OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A Soviet-made electric space razor stolen along with a horde of space artifacts from an Oklahoma City museum found its way into the possession of a city junk dealer and landed him in jail, police said on Tuesday.
Police arrested David Albert Rhoades, 44, of Oklahoma City last week on a complaint of concealing stolen property after receiving a tip, police spokesman Capt. Charles Allen said.
"We're pretty confident this is it,'' Allen said. "It was designed and built by the Soviets and is the only one in existence.''
The bulk of the artifacts stolen from the Omniplex museum earlier this month remain missing. They include some spacecraft parts and commemorative medallions from the historic last mission of the Apollo Space program in 1975, the joint mission known as the "Handshake In Space'' linkup between the Americans and Soviets.
The total value of the items was estimated at $93,000, although museum officials said the items will be hard to sell because their certificates of authenticity remain in possession of the museum.
The FBI has placed the missing items on a national register of stolen goods so auction houses will be able to notify authorities if any of the items show up.
Allen said police found the razor at a residence belonging to Rhoades used for storage. Allen said the razor was not being used, nor did Rhoades appear to be a collector of space memorabilia.
"The razor may only work in outer space,'' Allen said. "We don't know how he came into possession of it. The fact that he had it was enough to put him in jail.''
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