Police find nuclear-capable rocket in Bellevue man’s garage

A Bellevue man with a military-grade rocket, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, was a temporary cause for concern with the Bellevue Police Department Wednesday night.

An unusual call came into the Bellevue Police Department’s bomb squad of a man in Bellevue with a rocket in his garage.

Yes, a rocket man in Bellevue. No, it wasn’t Elton John.

The call came from an Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio, saying they gotten a call from a Bellevue man who wanted to donate an item that belonged to his deceased neighbor.

The man said the neighbor had bought the item from an estate sale.

What was the item in question? It was a Douglas AIR-2 Genie, an unguided air-to-air rocket designed to carry a 1.5 kiloton W25 nuclear warhead.

Luckily, there was no warhead attached.

Members of the Bellevue bomb squad determined the rocket was inert and had no rocket fuel. And more importantly, was not an explosive hazard.

The rocket was left with the man to donate to the museum.

“And we think it’s gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again,” a spokesperson for Bellevue police said.

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