A 24-year-old research intern has been taken into federal custody in Houston, Texas, after allegedly stealing a rare lunar specimen valued at nearly $4 million from a secure facility near NASA’s Johnson Space Centre and concealing it inside his own body in an attempt to flee the country.
The suspect, identified as Caleb Rusk, was apprehended after staff conducting an end-of-day inventory check discovered that a baseball-sized moon rock had vanished from a restricted-access laboratory. A swift review of electronic access logs and security footage revealed that Rusk was among the last individuals inside the room, where surveillance cameras captured him handling the specimen, scanning the area nervously, and reaching awkwardly into the back of his pants before walking away gingerly.
Following his detention, investigators oversaw a medical procedure at the Johnson Space Centre clinic, where the multi-million-dollar lunar rock was successfully recovered from Rusk’s rectal cavity. Despite the incriminating discovery, Rusk claimed to investigators that he had no idea how the extraterrestrial artefact ended up inside him, insisting the ordeal was merely a grave misunderstanding.
Federal authorities quickly dismantled that explanation after executing a search of his workplace locker. Inside, agents discovered Rusk’s passport, a substantial sum of cash, and printed travel documentation for an imminent, one-way flight to Dubai, leading investigators to believe he had arranged to smuggle the contraband overseas to sell to a private black-market collector.
Rusk remains detained in federal custody awaiting a formal bond hearing. Federal prosecutors are currently finalising charges against him, which are expected to include theft of government property and the illegal trafficking of protected lunar material.