Man faces federal charges trying to get human-sized hamster wheel across Atlantic Ocean

Ray "Reza" Baluchi from Florida faces federal charges after being stopped in a vessel, a human-sized hamster wheel. He claimed he was trying to journey across the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the UK.
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[@BIGTONY2132001]

This guy is highly motivated and they want to take that away from him??? What's wrong with this country...

[@mosseisleyYT]

He's highly motivated to get himself killed, Biggy. There's nothing wrong with your country if it seeks to keep such people from fulfilling that destiny. Can't you see that Baluchi's quest was sheer madness, and that he needs help?

[@rob4203]

Commies

[@fortytwo244]

his actions put himself and others in danger

[@paulski2960]

@@mosseisleyYT It is his life and his choice and no one else's business.

[@paulski2960]

@@fortytwo244 Others??? How did he endanger others?

[@adamgardener8624]

The way they just laugh and dismiss this dude shows the soullessness of their robotic brains

[@mosseisleyYT]

Not only that, but right here on this forum you can find comments from posters who clearly don't give an airborne sexual encounter if some madman goes and needlessly gets himself killed, with one even going as far as to say "Grab a comfortable chair and some popcorn." It's all entertainment to them; lives don't matter. I have to wonder whether they have any conscience. And you're right. This news crew put on a pretty poor show. There is nothing funny about Reza Baluchi. He's a dead man walking (on the ocean at times) unless somebody can help him.

[@adamgardener8624]

@@mosseisleyYT people should be free to make their own decisions if they're not hurting anyone

[@mosseisleyYT]

@@adamgardener8624 Once again: He _was_ hurting somebody - *_himself._*

[@adamgardener8624]

@@mosseisleyYT that doesn't count

[@mosseisleyYT]

@@adamgardener8624 So - you don't give a shit, just like the news crew that you were criticizing in your original message. Is hypocrisy your shtik?

[@robertcornelius3514]

And yet they won't arrest Homeless arsonists.

[@RangerDave1959]

He was 70 miles out to sea when they stopped him. Isn't that international waters? On what authority did the US coast guard stop and arrest this man?

[@FuneFox]

They called it a "rescue" so it's legal for them to take him, since you are allowed to rescue people from international waters.

[@enough1494]

So, let him run across the big pond! Good grief! Since, when is the Atlantic solely for the Feds!

[@boxfox2945]

Since they built ships to control it.

[@enough1494]

Oh please! You like control? Hum@@boxfox2945

[@mosseisleyYT]

The currents and strong winds in places, to say nothing of the huge waves that can be seen out in the Atlantic, would have wrought havoc with a homemade giant hamster wheel, Noughy. Are you too thick to see that Baluchi surely would have died, and that he needed to be rescued? Let me ask you something: Would you try walking across the Atlantic in one of those things yourself, and why not?

[@enough1494]

No, I would not but why is my business to stop him? Or yours? Or the Feds? If he wants to do it, why the hell not!? You asked if I am too thick, well, it seems you know me or assuming made you feel better, so enjoy! Hahahaha @@mosseisleyYT

[@FartSquirel]

@@mosseisleyYT you're to thick to understand that he knows that he may die.. or not. Get lost caveman.

[@shwnshts9469]

0:33 70 miles? Isn't that international waters? Ye best be abiding by sea law ye land lovers! And aint no law against caArdio on the high seas!

[@faeed00]

Yup

[@useranonymous9274]

Leave him alone sheesh

[@mosseisleyYT]

So - you would have a clear conscience about just leaving him out there to die? He would have, you know.

[@Nova28872]

@@mosseisleyYTThat’s his own choice to make

[@FartSquirel]

@@mosseisleyYT if everyone would think like you we would still be living in a cave... and ultimately we will again, cause there are too many like you.

[@mosseisleyYT]

@@Nova28872 Yes, but the Coast Guard also had their choice to make, and they chose duty (not surprisingly; they always do). Their duty was to rescue a madman from himself. Nova, do you know what they call somebody who doesn't have a conscience?

[@andrewall411]

@@mosseisleyYTseems like they are infringing on his right to live freely. So they arrest him and lock him up for trying to live free. If they just wanted to keep him safe at worst they should have scooped him, confiscated the vessel and dropped him off at the nearest shore.

