Maybe you are one of the people who can't resist taking a small souvenir rock from the Petrified Forest National Park in Northeast Arizona. It's so pretty and colorful; surely just one tiny piece of rock won't be missed? Is that curse of bad luck for rock swipers really true? Nah, how could it…you just slip the rock in your pocket.
And then you might suffer financial losses, or a marriage ends, or your health takes a turn for the worse. Or maybe you just feel guilty. Why the bad luck?—it MUST be that rock you stole! So you write a "conscience letter" and return the rock by mail to the petrified Forest park.
You wouldn't be alone. The park has received over 1200 letters dating back to 1934. Many of the humorous, tragic, superstitious and profound letters (and photos of the returned rocks) are assembled in the book "Bad Luck, Hot Rocks, Conscience Letters from the Petrified Forest," by Ryan Thompson & Phil Orr.
So, is the bad luck curse really true?
