‘Meteorite guy’ denies stealing space rocks in Peru

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A well-known U.S. meteorite hunter says he legally purchased pieces of the meteorite that struck near Lake Titicaca last month, reports Andina, the official Peruvian government press agency.

‘It’s not true that I robbed part of the meteorite,’ Michael Farmer, a.k.a. ‘the meteorite guy,’ was quoted as saying.

Farmer said he paid ‘more or less’ $1,000 for 300 grams of meteorite fragments. He said local cops were among those who sold him the extraterrestrial rubble. Much of the meteorite had already been sold to other meteorite hunters by the time he arrived, he said.

‘I bought a lot of pieces from the police and now they’re denouncing me as if I was a thief,’ said Farmer, in comments also picked up by the Living in Peru website.

Farmer said he had to ‘escape’ to Bolivia. The presence of meteor hunters sparked an outcry in Peru among officials and others who said the meteorite should remain in the country as part of its cultural patrimony.

Posted by Adriana León in Lima and Patrick J. McDonnell in Buenos Aires