http://io9.com/5936435/florida-man-acting-like-a-child-suing-government-to-get-his-dinosaur-back?tag=dinosaurs
Eric Prokopi, a rare fossils dealer from Florida, is throwing a tantrum because the U.S. government took away his dinosaur skeleton. The skeleton - a Tyrannosaurus bataar that's nicknamed Ty - technically belongs to Mongolia, where the bones were found, or so says Fast and Furious 2 co-star Eric Holder's henchmen, and Mongolians. Naturally, Prokopi is whining about all this.
That may be true, but the U.S. government thinks Prokopi smuggled the bones into the country using forged papers.
I didn't know they even had reptiles in Great Britain, but anyway: an auction house, Heritage Auctions, is also taking part in the lawsuit, probably because the 70 million year-old dinosaur rich person toy is valued at $1.05 million.
The seizure is unprecedented, according to the lawsuit at least, since dinosaur skeletons from "China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia have been openly sold on the international market and collected in the United States by people and museums for generations."
Then again, that's totally something a screaming toddler would shout if you took away his legos, even if most of them belonged to a neighbor down the street.
[Image via Shutterstock]
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Florida Man Acting Like a Child, Suing Government to Get His Dinosaur Back
Eric Prokopi, a rare fossils dealer from Florida, is throwing a tantrum because the U.S. government took away his dinosaur skeleton. The skeleton - a Tyrannosaurus bataar that's nicknamed Ty - technically belongs to Mongolia, where the bones were found, or so says Fast and Furious 2 co-star Eric Holder's henchmen, and Mongolians. Naturally, Prokopi is whining about all this.
Prokopi has said in a statement that he brought the bones into the country in March 2010 when they were just chunks of rocks and broken bones. He said he turned them into "an impressive skeleton."
That may be true, but the U.S. government thinks Prokopi smuggled the bones into the country using forged papers.
The U.S. said the documents disguised the dinosaur skeleton, which originated in Mongolia, as reptile bones from Great Britain.
I didn't know they even had reptiles in Great Britain, but anyway: an auction house, Heritage Auctions, is also taking part in the lawsuit, probably because the 70 million year-old dinosaur rich person toy is valued at $1.05 million.
The seizure is unprecedented, according to the lawsuit at least, since dinosaur skeletons from "China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia have been openly sold on the international market and collected in the United States by people and museums for generations."
Then again, that's totally something a screaming toddler would shout if you took away his legos, even if most of them belonged to a neighbor down the street.
[Image via Shutterstock]
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