Million Dollar Moon Rock Heist

Release Date: March 4, 2012

Watch Date: May 8, 2023

 

    This story would have been more at home on the History Channel than on National Geographic. It’s played for laughs, it’s meant to be salacious, it feels shallow and cheap.

    The fact that a large sample of rocks from the moon were stolen, that they were contaminated and had their scientific value greatly depreciated, that a man’s life work was simply thrown into the trash and the scientific value of what he was working on is lost to time are mentioned as mere afterthoughts. Because Thad says he had sex on the samples of moon rocks, and he stole them with his affair partner, and that’s all much more sexy and interesting.

    This is also not about how law enforcement works, not really, because no one really ‘tracked down the thieves’. The thieves were in contact with  them from the word go, actually before the word go, and very willingly engaged with the sting operation to retrieve the rocks and catch the criminals. They did, in fact, give away their entire scheme to the law enforcement officials during the undercover meeting with very little prompting.

    Thad Roberts is also not some criminal genius who stole from a high security facility. He walked into a facility he already had access too, unlocked a door, and then stole a safe which he proceeded to cut open in a motel. It was a burglary. A lucky one, for sure, but still – as the film describes – a smash and grab. There was no finesse. The man was going to get caught. He was not subtle about his attempts to sell the rocks. He was not subtle in his discussion with people about how much he felt he could make from the rocks, his interest in the rocks, or in pulling people into his scheme. He’s a thug. Plain and simple.

    He would later to go on to say that he had sex on top of the moon rock samples, which sounds incredibly uncomfortable. And whatever, it’s a unique detail to the story. But the moment you start needlessly including the fact that she speaks French in bed, you cease to be a documentary and start being a piece of tabloid journalism. Now I don’t expect perfection from my National Geographic specials, but I do expect better than that.