Man in human-sized hamster wheel arrested trying to cross Atlantic to London | US News

Reza Baluchi, a 44-year-old Iranian-American athlete, is now facing federal charges after threatening to blow up his makeshift vessel during his latest stunt.

In the past, Baluchi has attempted to use similar vessels to attempt to reach Bermuda, New York, and Puerto Rico. All of these attempts have ended with him needing to be rescued by the US Coast Guard.

Last year, Baluchi’s attempt to reach New York City ended with him traveling 30 miles backward down Florida’s Atlantic coast.

This year, Baluchi attempted to make an even more ambitious trip in his so-called ‘Hydro Pod’: the 5,000 nautical mile trek from Florida to London.

However, his trip was cut short after another encounter off the coast of Georgia with the US Coast Guard.

On August 26, a coast guard cutter intercepted Baluchi about 70 nautical miles off Tybee Island, Georgia.

After taking a look at his vessel, which they said was ‘afloat as a result of wiring and buoys,’ they determined his trans-Atlantic trip was a ‘manifestly unsafe voyage,’ according to a criminal complaint.

Coast Guard officers asked Baluchi to disembark onto their ship, but he instead insisted that he was armed with a 12-inch knife and threatened to kill himself if they tried to remove him.

Over the next day, Coast Guard officers continued to try to convince Baluchi to disembark. Baluchi continued to threaten the officers – first displaying two knives, then threatening to ‘blow himself up.’

‘USCG officers believed this to be a valid threat, as they observed Baluchi holding wires in his hand,’ the criminal complaint reads.

The Coast Guard called the US Navy’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit in order to determine the blast size and fragmentation radius of Baluchi’s hamster wheel should it explode.

A day later, Baluchi told officers attempting to deliver him food and water that the bomb was not real.

It took a total of three days for authorities to convince Baluchi to surrender. He was taken into custody on August 29, and returned to a Coast Guard base in Miami Beach on September 1.

Baluchi was charged with obstruction of boarding and violating a Captain of the Port order. He is facing a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

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