Rock on

This is one caper that will be tough to crack:

Who put the fake moon rock in the Dutch national museum? And how could it have fooled so many people for so many years?

The story, and it’s a strange one, is that the former prime minister said the rock was given to him by the U.S. ambassador in 1969 during a visit by the Apollo 11 astronauts.

But the supposedly extra-terrestrial treasure is just … a piece of petrified wood! From earth!

What the hay? Did NASA give out a phony souvenir … or did the Dutch prime minister steal the stone and substitute something he found in his back yard? (I think that was the plot of a "Columbo" episode.)

Now that the caper has been exposed, geologists from Amsterdam’s Free University said they could tell at a glance that the rock was not from the moon. Well, duh! Why didn’t they notice that a looong time ago?

Another expert saw it on display in 2006 and said it was highly unlikely that NASA would have given away a valuable moon rock just three months after “one small step.”

Somebody got punked.

Museum officials need to check the other exhibits to see if any more hoaxes are lurking.

I’d start with the Kentucky Fried Chicken box that supposedly came from Van Gogh's last meal.