Inert nuclear missile found in garage of Washington state home, police say

BELLEVUE Wash. (KPTV/Gray News) - An inert nuclear missile was found in a Washington state man’s garage, according to police.

On Wednesday, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio, called police in Bellevue, Washington, to report an unexpected gift offer. Police responded to the potential donor’s home with a bomb squad.

The device is “in fact a Douglas AIR-2 F Genie (previous designation MB-1), an unguided air-to-air rocket that is designed to carry a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead,” police said in a press release.

The bomb squad discovered there was not a warhead attached to the missile, so there was never a danger to the community.

The man who owned the missile told police that he purchased it from an estate sale.

Because there was no warhead present and the military did not want the missile back, authorities say they left it with the man to be donated.

Officials say because they never suspected that a nuclear warhead was present, there was no need for the city of 150,000 people to be evacuated.

Copyright 2024 KPTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.