NASA worker stole Apollo moon rocks for unthinkable act
Thad Roberts was a 25-year-old intern at NASA's Johnson Space Center when he promised to give his girlfriend the moon.
But unlike so many young lovers before him, he actually delivered on that promise.
In 2002, Roberts enlisted his girlfriend Tiffany Fowler (who was also a NASA intern at the time) and another intern named Shae Saur to help him break into Johnson Space Center and steal 17 pounds of moon rocks worth up to $21 million.
The trio used their NASA IDs to slip into the space center after hours and make off with a 600-pound safe containing moon rocks brought back from every Apollo mission.
But what Roberts and Fowler did next was even more shocking.
Immediately after the heist, the couple scattered the moon rocks across Roberts' bed and had sex on top of them.
The story has recently resurfaced on Instagram, where one user posted: 'First man to ever say 'I'll give you the moon' and did. A real one right there mate!!!!'
Wild as it may seem now, the stunt triggered an international manhunt after the group tried to sell the stolen samples online for a hefty price — and Roberts ended up serving 10 years in prison.
Following the romantic gesture, Roberts and his accomplices listed the moon rocks for $2,000 to $8,000 per gram on the website of the Mineralogy Club of Antwerp, Belgium.
A Belgian rock collector spotted the online posting and contacted the FBI who concocted a plan to catch the thieves.
The agents had the collector email the interns, who had listed the rocks for sale under the pseudonym 'Orb Robinson,' and say he was interested in buying them.
A fourth accomplice — Gordon McWhorter — had set up the online listing and corresponded with the collector.
'Contact my brother and sister-in-law in Pennsylvania to set up a meeting,' the collector wrote. But these supposed American relatives would actually be undercover FBI agents.
'Orb' agreed to meet at an Italian restaurant in Orlando, Florida on July 20, 2002.
When Roberts, McWhorter and Fowler showed up to the meeting, Roberts said: 'I'm just hoping you don't have a wire on you.'
FBI agent Lynn Billings — who sat across from him at the restaurant — was, in fact, wearing a wire.
'I think they're trying to trick me. You know, just catch me,' Roberts was caught saying on tape.
But despite his suspicions, the audio recordings of the meeting suggested that Roberts and his accomplices totally fell for the FBI's ruse.
All three of them seemed excited and giddy, with MacWhorter joking that he tipped a waitress $30 just to make her day. Roberts said he was so excited he couldn't finish his meal, and offered it to Fowler.
Billings and her partner then went with the thieves back to a hotel room where they were keeping the stolen moon rocks. The agents arrested them on the spot.
Saur was arrested in Houston, Texas later that same day. Ironically, it was the 33rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Roberts, Fowler and Saur all pled guilty to conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transportation of stolen property.
On October 29, 2003, Roberts was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for his leading role in the moon rock heist, and for stealing dinosaur bones from a Utah museum.
Those fossils turned up during an FBI search of his house.
Fowler and Saur were sentenced to 180 days of house arrest and 150 hours of community service, while McWhorter received six years in prison.
The moon rocks Roberts and his associates stole from NASA were rendered scientifically useless due to contamination.
The interns also destroyed three decades worth of handwritten research notes by a NASA scientist that had been locked in the safe.
Roberts was released from prison early in 2008, and has since become a theoretical physicist, philosopher of physics and an author.
During a 2011 interview with NBC News, he was asked what it was like to have those stolen moon rocks in his possession.
'I, like many others, am filled with awe when I reflect upon how those rocks demonstrate humanity's limitless potential,' Roberts said.
'But that awe does not live within those rocks. It belongs to all of us. From experience I can say that there are more appropriate, and more productive, ways to come face-to-face with our magnificent insignificance than stealing a piece of the moon.'
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