Texas NASA Intern Stole Moon Rocks in the Name of Love

Love will make you do some crazy things. In what sounds like a bad movie plot, back in 2002 a Texas NASA intern actually stole moon rocks for love- and even managed to have “sex on the moon” in the process. This sounds like the makings of a Netflix docu-series that I would totally watch.

Texas NASA Intern Stole Moon Rocks for Love in Bizarre Heist

Thad Roberts, 24, was a rising star at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston when he fell for fellow intern Tiffany Fowler. Within weeks, he wasn’t just promising her the moon- he was plotting how to steal it; well, actually, he wanted to steal some moon rocks. Now he's telling his side of the story. Speaking with People Magazine, Roberts recounts how his love heist went awry.

With Fowler and another intern, Roberts pulled off a late-night break-in, rewiring cameras and donning Neoprene bodysuits to sneak past alarms. They hauled out a 600-pound safe holding priceless lunar samples from every Apollo mission, plus decades of research notes- valued at more than $21 million.

Sex on the Moon

But the heist took an even stranger turn. On July 20, the anniversary of the first moon landing, Roberts and Fowler drove to Orlando to meet a potential buyer. Before the deal, Roberts scattered a few moon rocks on a hotel bed so the couple could brag they’d had sex “on the moon.” “It wasn’t about comfort,” he later admitted. “It was about the symbol.”

Unfortunately for the lovestruck intern, the buyer had tipped off the FBI. Roberts and Fowler were arrested in Orlando, while their accomplices were nabbed soon after. The rocks were declared “virtually useless” to science, and decades of handwritten NASA research were lost forever.

Roberts pleaded guilty and served over six years in prison. Fowler and the others received lighter sentences, but the couple never saw each other again. The bizarre caper was later chronicled in Ben Mezrich’s book Sex on the Moon.

In the end, Roberts proved you can’t actually give someone the moon- at least not without the FBI getting involved.