SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A man claims he broke into a San Francisco apartment because he thought it was a spaceship — and it worked in his defense.

After getting into a scuffle with the people who lived at the Mission District apartment, he was acquitted of robbery and other felony charges.

According to his defense team, 41-year-old Santino Aviles believed the earth’s destruction was imminent, so he spotted the apartment building he thought looked like a spaceship.

He gained access to the roof by a building resident who let him inside after ringing the buzzer. He then climbed onto the fire escape and into an apartment through an open window.

After a short nap on the couch, he threw the resident’s inflatable exercise ball onto the fire escape, “planning to float with it through the galaxy,” he testified.

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The resident and his girlfriend woke up find Aviles in the apartment and went after him with a baseball bat before calling 911. The resident injured his toe in the scuffle while Aviles suffered a black eye and other bruises.

In a videotaped interrogation following his arrest, Aviles can be seen muttering about spaceships and telling police the world was going to explode.

His attorneys say he was suffering from a meth-fueled psychosis. He was only convicted of misdemeanor battery and assault.