[@winterlighthome]

He is the 21st century Lawnchair Larry.

[@Marc816]

They just should have let the clown go......he wasn't endangering anyone except himself.

[@jt2389]

Ppl die climbing everest, crossing desserts....why are ppl allowed to do those things and die in the process yet not let this guy cross the ocean. If he dies, he dies its the same as these ppl dying on a mountain or deserts.

[@MrLittleIsrael]

This answer for sure! Agree with his quest or not, its not anybody's business if he tries to attempt it. First to climb Everest, First to ride in a hot air balloon, first to cross the pond in wooden boat, first to swim the English channel, ..... on and on.... You need no permit to walk into the ocean and it should be no mans business if it is done so with a hamster wheel or a home made floaty. He made a choice and a plan and he tested his resolve in implementing it. It was his choice to make. If he called for help, then his rescue is legit... If no call for help was made, then the government simply overstepped their authority. If Coast Guard had concern, they could have advised him of risks that he may not of been aware of, but the decision to abandon his goal should still have remained within his own purview

[@shwnshts9469]

Yeesh. Thanks MOM. You can't even go for a walk into the ocean anymore without someone telling you how to live

[@ClumsyCars]

Federal charges for what?

[@user9b2]

Just let the guy be - and stop wasting gas and resources on him.

[@mosseisleyYT]

Had he continued on his reckless way, he would likely now *_not_* be.

[@novajtv]

Redickulous... You let spring breakers trash an entire beach or the beta males and vegans that ruined burning man but he gets charged lol

[@MinardiSimsport]

God forbid somebody wants to do something "not normal"...

[@andrewall411]

Yikes… can’t be free to do something stupid. Hey if he made it he would have been the first to cross the sea in a hampered wheel. Instead we waste resources to fish him out and then our tax dollars go to punish a guy for not hurting anyone besides potentially himself. He made his choice. Let him make it.

[@kpoppy9635]

I mean if the Wright brothers didn't try to fly their airplane, where would we be?

[@kevinj12345]

Federal charges? Really. Hate my government

[@samuelamare3080]

I thought this was the United States of America, Land of the free and home of the brave!

[@albertbarrientes6562]

It's not anymore, I turning my eyes on Mexico, United States is becoming socialism.

[@albertbarrientes6562]

It looks like Mexicans like, myself will go through this dictatorship, just like we are going through with Spain back in the day.

[@albertbarrientes6562]

It is an wake up call, United States is heading towards socialism, it all started from laws being strict on safety, and punishing people for not being safe, that is dictating people against their will. This is not really too much constitutional.

[@albertbarrientes6562]

Prosecutors are having their way, and being above peoples rights.

[@albertbarrientes6562]

It looks like, it's been a lot of wrong votes lately, why is United States is becoming of what is becoming now.

[@kpoppy9635]

I mean nobody believed the Wright Brothers would actually get their airplane to fly and look where we are today lol

[@talesofinterest9636]

maybe he needs to work on camouflaging his hamster wheel. You can probably see those orange floats from 5 miles. That or make a craft that could submerge for short periods; although the technology/cost for that is probably out of reach

[@gagepearson3358]

He’s at it again! This has been going on for years

[@mosseisleyYT]

And _still_ he hasn't had the psychiatric care that he so obviously needs.

[@gagepearson3358]

@@mosseisleyYT He doesn’t need psychiatric care. Just because it seems impossible doesn’t mean he crazy. People thought the first person to swim the English Channel was crazy… not it’s a fairly typical feat. People thought the Frenchman that windsurfed across the Atlantic was crazy until he did it. Everyone thinks mental health is such a problem for everyone now. Anytime someone says or does something that doesn’t make sense to everyone they get told they need therapy and it’s a load of crap. The guy has a dream and yes, I think it’s crazy and impossible and very dangerous, but now, because of his persistence Red Bull is sponsoring him and providing him with the equipment and support needed to actually make a real go at this. Everyone thought he was crazy… now he’s legit.

