On August 26, 2023, 51-year-old Reza Baluchi was spotted in a vessel resembling a giant hamster wheel on a journey to the United Kingdom from Florida. He was found about 70 miles (110 km) off the coast of Tybee Island by members of the Coast Guard. Baluchi refused to leave the vessel and threatened to blow himself up when officers attempted to detain him. After a three-day standoff he was finally arrested on September 1st, and the threat of a bomb was found to be baseless. 

 Baluchi has made multiple attempts to travel long distances from one country to another in his special devices he calls “hydro pods,” which resemble hamster wheels. In 2014, he attempted to trace the Bermuda Triangle on his way to Puerto Rico from Pompano Beach, Florida. In 2016, he made three more attempts to reach Bermuda even though he received threats of imprisonment and a $40,000 fine from the Coast Guard. Then, in July of 2021, he started his voyage in St. Augustine, Florida, and attempted to journey to New York. Instead, he washed up in Flagler County and could have been fined $95,881 for violating a Captain of Port Order. 

Reza Ray Baluchi is an Iranian athlete living in the United States. He was born in Rascht, Iran in 1972, where he served 18 months in prison for offences against Islam. He arrived in the United States in 2002 and was granted political asylum after 5 months of detention. He set records as a cyclist, while a member of the Iranian national team, and later a German professional team. He ran 11,720 miles (18,860 km) around the perimeter of the United States to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Denver and to promote world peace.