On Wednesday, October 01, 2003, Mike Farmer sent out my NWA 1909 (AEUC) and my NWA 1943 (AHOW) specimens. The package did make it safely across the Big Pond but on October 21, 2003, I wrote to Mike that the German customs authorities were withholding the specimens and I was battling with them over my comment that there was no commercial value involved and their idiotic response that everything had a value.
By November 10, 2003, the package had got lost somewhere between Tucson and my home town here in Germany after the customs idiots had agreed they would send it to us via mail. It never arrived. Lots of telephone calls but to no avail although I had the photo copy from the customs dudes with all the details (sender, contents, etc.). More calls and the information that the package was probably on its way back to Tucson. The customs dudes said that if it didn't show up here or in Tucson sooner or later, the sender would have to start a "tracer". Wednesday, December 17, 2003, Mike wrote that the meteorites had just arrived back to him and that the customs idiot had removed the packaging so that the meteorites (worth $600!) were loose in the box which was smashed - fortunately the meteorites were fine, not damaged. The customs people were not the culprits this time. That honor goes to the German mail company. There must have been a potential thief who opened Christmas mail that looked promising (precious metals, jewelry, money, etc.). Meteorites were just worthless and meaningless stuff so he chucked them back into the torn package (sometimes it is good people do not know much about meteorites :-) My meteorites were shipped again, and, unbelievable but nonetheless true: Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003, NWA 1909 and NWA 1943 finally arrived (again) after this transaltantic odyssey which lasted "only" three months! Cheers, Bernd ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