[@mosseisleyYT]

@@gagepearson3358 He needs it, all right. His attempted feat was patently impossible. It would have taken him months at least - during which time _anything_ could have gone catastrophically wrong - and he was working alone. There was no support crew of any kind with him, watching or helping if there was trouble (which is the reason for the charge against him of violation of the Captain of the Port Order). His quest, had it gone ahead, would have killed him, and any sound-minded person would know that (don't _you_ know that?). Matthew Webb was the first person to swim across the English Channel (1875), but he had *_three_* escort boats with him. He could have been plucked to safety at the slightest hint of trouble. Webb, though, later (1883) died in an attempt to swim down the Niagara Gorge through the Whirlpool Rapids; observers had told him that such a thing would likely be suicidal. He was 35. Christian Marty, the Frenchman who windsurfed from Dakar to Kourou (1981-2), had a "supply boat" with him. This would have been handy for keeping him fed, and for being on hand should disaster strike, given that his feat took just over 37½ days (substantially less time than Baluchi's feat would have taken, supposing that he could have kept his pace and not run into any disaster). Marty was also coincidentally the captain on Air France Flight 4590 on 25 July 2000 - the Concorde out of Charles de Gaulle Airport that went down in flames shortly after takeoff. What was Baluchi going to do if he ran into trouble? You know, both Webb and Marty did on their first attempts, and had to call them off. It's a good job that their escorts were right there, eh? For Baluchi, the deep blue sea would have been right there. A sane man would have seen that the risk was too great. Mental illness is a problem for _some,_ Gage; it is for Baluchi. He has been sent for psychiatric evaluation before now (results never published, of course).

[@shadowman3591]

The best part? Hes going to do it again! Do it reza i want to see you succeed!!!

[@HumanBeanbag]

He totally would have made it.

[@1776iscool]

Everyone’s gangster until he actually one day makes it to the UK and goes down in history as a hero

[@Charon58]

I don’t understand what law he broke. He was in international waters anyway. I’m a fan of the Coast Guard in most cases but if the guy wants to go out this way, it’s his business.

[@DawnieRotten]

Sorry......but he is doing/has done in the past, is NOT A CRIME!!! Cops, as well as the rest of Society, really need to LEARN what an ACTUAL CRIME IS! THIS, is not one of them!

[@boxfox2945]

Land of the free' "yeah right"!

[@mosseisleyYT]

Well, land of the living, perhaps. Baluchi would not have survived what would have turned out to be a frightful ordeal. No hamster wheel would ever have made it across the stormy Atlantic.

[@SkankHunt42isback]

What is the news trying to suppress today?

[@NealZ31]

As a taxpayer I’m ok with this; not what happened in Afghanistan

[@ihateyoutubehandles444]

the design is very human

[@reviewithme9913]

Is this the same guy who made it to Bermuda?

[@tanyahorula1060]

This one looks sturdier than the first one

[@gurrenmed5319]

But when someone rapes or murders, they get released the next day

[@jsa4864]

He should be committed

[@albertbarrientes6562]

This is not Constitutional

[@bou_to_the_lest]

again???

[@ALEXZAVALA2]

LET HIM COOK

[@jon-michaelfarrah4512]

Honestly could happen if the man had a support team, all you literally need is another boat following behind him so he can rest and rehydrate. That and not heading out when there's a hurricane incoming😂😂

[@mosseisleyYT]

"...So he's - committed" - Yeah, he bloody well ought to be!

[@bennuttall6788]

When the apocalypse comes. This is my leader. Absolute hero lol

[@albertbarrientes6562]

Going to jail for that, that's is kind of dumb, united states is becoming socialism, why getting in trouble for it for.

[@kosmokritikos9299]

Florida Man strikes again!

[@daverockwell1996]

Not sure what the crime might be; where's the harm to the public? Sure, he's a suicidal idiot, but why must we pay for his delusions?

[@morticiaheisenberg9679]

F*ck the feds!! Leave him alone.

[@MRainy-ot7rc]

Lmaooo Riza up to the this again he been doing this for years

[@flamingeel3196]

as if walking from NY to LA was not lobg enogh

[@harryrussell154]

Destroy the thinkers so nobody will think. "If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the Government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy. Any man who can take a TV wall apart and put it back together again, and most men can nowadays, is happier than any man who tries to slide-rule, measure, and equate the universe, which just won't be measured or equated without making man feel bestial and lonely. I know, I've tried it; to hell with it. So bring on your clubs and parties, your acrobats and magicians, your dare-devils, jet cars, motor-cycle helicopters, your sex and heroin, more of everything to do with automatic reflex. If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if the play is hollow, sting me with the theremin, loudly. I'll think I'm responding to the play, when it's only a tactile reaction to vibration. But I don't care. I just like solid entertainment.” Ray Bradbury-Fahrenheit 451

