WAPAKONETA — A thief made off with a rare gold replica of a lunar module during a burglary Friday night at the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum, according to a statement from the Wapakoneta Police Department.
The Wapakoneta Police Department received a call of a burglar alarm at 11:59 p.m. Friday at the museum, 500 Apollo Drive. Officers discovered someone entered the museum and took a solid gold replica of the 1969 Lunar Excursion Module that landed on the moon.
The museum was closed Saturday morning so authorities could investigate, according to its website, and remained closed until 2:30 p.m., when it allowed visitors to enter free of charge for the rest of the day.
Christopher Burton, the museum’s executive director, and other museum employees were in the museum parking lot Saturday morning turning prospective visitors away.
“We’ve still had cars with people from all over the country still coming in, and we’ve had to turn them away,” he said. “We hope they come back.”
The rare piece was presented to Neil Armstrong in Paris shortly after he became the first man to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. Only three of them exist in the world, with one made for each of the three astronauts who completed the mission.
Armstrong, who was born in Wapakoneta, died in 2012.
The piece, made by Cartier in Paris, is 5 inches high and roughly 4.5 inches square.
The loss of the rare replica represents a great loss for the museum, the city, and those who love American space history, according to Wapakoneta Mayor Tom Stinebaugh.
“With only three in existence, that is pretty well priceless,” he said. “You just can’t put a dollar value on something like that. For the Armstrong family, for the Ohio History Connection, for the city of Wapakoneta and for the Armstrong Air and Space Museum, it’s a big blow.”
The museum also issued a statement on its Facebook page explaining how broad an impact this theft had on the community.
“Museums care for and exhibit items on behalf of you, the public,” the statement read. “Theft from a museum is a theft from all of us. Three hundred people driving from across the country were robbed of their opportunity to experience the museum today. For every day that an item is missing, we are all robbed of an opportunity to enjoy it and our history.”
Questions remain for Stinebaugh and others as to who would want to steal something of such rarity and historical value.
“This could be as small as a petty drug dealer looking for some money, but it seems too complicated for that, with the lock being drilled and things like that,” he said.
The Wapakoneta Police Department could not confirm media reports that the front door was the point of entry for the burglary and that it was forced open.
The case was under investigation, and the scene was still being processed late Saturday. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the FBI assisted the Wapakoneta Police Department.
