Police Reveal Burglary At Rocket Center

Police Reveal Burglary At Rocket Center

Willow Village Man Captured By Guard At U-M Research Unit

YPSILANTI — State police have disclosed the arrest of a 26-year-old Kaiser-Frazer worker who, they say, burglarized the University's Rocket Research Center near here.

They identified the man as Stephen B. Fogg, jr., of of 1579 Sudbury Ct., Willow Village, employed as a truckdriver by K-F.

Caught on Friday inside the walled-off project by a civilian guard, Fogg told troopers and FBI agents that he "didn’t know anything about the place.” 

"I was just curious. I don’t know why I did it,” he repeated over and over, authorities said.

Is Army Revervist

Fogg is married, the father of a five-months-old child and an Army reservist.

Police accused him of entering one of the main laboratory buildings by smashing a window with a three-foot length of steel pipe. Once inside, they said, he scattered documents and instruments on the floor and even started up the engine of a fire truck parked in a connecting shed.

As fumes from the gasoline engine began to fill the laboratory structure, police said Fogg opened most of the remaining windows.

Other Buildings Not Entered

Troopers said he apparently did not tamper with contents of two other nearby buildings used as storage areas for powerful rocket fuel. Both dumps are protected by high earthwork flash bunkers. Communication between them is maintained by means of mirrors because of danger of explosion.

Authorities said Fogg gained entrance to the Research Center, cite of many federal government-sponsored experiments, by burrowing under a fence and then climbing a high earth wall surrounding the area.

News of his arrest was withheld tor a time to permit FBI agents to launch an investigation into Fogg’s possible subversive connections.

Denies Subversion

He denied membership in any group considered dangerous to American security, police reported.

Some of the experimental work carried on at the center by University of Michigan scientists preceded
actual rocket-firing tests at White Sands N. M. and Cocoa, Fla.

Meanwhile, Fogg was to be arraigned on a simple breaking and entering charge later today in Justice John L. Mokersky's court at Inkster. The project is located in Wayne county.

Federal authorities were undecided whether they would press destruction of government property charges against Fogg.