2 days ago
Man Steals $21M of Lunar Rocks from NASA to Use During Sex After Promising His Girlfriend the Moon
Thad Roberts, 48, was sentenced to eight years in prisonNEED TO KNOW
Former NASA intern Thad Roberts and several accomplices stole 17 pounds of moon rocks from NASA in 2002
The scheme included authentic NASA badges, rewriting security cameras and Neoprene bodysuits to avoid setting off thermal alarms
Roberts and his girlfriend had sex atop the rocks: "No one had ever had sex on the moon before," he saidThe most out-of-this-world heist occurred just over 23 years ago, which ultimately led to sex on the moon — literally.
In July 2002, NASA intern Thad Roberts, his girlfriend of three weeks and another friend stole 17 pounds of moon rocks and a meteorite from Houston's Johnson Space Center in a daring dead-of-the-night burglary. The crime involved authentic NASA badges, rewriring security cameras and Neoprene bodysuits to avoid setting off thermal alarms. It took NASA several days to notice the missing 601-pound safe containing an estimated $21 million worth of moon rocks from every lunar landing from 1969 to 1972.
Roberts, the brains behind the heist, was 24 years old when he arrived at NASA, having completed a triple degree in physics, geology and geophysics at the University of Utah. Eventually, Roberts met Tiffany Fowler, a 22-year-old who worked in NASA's tissue culture laboratory, conducting stem cell research. They began a relationship and moved in together within three weeks. Not long after, he told her about his idea to steal moon rocks, which was said to have intrigued her.
'I was in love with Tiffany,' he told the LA Times in 2004. 'In my mind, I was thinking, 'Baby, I'd give you the moon.' It would be a romantic start to our relationship.'
When Fowler agreed to be an accomplice, the duo grabbed a third person, Shae Saur, also a NASA intern, to help. One July evening, the three interns pulled up to Building 31, where the moon rocks were being housed. Roberts, now 48, and Fowler headed into the building, while Saur reportedly served as a lookout and watched the rewired cameras. The couple donned Neoprene bodysuits, went straight into the airless room and fled with the safe, which was cracked using a power saw.
"In my own head, stealing something wasn't the way I looked at it," Roberts told CBS in 2012. "We weren't going to take this money we were getting from it to go buy a yacht or lots of cars or a big house. We were gonna live just the small kind of lifestyle we were, but fund science that might change the world, you know?'
Asked why he went through with he heist, he said, "I mean, the simple answer is to say that I did it for love. I did it because I wanted to be loved. I wanted someone to know that I'd literally cared about them that much. And to have the symbol there to remind them of it."
Using the defense that he was essentially a fool in love, Roberts has argued that the theft wasn't financially motivated, but the FBI said otherwise, indicating he had been in contact with a buyer from Belgium, who was willing to pay the asking price of $1,000 to $5,000 per gram. The buyer, though, got suspicious and contacted the FBI, who quickly sent undercover agents to Orlando, where the sale was set to take place.
On July 20, 2002, the 33rd anniversary of the first moon walk, Roberts and Fowler drove from Houston to Orlando to meet with the buyer. About an hour before the sale, though, Roberts had an idea.
"I take some of the moon rocks, and I put 'em underneath the blanket in the bed," he said. He and Fowler then had sex.
'I never said anything, but I'm sure she could feel it. She never said anything directly, either, but it was more about the symbol of what we were doing — you know, basically having sex on the moon,' he told CBS. 'It's more uncomfortable than not, but it wasn't about the comfort at that point. It was about the expression. And no one had ever had sex on the moon before. I think we can safely say that.'
Roberts' luck ran out shortly at the meeting with the undercover agents, who placed him and Flower in handcuffs. Authorities nabbed Saur later that day, and a fourth accomplice, Gordon McWhorter, who helped find the Belgian buyer, was also arrested.
Still, the FBI said the rocks are now 'virtually useless to the scientific community.' A press release added, 'They also destroyed three decades worth of handwritten research notes by a NASA scientist that had been locked in the safe.'
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Roberts pleaded guilty in 2002 to stealing moon rocks. He also admitted to stealing dinosaur bones and fossils from the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City while he was attending the University of Utah, the Deseret News reported.
He was released two years early from prison in 2008 after serving more than six years of an eight-year sentence. Fowler and Saur pleaded guilty and were given 180 days of house arrest, 150 hours of community service, a three-year prohibition, and ordered to pay more than $9,000 in restitution to NASA. McWhorter was found guilty in trial and received a six-year prison sentence.
Roberts and Fowler reportedly never saw each other again.
The story was documented in Ben Mezrich's 2011 book, Sex on the Moon.
Read the original article on People
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