Rock-lifter agrees to return megalith

It's short, so I'm just gonna post the whole thing:

A Swiss gardening enthusiast who took a two-and-half tonne stone from a forest to decorate his garden has pledged to put it back, after local authorities warned he had stolen a listed prehistoric relic.

Authorities were mystified when the weighty megalith vanished from a wood near the village of Montagny-pres-Yverdon in early September, said Mayor Linus Auer.

A few hours after they published an appeal for witnesses in local newspapers, the rock-lifter, who had used a tractor to shift the would-be centrepiece of his rock garden, came forward voluntarily.

He explained that he "wanted something pretty in his garden" but did not realise the rock was a prehistoric stone, the mayor said.

The megalith is a protected object and has holes carved by hand during the Neolithic period, or the Bronze Age.

The gardener has pledged to put the megalith back in place, in return for an offer from the village not to press charges.

The village is taking steps to avoid a similar misunderstanding in the future.

Mr Auer says: "We're going to put an explanatory sign to point out that it's a megalith."

--AFP

Helped collect a 200 pound sample, once, for a Rb-Sr test. Nothing like this.

Actually, If I dropped everthing right now something would surely break. Rats. I'd like to see a felsic volcano doing it's thing...from a safe distance. Basaltic too.