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Associated Press
OSLO, Norway -- The tooth fairy in disguise? No, just a simple tooth thief.
A man dressed in a black leather hat and a dark coat on Wednesday ran off with an eight-foot (2.5 meter) whale tooth from a museum in the Norwegian city Stavanger.
Museum official Atle Fiskaa says the tooth was more than 100 years old and valued at around $9,300. Fiskaa says the thief was between 40 and 50 years old and took off with the tooth together with a big, white dog that he had left outside the museum before entering.
The incident has been reported to police, who are searching for the thief.
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Two interesting facts:
- The man is reported in Norwegian media to have been rather small (165 cm / 5' 5" tall).
- During the middle ages, vikings from Greenland made fortunes selling Narwhal teeth in Europe, claiming that they were horns from the unicorn, which were attributed medicinal and magical properties, and valued as high or higher than their weight in gold.
I would really like to have seen this small man make his getaway, on foot, with an 8 ft tooth, and a big dog on a leash. It must have been a sight. Witnesses remembering it shouldn't be too hard to find.
This is the only whale that has a tooth capable of being 8' long:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal
Just imagine the size of a whale that could have an 8 foot TOOTH...???