It's a story worthy of an "Indiana Jones" sequel: Drawn by outlandish legends, a controversial collector journeys to Peru, purchases pieces of a rare meteorite under shady circumstances, then has to hightail it across the border to Bolivia with police in hot pursuit. Now the plot is nearing its resolution - and the finale could make another meteorite-size splash. 

"It's been quite an interesting week for me," Michael Farmer told me today from his home in Arizona. "I did have to make my escape, that's for sure. ... Another day in the life of a meteorite hunter."

The tale began Sept. 15, when villagers in a remote corner of Peru said they saw a fireball falling to Earth, went out to investigate and spotted a huge crater partly filled with bubbling water. Some smelled an unpleasant odor, and fell ill with headaches and upset stomachs. Initial reports from the scene suggested that the cause of this all was a meteorite emitting hazardous fumes - and in response, authorities called a state of emergency.

When Farmer heard about all this, during a buying trip to Spain, he couldn't believe it. "Pure lunacy," he recalled. But in the days that followed, investigators confirmed the existence of a meteorite - though not the part about hundreds of people getting sick - so Farmer decided he'd better check out the scene.

After a stopover in Colombia to buy more meteorite specimens, Farmer dropped in on the Peruvian border town of Desaguadero on Sept. 29 and stopped at the police station to ask about the meteorite site. He said the police gave him directions - and sold him samples of the space rock. "Every one of them had pieces in their pockets," Farmer told me.

Read the rest of the article at: MSNBC

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