3 Admit Guilt in Moon Rock Theft Plot

ORLANDO, Fla. —  Three student employees at the Johnson Space Center in Houston have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to steal moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts.

Tiffany Fowler, Thad Roberts and Shae Saur pleaded guilty in federal court in Orlando last week to conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Undercover FBI agents arrested Roberts, 25, Fowler, 22, and a fourth defendant, Gordon McWhorter, 26, in Orlando in July. Saur, 19, was arrested in Houston the same day. The student workers were fired after the arrests.

McWhorter, a college friend of Roberts, is scheduled for trial in February.

Investigators say the group placed an ad in May on the Web site of the Mineralogy Club of Antwerp, Belgium, offering to sell “priceless moon rocks” collected by Apollo astronauts in 1969 and the early 1970s for $1,000 to $5,000 a gram.

Two months later, a safe containing moon rocks from every Apollo mission was discovered missing from the center. Officials said the inventory offered by the suspects came from the safe.