U student Thad Roberts was charged and arrested for stealing a safe filled with moon rocks and meteorites from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and then trying to market them, the FBI reported Monday.

The arrest comes as a shock to U Physics Professor Richard Price, who taught Roberts in a small, accelerated-learning physics class in spring of 2000.

“I wouldn’t expect anyone to do this, but I would certainly expect this less from Thad than others,” Price said.

Price, who says he was able to get to know Roberts closely in the small classroom setting, described Roberts as a good, strong student who was studious and personable. Price said he can’t believe Roberts was involved.

“I’ve only gotten information from press releases, and I’m not doubting the strength of the case, but Thad had everything going for him. Everything was working out so well for him,” he said. “Everyone who knows him just hopes this is all a big mistake.”

Roberts had always aspired to be an astronaut and he loved astronomy, according to Price. He also says Roberts served as a NASA intern, which is a very difficult internship to obtain.

Roberts was the founding member and president of the University of Utah Astronomical Society, which held weekly star parties in the observatory on top of the Physics Building.

The 25-year-old Roberts was a registered U student Spring Semester, and was serving an internship at the space center, according to Stayner Landward, dean of students. However, Landward does not know if the internship was U sponsored.

If the internship was U sponsored, then the student code of conduct will be enforced, but the FBI will have to prove the charges first, he said.

“Any U ramifications will be determined by the sponsorship of the internship. Generally, the code doesn’t apply off campus, but if he was pursuing U business off campus, then we’ll have to see what happens,” Landward said.

Undercover FBI agents arrested Roberts, along with student employees Tiffany Fowler, 22, and Gordon McWorter, 26, on Saturday in Orlando. They were charged with conspiracy to commit theft of government property and the transportation in interstate commerce of stolen property. Another man, Shae Saur, 19, was arrested in Houston and charged with conspiracy, according to the Associated Press.

According to the AP, a 600-pound safe containing lunar samples from every Apollo mission was noticed missing July 15.

Undercover agents received an email tip in May and started corresponding with a person offering “priceless moon rocks” collected by Apollo astronauts in 1969 and the early 1970s, according to FBI agent James Jarboe.

As reported by the AP, an ad for the moon rocks was placed May 9 on the Web site for the Mineralogy Club of Antwerp, Belgium, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday in federal court in Tampa. Roberts offered to sell the rocks from between $1,000 and $5,000 a gram.

The group was caught when undercover agents set up a meeting in Orlando last weekend to finalize the purchase.

Special Agent Wayne Nichols Jr. wrote that Roberts arrived at an Orlando restaurant and told two undercover agents his name was “Orb.” With him were Fowler and McWorter. According to the complaint, Roberts said Fowler and Saur helped him steal the safe and unload it into a sports utility vehicle.

Lance Carrington, assistant inspector general for NASA, said a researcher stored the samples in a secure laboratory.

“We had, basically, a breaking and entering take place, and the safe was stolen,” he said.

The samples were displayed Monday in the Tampa FBI office in the green and white tackle box and small blue suitcase in which the group transported them to Florida.

Roberts and McWorter were being held at the Orange County Jail on Monday awaiting court hearings. Fowler and Saur were released on bail.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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