Man calls police after finding powerful rusty Iran nuclear missile in garage
A rusting rocket designed to carry a nuclear warhead has been discovered in a man’s garage in Washington.
Police confirmed the find was in fact an inert nuclear missile after responding to a report of a military-grade rocket by the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Officers from Bellevue - a city across Lake Washington from Seattle - attended on Wednesday evening and were left stunned by the unusual donation.
A bomb squad was then dispatched to the person's home. A resident had earlier called the museum and said they wanted to hand over an item that belonged to a neighbour who had recently died. They claimed the local had originally purchased the rocket from an estate sale.
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It was found to be a Douglas AIR-2 Genie - an unguided air-to-air rocket designed to carry a nuclear warhead (Bellevue Police Department)In a statement, police say the device is "in fact a Douglas AIR-2 Genie - previous designation MB-1 - an unguided air-to-air rocket that is designed to carry a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead". However, they announced there was no warhead attached, meaning there was never any danger to the area.
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In a reference to Elton John's hit song Rocket Man, Bellevue Police posted on social media platform twitter: "We think it's gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again." Bellevue Police Department spokesman Seth Tyler, told BBC News that the device was "just basically a gas tank for rocket fuel".
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He calmed fears and said it was "not serious at all" and added: "In fact, our bomb squad member asked me why we were releasing a news release on a rusted piece of metal." According to a report in the Seattle Times, the rocket was used by the US and Canada during the Cold War. The only live firing of the Genie rocket was in 1957, the publication state, and production of it ended in 1962.
The police added: "Because the item was inert and the military did not request it back, police left the item with the neighbour to be restored for display in a museum." They went on to say it was the “most powerful interceptor missile ever deployed by the US Air Force”.
It comes ten years after a man living in a small flooded Siberian village was shocked to see a five-tonne rocket engine float into his garden - with two dogs inside. Siberian media claim the defunct missile, which is now a military souvenir, washed up to the traffic policeman's home in Malougrenevo, southern Siberia.
Locals said the chunk of metal, which was built to carry fuel for missiles across the globe, is now owned by a neighbour, who bought it to use as an underground cesspit. Two dogs had made the 16ft by 8ft chamber their temporary home and villagers have named them Belka and Strelka - after the two the Soviet Union sent into space.
Sibnet news website reports the device 'broke the fence' and 'floated off' during heavy floods in June but cops say the device poses no danger whatsoever to the villagers. Nikolai Dochilov, general director of the Altai Science and Production Centre, said: "There is no fuel in the section, and it is no way dangerous. The water flooding into Altai region is a greater danger than the object found here."
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