If you ever happen to see an eager seller on ebay or Craigslist offering authentic moon rocks or lunar dust hauled back during the glory days of the Apollo moon landing missions, it's probably best to view that sale with extreme skepticism as any NASA astromaterials are not exactly available on the open market, and there are serious legal ramifications to anyone caught peddling these precious objects.
One of the most notorious and brazen cases of astromaterials theft took place in 2002, when three NASA interns, Thad Roberts, Tiffany Fowler, and Shae Saur stole 17 pounds (8 kilograms) of moon rocks worth nearly $21 million from a safe at the Johnson Space Center. The heist used a combo of tampered cameras, neoprene body suits, and official NASA badges to pull off the cape . But selling Apollo treasures on the black market proved to be not so easy, and the culprits finally put them up for sale on the Mineralogy Club of Antwerp's online site. Tampa Division FBI agents acted as interested buyers that met at an Orlando-area hotel where the thieves were nabbed and the moon rocks recovered. Roberts, as the mastermind, received an 8-year prison sentence while the others were given house arrest.
