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from the Louis-Vuitton,-Calvin-Klein,-NASA dept.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials confirmed last week that they had mistakenly auctioned a bag used by astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11
The rare artifact, which was used to collect samples of moon rock during the first manned lunar mission back in 1969, was sold as a result of a clerical error, TechTimes reported.
In a government auction held last year, Nancy Carlson from Inverness, Illinois,USA, bought the white bag for just $995. NASA only realised its blunder when the woman sent the bag to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for authentication.
Upon multiple verifications, the space governing body decided to take possession of the artifact—for which Carlson has sued NASA, seeking the return of the bag.
The US government also acknowledged the mistake and described the bag as a "a rare artifact, if not a national treasure."
The bag in question was part of a collection of priceless items that was seized from the home of Max Ary, director of Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, the report said. He was later found guilty of stealing and selling off a number of the artefacts that were given on loan to the space centre.
http://technology.inquirer.net/51015/nasa-accidentally-sold-apollo-11-moon-landing-bag-in-an-auction
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(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Monday August 15 2016, @05:20PM
The summary is slightly biased in mentioning her suit but not the .gov response.
From the article:
Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, have asked the judge to rescind the sale and refund the money Carlson spent
This is standard terms at govliquidation and the old DRMO sales. If they sell you the wrong thing, they'll demand in rather fierce terms that you return it and they will give you every penny you paid and you'll cooperate "or else". Its part of the contract she signed. And yes if you sell on something you bought and they want it back, they'll ask for records and will track that dude down. Supposedly this information is supposed to transfer and if you're selling restricted items you're supposed to warn the people downstream about what they're getting themselves into.
Usually its not this exciting involving moon landings and stuff. Someone surplus'd the wrong electronic test gear or spare parts and now uncle sam wants it back. My dad had a ham radio buddy who bought weird surplus electronics and sold for some minimal profit. In a world of anecdotes about $600 toilet seats its harder to make a buck in the surplus biz than you'd think.
The "or else" part is in the modern electronic world and even in the old days they'll issue a refund and unless you return the stuff, they'll file criminal charges for fraud. They were pretty explicit about this on the old DRMO site, that "al capone" style they wouldn't go after you for possessing or buying nuclear weapons test equipment or WTF, they'd simply issue you a full refund then throw you in jail for accepting the refund but not returning the goods. One term of your signed contract was that you auto-accepted all refunds or something like that.
In that way, this story is "man bites dog" because usually they issue the refund first, then demand you return the stuff, then you return it (or get arrested) and this time its being done backwards where she sent it in first, then legal threat time, then finally they offered her the money back. So that is an interesting aspect of this story, this isn't your usual surplus story.
(Score: 2) by CirclesInSand on Tuesday August 16 2016, @02:14AM
What are standard terms? Did she sign a contract? Government auctions shouldn't get special privileges that, for example, a pawn shop wouldn't get.