter’s death and her son’s illness. She called NASA about selling the mementos.

>Instead of informing her that selling moon material was illegal, investigators ordered the sting, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. A federal prosecutor later opted not to press charges.

>In this week’s ruling, the judges said Davis made a case that the detention violated her constitutional right regarding unreasonable seizure. She is suing agent Norman Conley, who “had no law enforcement interest in detaining Davis for two hours while she stood wearing urine-soaked pants in a restaurant’s parking lot during the lunch rush,” wrote Thomas.

>>133559
>She is suing agent Norman Conley, who “had no law enforcement interest in detaining Davis for two hours while she stood wearing urine-soaked pants in a restaurant’s parking lot during the lunch rush,”

I think this guy needs to become the face of Grandmother Piss Fetishists.

>>133562
I bet you sent in for those x-ray specs too.

>Land of the Free

>>133548
>There must be another secretive reason.
I need not read any further.

>>133562
There may be certain regulations on keeping/cultivating meteorites depending on the state or nation, but most stones from the moon or other materials taken directly from space are illegal. The only people who have access to moon rocks are those that have entered space to retrieve them or had rovers for that purpose. Once back at earth, they are considered research materials and therefore are not sold. If someone outside of these space researchers has a moon rock it is usually one of these cases: the moon rock was stolen from the researchers, the moon rock was bought from a theif who stole it from researchers, the moon rock is a counterfeit and thus illegal to sell, or the person with the moon rock has traveled to space by their own means (which is very unlikely). If there is a market for moon rocks, it highly increases the chance of them being stolen from nasa and other space research programs since they ate the only source and are unwilling to sell. So they make it all contraband.
Whether or not it was okayed for the engineer to take a piece as a memento is the determining factor as to whether or not this is a crime, but in truth after an explanation of how she got it and then to her that it is illegal to own buy it from her to remove it from circulation rather than sick a swat team on an ignorant granny over a fraction of a rock.

NASA has swat teams?

>>133735
They have to prepare for first contact

>>133735
It was probably the FBI or a local police force.

>>133735

Many US gov agencies have tactical teams, including the Department of Energy, Veterans Affairs, the Postal Service, Department of Agriculture, and even the Railroad Retirement Board.

I don't find it surprising that NASA would have one as well.

>>133834
>ywn be part of the postal service tacticool team cracking old women skulls for using old stamps

Just end it lads

>>133835
>Not wanting to be on the Railroad Retirement Board SWAT team and going after old retired people scamming the system for those pension benefits.

>>133834
This some mobile task force shit from the SCP site or sumthin

who the fuck has ownership over outer space. this is the most stupid thing i have ever heard in my entire life.

>>133835
Lost

>>133835
The postal inspection service is actually pretty busy. They have to deal with assaults on postal carriers, mail theft, mail fraud, people shipping drugs, anthrax, etc

>>134236

Holy fuck, this

>>134153
Just in case SCP 173 or 049 escapes.

>>134478
You'd still have to escape the moon's gravity, which means, in order to carry "tons" of space rock, and then slow down enough not to disintegrate the damn thing when it got back, your return rocket is going to be about 20% of the size of the Saturn V rocket. (Meaning your Saturn V rocket now needs to be 40% larger.)

Meanwhile, the lunar lander was about 2% of the mass of the Saturn V rocket.

So, yeah, physics. Just pick up some damned rocks.

Not that the situation OP alludes to isn't absolutely refuckingdiculous.

>>134236
No one has ownership of outer space. But a space agency that brings back pieces from outer space owns everything thing it brings back. And as America is the only ones to make a manned moon landing and bring back samples, it is very easy to determine who is the owner of any moon rock on Earth. If it wasn't loaned by NASA to a researcher or institution, it is obviously stolen. There is no other logical possibility.

You steal, you get punished. Even a 70 year old. You take stolen material and try to sell it, same result.

If she wins the law suit then she'll have achieved her goal of acquiring some money while also making the agency that did this to her look like dumb fucks.

>>134567
>while also making the agency that did this to her look like dumb fucks.
I don't think she has to win the lawsuit to do that.

>>133548

>keeps a priceless artifact for herself which cost taxpayers billions of dollars to obtain.

Damn right that bitch better give it up.

She has no case.

>>133608
We need to make a movie about the story of the grandma who had a space rock.
And then a XXX parody of it.

>>134460
Who is "that damned mask" 049 talked with? I'm not much into SCP and didn't find searching the site.

>>134675
She has a case for mistreatment because they didn't let her change her pants. That's about it.
Sure, it's concerning a silly case with SPACE ROCK, and the media will put emphasis on that, but it's a case about wet panties.

>>133559
>>Instead of informing her that selling moon material was illegal, investigators ordered the sting
I suppose they wanted a chance to play with their toys.

>>133735
The postal service's armed agents even went after people (in the early 90s iirc?) for not using first class mail when they "should have."

>>133723
>Whether or not it was okayed for the engineer to take a piece as a memento is the determining factor as to whether or not this is a crime

Isn't intent a determining factor too? It looks like the grandma was under the impression that being in possession of that rock wasn't a crime. So she has no intent. Even if the engineer knew it was wrong, if he never told the grandma, then she ought to be innocent. Or has the possession of moon rocks been made a strict liability?

>>136806
Intent only applies to certain crimes, like the difference between 1st and 2nd degree Murder. Sale of stolen materials, or more appropriately Trafficking in Stolen Property does not have any difference, legally, with intent. Guilty is guilty. Usually the only difference in scale is the value of the stolen goods. More value, worse felony.

>>136806
Imagine someone is selling the Mona Lisa and other master painting, claiming they're originals. Would it have much weight when the seller claim "I didn't know they belonged in a museum"?
"The drug dealer who sold me this assured me crack cocaine is legal"
"I know this isn't a real Rolex, I got it for 10$ and the logo says R0L3X. What do you mean, it's still illegal if I knew?"

You're supposed to check an object legality before buying it.

This is the problem with gvmt agencies. Get rid of NASA already for fucks sake. They don't do anything but soak up tax dollars.

>>133548
we can benefit from this trying to sell nasa counterfeit moon rocks then get swated then sue them.
Why is it illegal do ?

>>137465
I think they will take into account the fact that it's a fucking speck of rock, of which 99% would have no clue something like the would be illegal.

You'd have to be mentally retarded to not know crack is illegal. There is a big difference

>>134675
>priceless

It's a rock the size of a grain of rice, dude

>which cost taxpayers billions of dollars to obtain.

If you think the main priority was grabbing a couple rocks, I don't know what to tell you other than you're retarded.

The whole issue is how unnecessarily heavy-handed the police were, not whether or not she should keep the rock. I wouldn't expect a bootlicker like yourself to understand that though

>>137581
>99% would have no clue something like the would be illegal
Ignorantia legis neminem excusat.
aka everybody can fucking google it

>>137465
How many people would honestly think moon rock or anything for that matter from space is illegal to sell?

If a large meteorite lands in my backyard, is it illegal for me to sell chunks of it? Most people's first instinct isn't to call NASA and ask.

>>137612
>people using google
Specialty boards on 4chan like /co/ or /fit/ have people too lazy/stupid to use google for basic questions/items. You think anyone is going to google such a rare set of circumstances?

>>137615
>You think anyone is going to google such a rare set of circumstances?
Yes, many will google, see they were about to commit something illegal, back the fuck out, and never hit the news.
Some won't and will be the visible minority.

The thing that makes me more surprised is that NASA has a fucking SWAT team.

>>133835
Thou hast slain mine sides anon.