Harvard Economist Is Accused of Trying to Steal Farm's Gross Domestic Product By PIPER FOGG
Martin L. Weitzman has a Ph.D. in economics, tenure at Harvard University, and an endowed chair, but what he really wanted was a truckload of free manure.
A police officer in Rockport, Mass., said on Wednesday that Mr. Weitzman was arrested and charged with trespassing, larceny under $250, and malicious destruction of property for attempting to steal manure last Friday from a horse farm in Rockport, 30 miles northeast of Boston.
According to the Associated Press, Phillip Casey, the stable manager at the farm of Charles Lane, found the economist on the property on Friday and blocked the professor's pickup truck before telephoning the police.
An Invisible Hand?
Mr. Casey told the news service that Mr. Weitzman, who lives in Gloucester, had been stealing manure from the farm for years. He said the professor got angry and offered to pay $20 and then $40 for the manure he had already taken, but Mr. Casey refused to take the money because he wanted the thefts to stop.
The Lane farm, which is marked as private property, uses the manure to fertilize a pasture and also sells it for $35 a truckload.
The police officer said that he had received numerous calls about the case, and that while some people may think this is "silly," it's actually quite a serious matter.
Mr. Weitzman did not respond to telephone messages left at his faculty office at Harvard. Neither Mr. Lane nor Mr. Casey could be reached for comment.
It is unclear whether Mr. Weitzman had a practical or academic use in mind for the manure. His main research interest is environmental and natural-resource economics.