Indonesia’s ‘millionaire’ meteorite man ducks limelight after going viral

Josua Hutagalung has gone into hiding after multiple global media outlets reported the hunk of space rock he found was worth US$1.7 million

But that sum was based on an inaccurate estimate that ‘no collector will pay’, according to a spokeswoman hired to speak on his behalf

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Josua Hutagalung and the meteorite that crashed into his house in North Sumatra. Photo: Handout

Tonggo Simangunsongin Medan, North Sumatra

Published: 10:00am, 21 Nov 2020Updated: 9:45pm, 21 Nov 2020

An Indonesian coffin maker who made headlines around the world after a meteorite fell on his home has gone into hiding, after multiple media outlets reported the 2.2kg hunk of space rock was worth substantially more than the 33-year-old was paid for it.

Josua Hutagalung received some 214 million rupiah (about US$15,090) for the meteorite that crashed into his house on August 1 – an incident whose aftermath he documented in a viral video uploaded to his Facebook account.

It was the interest generated by this video that spurred Jared Collins, an American citizen living in Bali, to travel to Hutagalung’s home in Sutahan Barat Village, North Sumatra’s Central Tapanuli Regency, on August 7 and check the stone’s authenticity at a third party’s behest.

Hutagalung told the media afterwards that he considered the sum he had received from Collins to be a large fortune and that he had distributed some of the money to his family, as well as paying for a new church to be built in his village.

A close-up of the meteorite that crashed into Hutagalung’s house in North Sumatra. Photo: Handout

Yet a number of outlets also reported that the meteorite’s supposed true worth was closer to 2.6 billion rupiah (US$1.7 million), a sum that Chairani – a spokeswoman for the public relations agency that Hutagalung has now hired to speak on his behalf – said was only an estimate deduced “after calculating the price of one gram of meteorite”.