Controversy Brews Over Meteorites Sold On Western Slope

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (CBS4) - There's a battle brewing over meteorites on the Western Slope. Are they real, or are they just space junk?

A small Grand Junction store called Main Street Minerals and Beads is where people came for something out of this world. They are Plassitic meteorites collected by Steve Curry. The going rate is about $600.

"To us they feel like meteorites, and we think they're meteorites," Kevin Mahoney with Main Street Minerals and Beads said.

But police don't agree and cited Steve Curry for theft, criminal simulation and fraud. They say they were tipped off by a person who bought one of Curry's rocks.

"I don't think much of them," Curry said of the citations. "They received a couple of phone calls from people that really don't like me very much."

It turns out the person who bought the rock and told police it was fake is a man by the name of Baline Reed, a competing meteorite dealer. Curry calls it sabotage.

"He's not credible, he's not honest, and he certainly is not reliable," Curry said.

Police say testing showed the rocks were fakes, but Curry is frustrated because police are using his accuser as their expert and are not looking at his proof.

"I open up my binder and he pushes it away and says, 'You don't need any of that,' " Curry said.

Curry feels like a target.

"Nobody has ever had a problem with it except Blaine Reed. And why does he get his knickers in a knot? He has something to protect," Curry said.

Reed wasn't available for comment and police wouldn't talk about what tests they did on the rocks.