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Texas man finds a rocket launcher on his property
[October 16, 2009] SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A man who found a green metallic tube while cutting trees on his Comal County property thought it had a military look, like a rocket launcher.
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He was right. He was wrong to pick it up, take it home and display it on his dining room table. A decal on the equipment discovered by Jarrette Schule said: "Guided Missile and Launcher, Surface Attack." "I had never seen it before," said Schule, 34. "I looked at it, and it kind of looked like a missile launcher." An ordnance disposal team from Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio confiscated the device on Wednesday afternoon. Old military ordnance can be dangerous and should not be touched or moved, experts said. Schule discovered the unarmed anti-tank weapon on Tuesday on his land miles away from a military installation. "I don't know if it fell out of something or if somebody just dumped it," he said. Schule did not want to leave the launcher on his vacant property, so he loaded it in his truck and took it to his house. The San Antonio Express-News reported that he spent Tuesday afternoon calling the FBI, Homeland Security and other agencies. "Everyone was handing it off to everybody else," he said. Schule called military police at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, who passed his information to an Army criminal investigator. The special agent visited him Wednesday morning. "She said this is the first time she ever encountered anything like this," Schule said. "I got the impression it was kind of a big deal. Doesn't happen every day, I guess." The decal on the launcher has a 13-digit "National Stock Number," which is used to identify military equipment. Military officials are trying to determine who last had the launcher. A serial number can be used to track the chain of custody, said Phil Reidinger, a spokesman for Fort Sam Houston. ___ Information from: San Antonio Express-News, http://www.mysanantonio.com/ |
