Man Becomes Instant Millionaire After Meteorite Crashes Through His Home [Update]

Update – Speaking to BBC Indonesia, Hutagalung revealed that he had only sold the meteorite for Rp200 million, which is a little over $14,000. He says he feels cheated and that all the money has since been spent in donations. He also revealed that he did not sell the entire meteorite and kept about 400 grams which he then distributed to family members and also fashioned rings out of them.

They say that money doesn’t grow on trees, but it seems that it could fall from the sky. This happened to a coffin maker in Indonesia, Joshua Hutagalung, who was working on a coffin outside his home where a 2.1kg meteorite came crashing through the roof of his home.

While the destruction of one’s home is rarely seen as a sign of good fortune, it was discovered that this meteorite is of the carbonaceous chondrite variety, an extremely rare meteorite that is said to be about 4.5 billion years old and is estimated to be valued at £645 per gram, which meant that the stone that crashed through Hutagalung’s home was worth £1.4 million.

Speaking to The Sun, the coffin maker revealed that he had sold it to a US meteorite expert, Jared Collins, who then sold it to another US collector who stored it at the Centre for Meteorite Studies at the Arizona State University. He did not state how much he managed to net for his discovery, it is understood to be above £1 million.

With his money, Hutagalung plans to retire and build a church in his community, and he also seems to have taken this to be a sign of good luck where he was quoted as saying, “I have also always wanted a daughter, and I hope this is a sign that I will be lucky enough now to have one.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Science, Space