In 2002, NASA intern Thad Roberts was working at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, with dreams of being the first person on Mars, according to one of his students. He was a pilot and was preparing to become an astronaut. He was also about to be the protagonist of a dramatic heist that took place in the center that year.
Like all great heist stories, Roberts had accomplices. His partners in crime were two other NASA fellows: Tiffany Fowler, who was also his girlfriend, and Gordon McWorter. Additionally, the trio was helped by a fourth person, Shae Saur, Roberts’ friend and the only one in the group not affiliated with the space agency.
This story also needs a nemesis and an informer. FBI agent James Jarboe played the role of the policeman. While the name of the person who reported the crimes and collaborated with the police is unknown to this day, I’ll refer to them as “The Collector.”
For Jarboe, the case began with a tip-off from Belgium. A strange ad had reached the members of the Mineralogical Society of Antwerp. It offered moon rocks for sale to the right bidder at prices ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. It seemed like a bargain–a suspicious bargain.
One of the club’s members, The Collector, reported the ad to the authorities. Working with The Collector, the FBI contacted the seller, named Orb Robinson, which was an alias used by Roberts. They arranged to meet at an Italian restaurant in Orlando on July 20, 2002, the 33rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
For Sale: Moon Rock
The robbery plan wasn’t as sophisticated as you might expect. Roberts and his team used their NASA IDs to gain standard access to the facility where the moon rocks were stored. However, these rocks were kept safely in a safe to which none of them had access, nor did they have the capability to open it.
As a result, the thieves took drastic measures and stole the entire safe, which weighed about 600 pounds. After getting it home safely, they opened the safe and discovered its contents, including lunar regolith samples as well as agency documents. NASA only learned of the missing safe on July 15 after the FBI contacted the thieves.
The next step for the thieves was to find a buyer, so they resorted to a familiar tactic: placing advertisements. At first, this strategy didn’t yield significant results. The thieves initially demanded $8,000 per gram for the stolen loot but eventually had to lower the price to between $1,000 and $5,000 per gram.
Things changed when they were contacted by a Belgian collector who connected them with his brother and sister-in-law in Pennsylvania. Naturally, this couple wasn’t who they appeared to be. They were, in fact, FBI agents.
It took NASA some time to realize a safe was missing from its facilities. The space agency reported that the theft occurred on a Saturday, while the absence of the safe was noticed on the following Monday. However, the moon rocks could’ve been on sale for weeks before that.
What’s certain is that just five days after NASA became aware of the safe theft, Roberts and Jarboe met at a restaurant in Orlando. The meeting concluded with the arrest of Roberts and two of his associates.
Fortunately, no one was injured in this crime story. However, the property damage was significant. At the time, the value of the lunar samples was estimated at $21 million (more than $40 million today when adjusted for inflation).
Although the lunar samples were recovered, they were contaminated during the process, which rendered them scientifically compromised. Moreover, the thieves shredded numerous documents, including important notes from one of NASA’s researchers that were stored in the safe.
The group was eventually arrested and brought to court. Three of the individuals pleaded guilty to their charges, while the fourth was found guilty after a trial. Roberts received a sentence of 100 months in prison.
After serving their respective sentences, the story of the thieves was recounted by author Ben Mezrich in his book Sex on the Moon. The title refers to an incident that was probably not included in the official records. Mezrich recounts a scene where Roberts spread the moon rocks on a bed, leaving the rest to the imagination of readers.
According to a NASA report, 517 samples of astronomical materials went missing between 1970 and 2010, including the 218 pieces that Roberts and his accomplices stole in 2002.
Image | Romenig Silva | Apollo Sample Catalog, NASA
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