More Museum Insanity!

Man rescued from museum air vent has prior arrests

In Oct. 2007, judge ordered mental health treatments

By Don Jacobs (Contact)
Saturday, September 20, 2008

A man rescued from an air vent in the Knoxville Museum of Art after he calmly called E-911 for help had been ordered a year ago by a judge to undergo mental health treatments.

Richard Anthony Smith garnered attention this week after police and firefighters used a safety harness to pull the 25-year-old Knoxville man from the air vent at the museum. Smith used the rope from a flagpole atop the building at 1050 World's Fair Park Drive to lower himself down the vent.

But as a recording of Smith's 4:27 a.m. Wednesday call with a call processor at E-911 shows, the chute got too narrow for the 5-foot-5-inch, 135-pound man who claimed to be a secret agent.

The Knox County E-911 Center released the recording to the media after the passage of 48 hours. The E-911 Center's Board of Directors adopted a policy that delays for two days the release of any emergency recordings unless the agency involved with the call agrees to waive the policy.

Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV, citing the potential investigative value of the recording, declined to agree to an earlier release of the call.

The recording shows Smith stoically relating his predicament to the call processor, after he identifies himself as an agent with "the United States Illuminati Order."

"Right now, I am currently stuck inside of the air-conditioning unit on top of the Knoxville Museum of Art downtown at the World's Fair Park," Smith told the call processor via his cell phone.

"I was here trying to complete a mission that's gone terribly wrong."

After explaining his location, Smith closed the call with, "Thank you kindly. I'll sit tight."

Officers located Smith at 4:51 a.m., records show. His first words to the officers were "Mission failed."

Police officers enlisted the aid of a Knoxville Fire Department ladder truck and lifted Smith from the vent. He was about 45 feet down the vent.

Smith told officers he had been assigned to defuse a Soviet nuclear bomb hidden in a blue plastic cow sculpture in the basement of the museum. Smith, however, related that he had been informed during his effort that the device actually was in a Memphis museum.

Police charged Smith with aggravated burglary. He was being held Friday in a Knox County jail in lieu of $2,000 bond.

The arrest was the fourth for Smith since last year, according to Knox County court records. He was arrested in July 2007 on charges of public intoxication and aggravated criminal trespassing.

Upon convicting Smith of the trespassing charge in October 2007, a judge placed Smith on probation for a year, ordered him to pay restitution of $520 to Baptist Eye Surgeons on Kay Street and to show proof of continued mental health treatment.

But on Feb. 1, Smith was charged with criminal trespassing, theft, criminal impersonation and evading arrest. Records show Smith was found in Baptist Hospital of East Tennessee on Blount Avenue with keys, an identification for a registered nurse, and other hospital items. Smith previously had been ordered to stay off the property, records show.

On Feb. 18, Smith was charged with theft after he told police he had been occasionally staying in rest rooms and stairwells at the University of Tennessee Medical Center since Jan. 26, according to court records. He also said he had consumed about $10 worth of food and drink from the medical offices.

Smith is to appear Sept. 29 in Knox County General Sessions Court on the charges leveled in February.


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1. This is an absolutely true, copied word-for-word story.

2. This is just bat%$#^ crazy enough to be true. It's possible the Soviets (his word, not mine. I would have used "Russian") have something going on, and could have confused Knoxville for Memphis.

3. He had keys and a Registered Nurse identification for a hospital. That's pretty incredible.

4. I'm not sold on this not being true.