Latvian meteor hoaxster fined $26,000

TUESDAY UPDATE

RIGA, Latvia — Latvian mobile operator Tele2 was involved in staging a hoax on a meteorite allegedly falling in the country on Sunday as reported by local media, the operator’s marketing and sales director said Monday. (Ria Novosti)

Janis Sprogis’ confession to the Leta news agency followed a statement by the country’s interior minister, Linda Murniece, vowing to recoup the costs of investigating the reports of a meteorite strike.

“I think they [those who staged the story] will have to pay for the work of all special services involved in the case. The sum will be big. People should be held accountable for such jokes,” Murniece said.

Sprogis promised to compensate the state for its losses.

MONDAY’S STORY

In the aftermath of the recent Balloon Boy fiasco, one would hope the media had learned a valuable lesson when covering what would seem to be “out of the ordinary” events.

Early Monday morning, the Associated Press reported a meteor strike in Riga, Latvia, with the headline Meteorite-like object falls in Latvia.‎

A meteorite-like object crashed into a meadow in northern Latvia, creating a crater 27 feet (9 meters) wide and 9 feet (3 meters) deep, a geologist who visited the site said Monday.

Uldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center, said there was smoke coming out of the crater when he arrived at the crash site late Sunday in the Mazsalaca region near the Estonian border.

“My first impression is that, yes, it was a meteorite,” he said. “All the evidence suggests this when compared to pictures of real meteorite craters.”

He said the rim of the crater was slightly raised and there was a black-grayish scar at the bottom — both signs of a meteorite impact.

Experts outside Latvia said it was unusual for such a large meteorite to hit the Earth. The planet is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, but most burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the surface.

Not more than two hours  after its initial headline, the Associated Press released a new story with this updated headline: Latvian experts investigate larger crater.

As it turns out, the meteor strike is likely a staged hoax.

North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve geologist Dainis Ozols has concluded that the object in Mazsalaca, thought to be a meteorite, is merely smoky ember of chemical elements and the wide crater around it is in fact man-made.

Ozols arrived at the location, where the alleged meteorite had fallen, at 9 a.m. Monday, as the geologist informed LETA. He established that the 10-12 meters wide depression in land surface was artificially created and afterward potassium nitrate and sulphur were burned there.

The geologist believes that somebody merely wanted to pull a prank, therefore burned the chemical elements, filmed the scene and spread information about an alleged meteorite having fallen. The crater itself, however, in Ozols’ opinion, was created for other purposes. It must have taken a lot of effort to dig it; in case the crater was actually dug by the prankster who burned the chemical elements in it, then he should have tried a bit harder to imitate a blast caused by a meteorite, the geologist said. –The Baltic Course

At a time when there is plenty of meaningful news to cover, good and bad, are we now destined to be barraged with staged hoaxes, hoping to fool us?