This "Fukang meteorite" in question is at the heart of a battle between Stephan Settgast of Marin County, Calif. and the Maine Mineral And Gem Museum in Maine. Date unknown. 
 
 A gold-flecked meteorite that has traveled from the asteroid belt near Mars to the mountains of Fukang, China, and finally Marin County, California, is at the center of a vicious ownership battle being waged in federal court. 
 
 The 227-pound iron "pallasite" meteorite is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. First discovered in Fukang, China about 15 years ago, it could be worth as much as $1 million, according to Stephen Settgast, an asteroid collecter who claims he's the rightful owner. 
 
 He sued a museum in Maine and a New York meteorite expert in February alleging breach of contract over the sale of the meteorite. But they have now filed a counterclaim, alleging that Settgast, who is staying in Marin County, is behind a "blatant theft of a unique and precious meteorite." 
 
 The countersuit alleges Settgast sold the meteorite for $425,000, then engaged in an "outrageous act of seller’s remorse" by stealing back the space rock for himself. 
 
 "This isn't a typical theft," said Wayne Minckley, undersheriff in Miami County, Kansas, in a Skype interview with NBC Bay Area. 
 
 A sheriff is involved in the out-of-this-world case because authorities aren’t yet ready to decide who stole the meteorite until the suit is settled. 
 
 "It’s a complicated case in the mere fact that the individual who sold it to the folks in Maine is our suspect in the theft," Minckley said. 
 
 Settgast would not speak on the record. But his attorney, Curt Edmonson of the Oregon firm, Slinde Nelson Stanford, said this is a simple business dispute gone awry. 
 
 "Civil suits don’t use terms like ‘steal.' That’s a criminal term," he said. "We didn’t go over the top in our complaint, but they certainly went over the top in their counterclaims." 
 
 But Settgast's story is full of holes, according to the founders of the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum — Lawrence Stifler and Mary McFadden of Brookline, Massachusetts — and meteorite expert Darryl Pitt, of New York. All three filed the counterclaim on March 29. 
 
 In the suit, Jeff Valle, the trio's Los Angeles attorney, laid out his clients’ argument like this: Noted for his ability to spot beauty and value in meteorites, Pitt suggested to the museum founders that they buy the meteorite in question. Stifler and McFadden agreed to pay Settgast $425,000 to feature the "Fukang meteorite" in their museum, which is not yet open. 
 
 In August 2014, Pitt brokered the deal with Settgast. The final of three payments was made in February 2015, the counterclaim contends. According to his website biography, Pitt is the purveyor of the "world's foremost collection of aesthetic iron meteorites," which he describes as "extraterrestrial objects d'art." 
 
 Valle and Pitt have declined to be interviewed. 
 
 Keith Jenkerson, of KD Meteorites, gives a thumbs up after nearly completing his work on the "Fukang meteorite." Date unknown. 
 
 Photo credit: Courtesy of Maine Mineral And Gem Museum 
 
 After the money was paid, Pitt and the museum founders waited for the meteorite to be cleaned up and prepared by Kansas duo Keith and Dana Jenkerson, of KD Meteorites. The couple's website twinkles with brightly lit stars and boasts they've been "chasing meteorites since 1990s." 
 
 The Jenkersons took almost two years to stabilize, restore and prepare the "Fukang meteorite," the countersuit alleges, and on Jan. 10, Keith Jenkerson told Pitt this was "one of the most awesome meteorites to ever be displayed." He guessed the spiffed-up space rock to now be worth $1 million. But Pitt and the museum founders said this higher price is wildly inflated, the counterclaim states. 
 
 Less than two weeks later, the meteorite was reported stolen. 
 
 Pitt and the museum founders allege that Settgast, whose lawyer described him as a "world-renowned" fossil hunter who also has a ranch in Montana, went into the Jenkersons' lab on Jan. 23 and stole back the meteorite. Settgast's attorneys claim a condition of the sale was that the meteorite couldn't be shown in a public museum, a point the museum founders' say is simply not true, the counterclaim contends. 
 
 How Settgast would have gotten the meteorite out of the lab, at the Jenkersons' home in Osawatomie, Kansas, without detection, and then to Marin County, where Settgast has been living with a relative, has not been clearly explained. 
 
 Minckley, from the sheriff’s office, reiterated that it’s his understanding Settgast stole the meteorite from the lab. He said there was no surveillance video to document what might have happened. His office, however, is reserving a final determination on whether a crime was committed, and by whom, until a federal judge makes a ruling on who really owns the meteorite. 
 
 As for why the sheriff’s department is letting the civil case play out first, Edmonson said: "That tells you a little bit about how they feel about the criminal action. If they don’t feel there is enough evidence for the claim of theft, then it’s not there." 
 
 A hearing is set for June to be heard by Oakland-based U.S District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong. ||||| It came from outer space, and landed in federal court 
 
 Photo: AP Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 Ownership of a slice of the Fukang meteorite, smal ler than this 1-ton piece in New York, is in dispute. Ownership of a slice of the Fukang meteorite, smal ler than this 1-ton piece in New York, is in dispute. Photo: AP It came from outer space, and landed in federal court 1 / 1 Back to Gallery 
 
 A 220-pound rock from outer space has got the earthlings fighting. 
 
