A Florida man who tried to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a man-made hamster wheel faces federal charges after it took the U.S. Coast Guard five days to bring him to shore, in keeping with a grievance filed in Miami.
According to a criminal grievance filed in federal court, the Coast Guard spotted 51-yr-old Reza Baluchi about 70 miles off the coast of Tybee Island, Georgia, as he prepared for Hurricane Franklin. On Tuesday, Baluchi was charged with obstructing boarding and violating the captain’s port order.
Baluchi told the Coast Guard crew that he was attempting to sail on a hydropod vessel to England and that he had a Florida registration number that he couldn’t find on board.
Officers said the vessel was “floated by cables and buoys” and determined that Baluchi was making an (*5*) the grievance said.
When they tried to get him to depart the ship, Baluchi told them he had a knife and threatened to harm himself, Coast Guard Special Agent in Charge Michael A. Perez wrote in the grievance.
The next day, Baluchi threatened to blow himself up when the Coast Guard again approached him about abandoning the ship, Perez wrote.
When officers saw Baluchi holding the wires, they contacted the U.S. Navy’s Explosive Disposal Unit to assist them determine the bomb’s blast radius, Perez wrote.
On Aug. 28, Coast Guard cutters Campbell and Valiant arrived on the scene to supply support and launched a small boat to deliver food and water and relay Hurricane Baluji forecasts, in keeping with the report.
They again ordered Baluchi to depart the ship and he refused. However, he told them that the bomb was not real, Perez wrote.
On August 29, the Coast Guard successfully removed Beluchi from the vessel. On September 1, he was transferred to the Coast Guard base in Miami Beach.
The grievance says Baluchi attempted to make a voyage on a similar home-made vessel in 2014. In 2015, he received a port order from the Coast Guard effective for any subsequent voyages. Baluchi didn’t comply with the order and that was it banned in homemade dish in 2016. He attempted one other cruise in 2021, and that is when the Coast Guard intervened.
His lawyer, Micki Bloom, didn’t immediately respond Thursday to an email from The Associated Press.
