AURORA, Colo. — A trailer and valuable fossils, with a combined value of more than $100,000, was stolen over the weekend in Aurora.
The trailer is owned by GeoDecor, Inc., which is based out of Arizona and provides fossils, minerals and meteorites to museums and other locations.
The company’s 20-foot trailer was stolen from the parking lot of Crowne Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Aurora. Several valuable fossils were inside, including a rare 92-million-years-old fossil shark specimen, the company said. The piece is valued at $50,000. A museum was set to purchase it, GeoDecor said.
Thomas E. Lindgren, president of the company, said the theft of that fossil is particularly heartbreaking.
“Its high value is based on the fact that shark skeletons rarely fossilize because they are composed of cartilage, hence the $50,000 value,” he said.
Lindgren, was showing pieces at the Colorado Mineral & Fossil Spring Show at the Crowne Plaza to sell fossils to museums, collectors and interior designers. He discovered the trailer was missing around 6 p.m. Sunday.
The other fossils in the missing trailer include:
· The fossilized skull of a giant Cretaceous predatory fish from Kansas valued at $20,000
· A fossil garfish in a limestone matrix valued at $18,000
· A fossil stingray and fish in limestone matrix valued at $11,000 (both are about 51 million years old)
· 13 other fossils, including four pieces valued at more than $10,000 each
The trailer was recently purchased for about $11,000.
Anybody who sees the trailer or the missing contents are asked to call the Aurora Police Department at 303-739-6000 or 303-627-3100. They have opened a case on this incident.
GeoDecor is offering a cash reward of $1,000 to anyone with information that leads to the recovery of the trailer and fossils. Detailed information and photographs have been shared through the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences to alert fossil dealers at the show and worldwide about the stolen property. No questions will be asked and no charges pursued if the trailer is returned to the front parking lot of the hotel with its contents intact, the company said.