The "Moon Rock" sting

[Jocassee]

Today in boots on faces:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/14/humiliating-sting-operation-against-elderly-widow-of-apollo-engineer-draws-court-rebuke/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_1_na&utm_term=.718dd03ac363

The two exchanged seven phone calls, during which Davis expressed concern that NASA would confiscate the paperweights unless she could prove they were a gift. She explained, according to court documents, that she wanted “to do things legally” because she was “just not an illegal person.”

Jeff said he was a legal person too, but reminded her that the sale of a moon rock “can’t be done publicly.”

“Despite all of this knowledge, Conley did not inform Davis that her possession of the paperweights was illegal or ask her to surrender them to NASA. Instead, he 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.

It gets better.

[RoadKingLarry]

Sounds like went to the same business school as UAL execs.

[griz]

As described that is such abuse of authority that it seems like jail time is a better answer than a monetary punishment that will be paid by the taxpayers.  She tried to do things legally, contacted the appropriate government agency for help, and is set up for an arrest without having committed a crime.  That's not even entrapment, since entrapment implies one was tricked in to committing an actual crime. (again, as described)  If true, I not only hope she wins her court case, but whoever made the decision to go after her gets fired.

[Andiron]

This reads like the setup in one of the "Unintended Consequences" or it's like books.

 I wish I found it hard to believe this happened.

[Brad Johnson]

This is the kind of story the usually creates a poop cyclone of activity on social media yet there's not a single mention of this in any comment I could see. They must have a whole room full of people sanitizing their Facebook feed.

I threw WashPo story link into a comment on their latest Facebook post. We'll see how long it takes to disappear.

Brad