[@mosseisleyYT]

Well, luckily, the Coast Guard thought clearly, for surely Baluchi was _not_ thinking clearly. This is common among madmen. I wonder whether you have realized the irony of your post. It seems clear that you thought it weighty and pertinent to this discussion - and perhaps rather brainy? It isn't. You have merely stuffed your head with something (text, to be specific) that doesn't change, and you obviously haven't _really_ done any thinking. This makes you one of the people to whom Beatty refers. Reza Baluchi isn't a thinker, Harry. That's the one skill at which he just does _not_ excel, for he is quite mad. He needs his style of "thinking" looked into, or else it will eventually get him killed. He's damned lucky that the Coast Guard rescued him, and if it was against his will, then that only goes to show that he needs his head examined, lest he become one of the daredevils who merely entertain thoughtless folk.

[@adamgardener8624]

Here from Kump

[@faeed00]

Smh...let that man live!

[@mosseisleyYT]

They did, even though he threatened to kill himself - one way or another. It took three days, but they got him out of harm's way (over his protests, but some people are too brainless or mad to know what's good for them).

[@faeed00]

@@mosseisleyYT he is hurting nobody. He should be allowed to do dangerous things if he wants.

[@FartSquirel]

@@mosseisleyYT how's life in your little cave, still afraid of the dark ..Karen?

[@mosseisleyYT]

@@faeed00 Yes he _is_ hurting somebody: *_himself._* What Baluchi was doing was beyond dangerous, Face. It was deadly; he would not have survived. Perhaps you missed the part about the hurricane that was bearing down on the region. Perhaps you also missed the part about how he threatened suicide if the Coast Guard tried to remove him from his hamster wheel. He is reckless and mad, and needs help. Your society is an uncaring one indeed if everybody thinks as you do - but it is clear from the outcome that not everybody does.

[@mosseisleyYT]

@@FartSquirel Ad-hominem bullshit. Try rebutting my points why don't you?

[@mosseisleyYT]

Reza Baluchi had two 30 cm knives with him and threatened to kill himself with them. He also threatened to blow himself up, although it turned out that he had no bomb. It took three days for the US Coast Guard to get him off his cockamamie hamster wheel and bring him back to shore before Hurricane Franklin swept through. This was _not_ Baluchi's first crazy stunt, either. The man is mad, for sure. He needs help. You can't walk across the Atlantic Ocean, for Pete's sake!

[@faeed00]

Are you sure you can't walk across the ocean? Sounds like he was about to until hurricane Franklin and the coast guard got in his way 😂

[@mosseisleyYT]

@@faeed00 I am sure. Aren't you? Baluchi would have encountered various adverse conditions: high winds, mountainous seas, and towards the end, possibly freezing temperatures, none of which would have helped. Any of these things would have put an end to his voyage - and him. Suppose, too, that his hamster wheel had broken down. What would he have done? Trodden water until somebody spotted him? No, the man's as nutty as a squirrel's winter cache. The distance from Florida to Land's End in Cornwall (the nearest spot on the UK's main island, Great Britain) is well over 6 500 km, you know. Even if everything had gone smoothly, and Baluchi had managed 50 km a day (likely a quixotic expectation), it would have taken him 130 days to reach Land's End; he would not have reached it until next year. Would he have lasted that long in his hamster wheel? Did he have the means to feed himself for that long?

[@baseddiablo6041]

​@@mosseisleyYT What he does is nobody's business but his. Quit defending the feds

[@mosseisleyYT]

@@baseddiablo6041 Bullshit. If a person is reckless, a threat to others or to himself, then _somebody_ has to take responsibility for his behaviour.

[@baseddiablo6041]

@@mosseisleyYT This man has been messed with by the feds for years. He has been arrested everytime he's attempted to accomplish his goal. Hell, there's even a vice documentary on him. They truly just needed to mind their own business, and let him live out his dream. If he was a human trafficker or illegal immigrant they wouldn't mess with him like this. People used to scale the ocean on wooden boats, which was way more dangerous than this.

[@sylviarichardson3599]

“He’s committed??” He NEEDS to be committed.