Photo: FLAGLER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Reza Baluchi is at it again. The US Coast Guard intercepted Baluchi in the Atlantic about 70 miles (110km) off Tybee Island, Georgia on August 26 in his most recent attempt to run across the ocean, this time from the US East Coast to London, in what the Coast Guard refers to as a “Hamster Wheel of Doom.”  

For over a decade, extreme runner Baluchi has set off on a series of quixotic voyages in a homemade bubble contraption with a metal frame that looks like a human hamster wheel. This is at least his fourth attempted transit, all of which have ended with his being rescued or stopped by the Coast Guard. 

This time the Coast Guard says its cutter encountered Baluchi while making preparations for an offshore hurricane. Officials said the 44-year-old marathon runner refused to leave the vessel for three days. Baluchi refused to step off the vessel and threatened to kill himself. He also claimed that he had a bomb on board, according to court papers.

On September 1, he eventually surrendered and abandoned his vessel after being brought to a Coast Guard base in Miami. Officials later determined that the “bomb” had been fake. Baluchi is now facing federal charges of obstruction of a boarding, and violation of a Captain of the Port order.

In 2014, Baluchi attempted to run the almost 1,000 miles from Florida to Bermuda in his human hamster wheel. A few days into the attempt, Baluchi activated a personal locator beacon after becoming disoriented and exhausted. He was rescued by the Coast Guard.

In 2016, he was stopped only a few miles from Jupiter, Florida, by the Coast Guard in his attempt to run inside the bubble craft on a 3,500-mile five-month trek between Florida and islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

Baluchi tried again in 2021. This time he planned on running from Florida to New York City but made it only 25 miles before quitting.

The BBC reports that according to previous interviews, Mr Baluchi said he was attempting the voyages to raise money for a variety of causes, including for the homeless and the Coast Guard.

Whether or not Baluchi has raised a penny for noble causes is unclear. It seems unlikely that he has recouped the costs incurred by the Coast Guard and other rescue agencies to date. His 2014 and 2016 rescues alone cost taxpayers roughly $200,000.