spacemanspiff
Senior Member
http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/4110847p-4127051c.html.
Anchorage police closed a road and restricted air traffic in the Campbell Lake area Tuesday morning as bomb squad officers investigated what police said was a shoulder-held, anti-tank rocket outside a man's home.
The man, whose name was not immediately available, had asked police to come look at the ordnance, said police spokesman Ron McGee. He explained that he was the owner of a landscaping business and had found the device while working with a backhoe about a month ago in the Muirwood subdivision, near Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, McGee said.
At the time, the landscaper didn't think the ordnance was anything serious, McGee said, so he took it home and left it outside his house in the 2200 block of Olympic Drive.
McGee said the landscaper had a change of heart about the device after reading somewhere that there was unexploded ordnance lying around that could be dangerous.
It's not unusual for explosive devices to be found in Anchorage, McGee said, but Tuesday's call took police by surprise. "It's not a fairly common thing to find an anti-tank rocket," McGee said.
He wasn't sure how such a device ended up buried in the dirt beneath a subdivision near the airport, or to whom the rocket originally belonged. "There's going to be some follow-up to it," McGee said. "I don't know how extensive it's going to be. We aren't really equipped to do a whole lot of excavation."
It was unclear Tuesday if the rocket had a live warhead, McGee said. As a precaution, police closed Olympic Drive where it intersects with Victor Road from about 10:30 a.m. to noon while they disposed of the device.
Police also asked the Federal Aviation Administration to restrict air travel in the area during that time. FAA spokeswoman Joette Storm said no pilots happened to be flying in that stretch of the sky at the time, so no one was diverted.
Police used a robot to pick up the rocket and place it in a containment device so it could be removed from the neighborhood. Specially trained bomb disposal personnel from Elmendorf Air Force Base assisted in the effort, police said. McGee said it is against department policy to say where the rocket was taken for disposal. "If it's got a live warhead on it, they blow it up," he said.
Anchorage police urged the public in a press release to call APD if they have any devices around their home that they are unsure about.
Daily News reporter Tataboline Brant can be reached at [email protected] or 257-4321.
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okay ken, fess up! that was your original bear defense weapon, wasnt it!
Anchorage police closed a road and restricted air traffic in the Campbell Lake area Tuesday morning as bomb squad officers investigated what police said was a shoulder-held, anti-tank rocket outside a man's home.
The man, whose name was not immediately available, had asked police to come look at the ordnance, said police spokesman Ron McGee. He explained that he was the owner of a landscaping business and had found the device while working with a backhoe about a month ago in the Muirwood subdivision, near Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, McGee said.
At the time, the landscaper didn't think the ordnance was anything serious, McGee said, so he took it home and left it outside his house in the 2200 block of Olympic Drive.
McGee said the landscaper had a change of heart about the device after reading somewhere that there was unexploded ordnance lying around that could be dangerous.
It's not unusual for explosive devices to be found in Anchorage, McGee said, but Tuesday's call took police by surprise. "It's not a fairly common thing to find an anti-tank rocket," McGee said.
He wasn't sure how such a device ended up buried in the dirt beneath a subdivision near the airport, or to whom the rocket originally belonged. "There's going to be some follow-up to it," McGee said. "I don't know how extensive it's going to be. We aren't really equipped to do a whole lot of excavation."
It was unclear Tuesday if the rocket had a live warhead, McGee said. As a precaution, police closed Olympic Drive where it intersects with Victor Road from about 10:30 a.m. to noon while they disposed of the device.
Police also asked the Federal Aviation Administration to restrict air travel in the area during that time. FAA spokeswoman Joette Storm said no pilots happened to be flying in that stretch of the sky at the time, so no one was diverted.
Police used a robot to pick up the rocket and place it in a containment device so it could be removed from the neighborhood. Specially trained bomb disposal personnel from Elmendorf Air Force Base assisted in the effort, police said. McGee said it is against department policy to say where the rocket was taken for disposal. "If it's got a live warhead on it, they blow it up," he said.
Anchorage police urged the public in a press release to call APD if they have any devices around their home that they are unsure about.
Daily News reporter Tataboline Brant can be reached at [email protected] or 257-4321.
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okay ken, fess up! that was your original bear defense weapon, wasnt it!
