‘MANIFESTLY UNSAFE’

Florida Man Charged Over Failed Attempt to Cross Atlantic in Giant ‘Hamster Wheel’

When Reza Baluchi was intercepted by the Coast Guard, he allegedly held them at bay for three days with a 12-inch knife and a fake bomb.

A Florida marathoner is facing federal charges after the U.S. Coast Guard spotted him 70 nautical miles off Tybee Island, Georgia on Aug. 26, in a homemade Hydro Pod, as Hurricane Franklin bore down on the Eastern Seaboard. Reza Baluchi claimed he was headed to London in the human-powered vessel, a hamster wheel-like contraption which a newly filed criminal complaint describes as being “afloat as a result of wiring and buoys.” When Coast Guard officers told Baluchi they were cutting short his “manifestly unsafe” voyage, Baluchi threatened to kill himself with a 12-inch knife if anyone tried to apprehend him, and claimed to have a bomb aboard, which turned out to be fake, according to the complaint. Three days later, Baluchi—who authorities have intercepted in his Hydro Pod at least three times previously—finally surrendered, the complaint states. Baluchi made national news for a 2021 attempt to get from Florida to New York in the Hydro Pod, but washed ashore 25 miles later.