[Rockhounds] The Indonesian meteorite which didn't sell for $1.8m

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

*The story made headlines around the world - a meteorite crashes through
the roof of an Indonesian villager's home and turns out be worth millions,
changing his life forever.*

It was suggested that the find was worth $1.8m (£1.36m), making the man an
overnight millionaire - and if he wasn't, they debated whether he'd been
short-changed selling it to US buyers.

But neither of those things is true. The meteorite is not worth millions,
and no-one has been ripped off.

This dream come true is not quite as it first seemed.
A rock falls on a house...

Let's get back to the actual story - fairy tale or not, it is fascinating.
Josua Hutagalung, a coffin maker in a village in Sumatra, was minding his
own business in early August when he heard a noise from above and - seconds
later - a loud crash coming from his house.

At first, Josua was too scared to check what it was: the unknown object had
come through his roof with such speed and force that it had cut right
through the metal roofing and buried itself 15cm (6ins) deep into the soil
floor.

He eventually dug out a strange small boulder weighing about 2kg (4.4lb).

"When I lifted it, it was still warm," he told the BBC's Indonesian
service. "That's when I thought that the object I was lifting was a
meteorite from the sky. It was impossible for someone to throw a rock that
big on to the roof of the house."


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55013725