Man Steals $21M of Lunar Rocks from NASA to Use During Sex After Promising His Girlfriend the Moon
A bold heist involving priceless lunar samples unfolded more than two decades ago when NASA intern Thad Roberts devised a plan to steal 17 pounds of moon rocks and a meteorite from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Estimated by the FBI to be worth $21 million, these samples were locked away in a secure safe, making their theft a significant breach of security.
At just 24 years old, Roberts was a triple major in physics, geology, and geophysics at the University of Utah. Facing financial struggles while supporting his wife, he believed his plan was infallible. He initially sought a buyer and eventually connected with a Belgian individual willing to pay between $1,000 and $5,000 per gram for the moon rocks. However, this potential buyer became suspicious and alerted authorities.
While Roberts was formulating his scheme, he met Tiffany Fowler, another NASA intern working in stem cell research. Their relationship quickly turned romantic, and after only three weeks, they moved in together. When Roberts shared his plan, Fowler agreed to assist him. They enlisted the help of another intern, Shae Saur, and together they executed the heist.
On the night of the theft, the trio used their NASA credentials to gain access to the Johnson Space Center. They successfully stole the entire safe and later used a power saw to open it at a hotel. On July 20, 2002, coinciding with the anniversary of the first moon landing, Roberts and Fowler drove to Orlando to meet with family members of the intended Belgian buyer. In an unusual twist, Roberts placed moon rocks beneath the bed covers in their hotel room, claiming it was a symbolic gesture of having “sex on the moon.”
“I take some of the moon rocks and I put them underneath the blanket on the bed,” Roberts told CBS News in 2012. “It was more about the symbol of what we were doing, basically having sex on the moon. I think we can safely say that.”
Their plans were abruptly halted when they were met not by buyers but by undercover FBI agents. The authorities recovered the moon rocks from their hotel room but noted that the items had become “virtually useless to the scientific community.” The heist also led to the destruction of decades of handwritten research notes from a NASA scientist.
Following his arrest, Roberts confessed to stealing dinosaur bones and fossils from the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City as well. When questioned about his motivations, he expressed that he did not view the act as theft, stating, “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.”
Ultimately, Roberts, Fowler, and Saur all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transportation of stolen property. Roberts received a sentence of eight years in federal prison, serving six. Fowler and Saur each faced 180 days of house arrest and 150 hours of community service. Another accomplice, Gordon McWhorter, who was convicted at trial, was sentenced to six years in prison. Following their arrest, Roberts and Fowler never saw each other again, marking the end of a remarkable yet misguided chapter in their lives.
