Salt Lake County Sheriff's deputies arrested a 29-year-old man Tuesday who claimed he was using flares inside his apartment to signal police agents who were orbiting the Earth.

A deputy, responding to a report of a burglary in progress near 4800 South and 2100 East, found the man at his downstairs apartment, beating his walls with a metal pipe.

There also was smoke inside the apartment, and the deputy found a fire burning in a bedroom closet. The man was throwing objects at the walls, according to an affidavit filed with the Salt Lake County jail.

Lt. Paul Jaroscak with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said deputies found the man holding a computer monitor over his head. They told him to put it down, and he slammed it to the ground.

"Then it was almost like he just snapped out of the trance he was in," Jaroscak said.

Deputies found several flares in the man's pockets while detaining him, which he said he was using to signal police orbiting the Earth, Jaroscak said.

The man said he had been hearing voices and told officers there were 40 people inside his apartment who had hidden secret documents inside the walls, which he was trying to find.

In addition to damaging his rented property, the man also had damaged nearby apartments and broken the windows out of several cars in the parking lot.

He later acknowledged that he had some mental health issues in the past.

The man was booked into jail on suspicion of a second-degree felony count of aggravated arson, three misdemeanor counts of vandalism and on a warrant for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

A courts search showed the man did not have a criminal record, but he was in the midst of a second divorce.

- Steve Gehrke