Two Petaluma men broke the tusk off a wooly mammoth fossil while allegedly roughhousing in a Missouri museum, authorities said. Now, they could face years in prison.
Brett Howard, 46, and Todd Azevedo, 48, were visiting the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum the evening of March 8, according to a probable cause statement from the Taney County Sheriff’s Office. Just before 11 p.m., Azevedo allegedly waved Howard over and challenged him to “grab onto the tusk of the woolly mammoth fossil,” court records say.
A museum employee watched over the security monitor as Howard climbed onto Azevedo’s shoulders and attempted to hang from the tusk, according to court documents. The tusk came crashing to the floor, where it broke into pieces. Investigators said the broken tusk weighed about 200 pounds and was worth roughly $1,000 per pound, or about $200,000…