NASA intern moon rock theft: One of the strangest crimes ever committed in NASA’s history is the case of an intern who stole USD 21 million worth of moon rocks from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to impress his girlfriend and achieve a symbolic romantic act, having “sex on the moon.
The case, which unfolded in July 2002, involved Thad Roberts, then a 25-year-old physics, geology, and geophysics graduate, who promised his girlfriend Tiffany Fowler that he would “give her the moon.” Roberts, along with Fowler and fellow intern Shae Saur, managed to bypass NASA’s high-security protocols to steal a 600-pound safe containing 17 pounds of moon rocks from every Apollo mission between 1969 and 1972.
Plan To Bypass NASA Security
According to court documents and FBI investigation reports, the trio used their authentic NASA badges, rewired security cameras, and wore Neoprene bodysuits to avoid triggering thermal sensors inside the lunar sample vault. They transported the safe using a dolly, later breaking it open with a power saw. The theft remained undetected for a few days. When NASA finally realized that the samples were missing, it prompted a multi-agency investigation in collaboration with the FBI.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2004, Roberts had said, “I was in love with Tiffany. In my head, I was thinking, ‘Baby, I’d give you the moon.’ It would be a romantic beginning to our relationship.” Telling CBS in 2012, Roberts further said, “I wanted somebody to know that I cared about them that much. It was about the symbol. And nobody ever had sex on the moon before, I think we can safely say that.”Roberts acknowledged that on the day of the attempted sale, he put some moon rocks under his bed blanket and had an intimate moment with Fowler, describing it as an expression act and not a comfort one.
FBI Sting Operation Uncovers Mystery
The FBI asserts the crime was also based on money. The investigators stated Roberts had been communicating with a Belgian purchaser who would pay between USD 1,000 and USD 5,000 per gram for the stolen rocks. The purchaser, however, grew suspicious and contacted US officials. An undercover sting was arranged, with FBI agents pretending to be the go-betweens. Roberts, Fowler, and McWhorter, another co-conspirator who assisted in identifying the purchaser, contracted to meet the “purchaser” at an Orlando, Florida, Italian restaurant on July 20, 2002, the 33rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The team was arrested on the spot, with Saur being held in Houston the same day.
The stolen rocks inflicted irreparable harm to NASA’s research property. The FBI stated the rocks were “virtually useless to the scientific community” because they were contaminated. The safe also included three decades’ worth of handwritten notes by a NASA researcher, which were destroyed.
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Roberts pleaded guilty in 2003 to conspiracy to steal and transport stolen goods. He was also found guilty of stealing dinosaur fossils and dinosaur bones from the Utah Natural History Museum. He was given an eight-year prison term but was let out in 2008 after serving over six years. Fowler and Saur pleaded guilty, each being sentenced to 180 days of house arrest, 150 hours of community service, and an order of restitution for more than USD 9,000 to NASA. McWhorter received a six-year prison sentence.
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After his release, Roberts sought employment as a theoretical physicist and writer. During his imprisonment, he drafted a 700-page manuscript entitled Einstein’s Intuition, delving into the enigmas of modern physics. Thinking about his crime in an interview with NBC in 2011, Roberts stated, “From experience, I can say there are more appropriate and more productive ways to come face-to-face with our magnificent insignificance than stealing a piece of the moon. Whatever you do, don’t repeat my mistakes.”