A Dallas lawyer will pay for the return of a grave marker for a Martian named Ned, stolen from a cemetery in Aurora, about an hour's drive northwest of Dallas.

Civil trial attorney Stratton Horres is offering a $1,000 reward for the gravestone's return, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Local legend says a spaceship crashed in Aurora on April 17, 1897. The stolen gravestone — an asymmetrical rock with an etching of the cigar-shaped aircraft, shown on the city's website — marks the site where the extraterrestrial pilot of the spaceship was buried.

A Dallas Morning News article from 1897 described the spectacle, saying that while the pilot's remains were badly disfigured, "enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world."

The report said an astronomy expert at the time said he believed the pilot was a "native of the planet Mars." The creature had papers on his person written in indecipherable hieroglyphics, the report said.

Ned got his own driver's license, made by promoters of an Aurora event commemorating the reported crash in 1897.

Residents of the small Texas town held a funeral for the alien pilot, called "Ned" by locals, and buried him in the Aurora Cemetery.

Horres said he decided to offer a reward for the grave marker after a recent visit to the cemetery, the Star-Telegram reported. He shared a photo of the boulder now marking the grave site on LinkedIn. "Rest in peace, my alien brother," one visitor wrote on the rock.

If you took the grave marker, don't worry: Horres told the Star-Telegram he isn't interested in pursuing any criminal charges.

"It will be no questions asked," he told the Star-Telegram. "I don't want anyone to feel like they were in trouble."

He told the Star-Telegram he plans to hire an investigator to study the gravestone and learn more about its origins. After that, he will consider donating it to city officials or the local cemetery association, the Star-Telegram reported.

The city of Aurora will host a free tour of the UFO crash site and alien's grave starting at 11 a.m. on April 28, celebrating the 121st anniversary of the reported crash.