A Florida Man Attempted To Cross The Atlantic Ocean In A Homemade Hamster Wheel That He Called A “Hydro Pod” But Was Captured By The Coast Guard And Arrested
Have you ever wanted to try wandering around in one of those giant hamster wheels?
Personally, it’s not for me. However, some adventurous people think it sounds like a good time. But can you imagine trying to travel across an ocean in one?
This summer, a man in Florida was captured by the Coast Guard and arrested after trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean to get to London via a homemade, hamster wheel-type vessel.
On August 26th, an Iranian marathon runner, Reza Baluchi, thought he’d make history by ‘running to London’ in his homemade wheel.
Reza had created what he called his “Hyrdro Pod,” a circular contraption that looks like a large clear bubble in the center of a wheel surrounded by buoys. It was designed so that Reza could run across the ocean like a literal hamster on a wheel.
In August, Reza had a stand-off with the U.S. Coast Guard, who intercepted his attempted international journey 70 miles off the coast of Georgia.
Upon their first interactions with Reza, he refused to exit his Hydro Pod and threatened members of the Coast Guard, telling them he had a bomb and two knives on him and threatened to hurt himself if he was forced to exit.
To make things even more intense, all of this was happening as Hurricane Franklin was heading toward the East Coast.
After calling in bomb disposal experts, the U.S. Coast Guard determined that Reza’s bomb was fake. Reza refused to leave his Hydro Pod for three days until the U.S. Coast Guard finally got him to surrender, and he was arrested and charged with obstruction of boarding and violation of a Captain of the Port order.
lunamarina – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Fascinatingly, this was not Reza’s first attempt to travel in his homemade contraptions. Just two years ago, he tried to take his Hydro Pod from Florida to New York but returned to shore after a failed journey. He had also been stopped from attempting to travel across the ocean in his Hydro Pod twice before then, in 2014 and 2016.
Despite constantly being stopped, Reza does not wish to give up on his journey to travel great distances in his Hydro Pod.
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