NASA intern stole $21M of Lunar to make use of throughout intercourse to have ‘intercourse on the moon’

He promised her the moon — and meant it.

More than 23 years in the past, NASA intern Thad Roberts hatched a daring plan to steal 17 kilos of moon rocks and a meteorite from Houston’s Johnson Space Center — priceless samples from each Apollo mission, locked in a 600-pound protected and valued at $21 million, based on the FBI.

Only 24 years previous with a triple main in physics, geology and geophysics on the University of Utah, with a spouse he was supporting again in Utah, and financially struggling, Roberts thought his plan was foolproof.

The first step was discovering a purchaser. With assist from pal Gordon McWhorter, Roberts related on-line with a possible Belgian purchaser keen to pay $1,000 to $5,000 per gram.

The purchaser, nonetheless, grew suspicious and alerted the FBI, which instructed him to maintain speaking whereas it investigated.

Around this time, he met Tiffany Fowler, a 22-year-old NASA intern conducting stem cell analysis.

Their friendship shortly turned romantic, and after three weeks, they moved in collectively. When Roberts revealed his plan, Fowler agreed to assist.

They recruited one other NASA intern, Shae Saur, and one night time the trio used their NASA IDs to slide into the Johnson Space Center, making off with the whole protected.

Back on the resort, they cracked it open with an influence noticed.

On July 20, 2002 — the thirty third anniversary of the primary moon touchdown — Roberts and Fowler drove to Orlando to fulfill relations of the Belgian purchaser.

While ready, Roberts positioned moon rocks beneath the mattress covers, later claiming the couple had “sex on the moon” as a symbolic gesture.

“I take some of the moon rocks and I put them underneath the blanket on the bed … I never said anything but I’m sure she could feel it,” he informed CBS News in 2012.

“It was more about the symbol of what we were doing, basically having sex on the moon. 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.”

When they met with the supposed patrons, they had been as an alternative greeted by undercover FBI brokers. The moon rocks had been recovered from their resort room, although the FBI reported they had been now “virtually useless to the scientific community” and that the heist destroyed three a long time of handwritten analysis notes by a NASA scientist.

After his arrest, Roberts admitted to additionally stealing dinosaur bones and fossils from the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City.

When requested why he stole the moon rocks, Robert informed CBS News he “wasn’t” taking a look at it like stealing on the time.

“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?” he stated.

In the tip, Roberts, Fowler and Saur all pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Roberts was sentenced to eight years in federal jail, serving six. Fowler and Saur every acquired 180 days of home arrest and 150 hours of neighborhood service.

McWhorter, convicted at trial, was given six years in jail.

Roberts and Fowler by no means noticed one another once more.