 It’s not just any rock but the famous Fukang meteorite, a sparkly slab of greenish crystals that is said to be one of the greatest space rocks ever discovered. Exactly who owns it is the subject of a federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco that reads like an Isaac Asimov sci-fi tale. 
 
 A Novato man says it’s rightfully his. A Massachusetts couple say they paid the Novato man $425,000 for it and that it’s rightfully theirs. 
 
 The Novato man says he canceled the sale when he found out the Massachusetts couple were running a rock museum in Maine. The Massachusetts couple say the Novato man canceled the sale because of seller’s remorse, when he figured he let the $425,000 rock go on the cheap. 
 
 Meanwhile, a New York rock broker and two Kansas rock polishers say they’re entitled to a piece of the action, too. 
 
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 The tale begins 4 billion years ago, give or take an eon, when the meteorite plummeted to earth and landed in the Gobi Desert of China. In 2000, it was discovered, and pieces of it began to be sold to well-heeled rock hounds, one of whom was Stephan Settgast of Novato, who said he bought a 220-pound slice of it in 2004. 
 
 In 2014, court documents say, Settgast agreed to sell the slice to Lawrence Stifler and Mary McFadden of Brookline, Mass., who paid him $425,000 through a New York meteorite middleman. 
 
 But after the rock polishers, Keith and Dana Jenkerson of Osawatomie, Kan., who had been hired to spiff up the meteorite for its new owners, said they thought it was worth perhaps $1 million, Settgast decided he wanted his rock back, the Massachusetts couple say. 
 
 Settgast went to the Jenkersons’ studio and, while they were away at a rock show, entered the premises and took back the meteorite. It was a clear case of meteorite-napping, said the spurned buyers. 
 
 Settgast maintained he was reclaiming the rock because the couple planned to put it on public display at their under-construction museum in Maine. Settgast said that violated the terms of the sale. Stifler and McFadden said a no-museum promise was never part of the deal. They say Settgast has their rock and their money, too. 
 
 Settgast sued in federal court in February to invalidate the sale and keep the rock. Stifler and McFadden countersued in March to get their hands on the rock. 
 
 Nobody knows what a one-of-a-kind meteorite is worth, according to Settgast’s lawyer, Curt Edmondson. 
 
 “It’s not like it’s a Toyota,” he said. 
 
 Edmondson denied that Settgast stole back the meteorite or planned to keep the money. He said Settgast had never formally turned over the meteorite, despite being paid for it, and was entitled to take it back because it was still his. 
 
 “It’s not like he went to Kansas and jimmied the lock on the back door and put a 220-pound rock under his arm,” Edmondson said. 
 
 Court documents suggest one reason the rock polishers valued the rock at $1 million is that they believed they were entitled to 5 percent of its value for their services. They were seeking $50,000 for spiffing it up, instead of the $20,000 they had been promised and eventually accepted. 
 
 Rock hounds say rare meteorites of the Fukang variety, known as pallasites, are beautiful and valuable but not particularly scientifically significant. 
 
 “This kind of meteorite has been studied and has little new to tell us,” said Paul Doherty, senior scientist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. “It came from the core-mantle boundary of an asteroid. We have studied lots of meteorites of this kind. It doesn’t need to be in a museum. If it was a Martian meteorite, that would be different.” 
 
 Settgast, Stifler and McFadden did not return calls seeking comment. A federal judge has scheduled a hearing on the dispute for June 29. 
 
 Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
– The question of who owns a particular chunk of a famed meteorite is heading to federal court with the filing of a lawsuit and countersuit, SF Gate reports. It all started billions of years ago with the Fukang meteorite slammed into China's Gobi Desert. Fast-forward to the year 2000: when the meteorite was discovered and collectors began acquiring slices of it. Among them was Stephan Settgast, currently of California, who says he bought his 220-pound piece in 2004. In 2014, according to court documents, Settgast agreed to sell it to Lawrence Stifler and Mary McFadden of Massachusetts for $425,000. And then it all went bad. Settgast says the couple violated the conditions of the sale by planning to show it in their rock museum. They say not showing the meteorite was never a condition of the sale and suggest that Settgast got "seller's remorse" after learning he might have undervalued it. And, they allege, that remorse manifested in what they call the "outrageous act" of Settgast stealing back the rock from the studio of a pair of Kansas rock polishers who spent two years preparing the stone for the buyers, per NBC News. After all, the rock polishers did tell Settgast the meteorite could fetch up to $1 million (which, documents point out, would bump up their 5% fee to $50,000). How the alleged theft of the gold-flecked meteorite actually went down is unclear. Settgast filed a suit in February alleging breach of contract. Stifler, McFadden, and Darryl Pitt, the meteorite expert who brokered the deal, countersued last month. Local authorities in Kansas say they are going to hang back on pursuing Settgast for theft until a federal judge determines who owns the meteorite. "This isn't a typical theft," Miami County undersheriff tells NBC. (No one noticed this meteor the size of a large living room plowing into the earth.)