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Richard Anthony Smith, a 25-year-old Knoxville, Tennessee, man, was rescued after becoming trapped nearly 45 feet down an air conditioning shaft at the Knoxville Museum of Art before dawn on Sept. 17, 2008, according to police.

Smith had climbed in through a roof vent and called 911 from his cell phone to report he was stuck. Police and firefighters found a rope and cable on the museum roof and traced them to the vent shaft, where they located Smith wedged in the duct, Knoxville police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said.

Rescuers hoisted him free and read him his rights. Once out of the vent, Smith told officers he was a "special agent from the United States Illuminati, badge number 0931" who had rappelled onto the museum roof from a helicopter, according to police.

Smith said his orders were to "defuse and confiscate" a Soviet-made nuclear warhead he believed was hidden inside a blue plastic cow sculpture in the museum's basement. He later told officers his "agency" had radioed him while he was trapped in the duct to say the search was a mistake and the warhead might actually be at a museum in Memphis instead. "Mission failed," he told police, according to the report.

DeBusk said Smith's cell phone likely kept the incident from turning into a much longer ordeal. "Fortunately he was able to reach his cell phone, or he may not have been found for quite some time," he said.

Police charged Smith with aggravated robbery in connection with the break in attempt and held him on $2,000 bond at the Knox County jail. No attorney was listed for him at the time, and court records on how the case was ultimately resolved were not available.