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BELLEVUE, Wash. — Police say an old rocket found in a western Washington state man's garage is an inert nuclear missile.
On Wednesday, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio, called Bellevue police to report an unexpected gift offer. Police then responded to the potential donor's home with a bomb squad.
Police said 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," according to a press release.
However, the bomb squad discovered there was not a warhead attached to the rocket, so there was never a danger to the community.
The man who owned the rocket didn't wish to be identified. He told police that he had purchased the rocket from an estate sale.
Since there was no warhead present and the military didn't want the rocket back, they left it with the man to be donated, according to police.
Since officials never suspected that a nuclear warhead was present, there was no need for evacuations in the city of 150,000 people situated 10 miles east of Seattle.
