Posted on 10/16/2009 3:29:49 AM PDT by Daffynition
arrette Schule was cutting down trees on his rural property Tuesday in Comal County north of San Antonio when he noticed a green metallic tube on the muddy ground.
“I had never seen it before,” said Schule, a 34-year-old Web developer. “I looked at it, and it kind of looked like a missile launcher.”
Schule took a closer look. It was a long, forest-green metal tube. A decal on it read: “Guided Missile and Launcher, Surface Attack.”
The discovery was the start of a surreal journey for Schule. Somehow, an unarmed anti-tank weapon — or a very good fake — wound up on his land at Beck Road and Kirk Lane in the Hill Country, miles away from a military installation.
The launcher was deep in the wooded property far from the road, in an area he was familiar with.
“I don't know if it fell out of something or if somebody just dumped it,” Schule said. “There's some crazy whitetail hunters around here. Maybe they're going overboard?”
Schule's property in Comal County is vacant, and he didn't want to leave a missile launcher unattended. So he loaded it in his truck and took it to his house in the North Side neighborhood of the Ridge at Lookout Canyon.
Touching and moving the launcher was a mistake, even if it was unarmed, a spokesman for Fort Sam Houston said. Old military ordnance can be dangerous.
But Schule spent Tuesday afternoon calling the FBI, Homeland Security, the Sheriff's Department — every agency he could think of. He was stuck in a bureaucratic limbo.
“Everyone was handing it off to everybody else,” Schule said.
He was surprised at the amount of work it took to get the military to pick up its lost missile launcher.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
not smart picking that up
DRAGON missile launch tube. Expended.
I’m sure EOD declared it safe before he picked it up.
Ask not what your government can do for you. Ask what you can do for your government.
Did you read the excerpt of the story? It says he picked it up and took it home. THEN he called the FBI and so forth.
That story has A WHOLE LOT OF FAIL in it, by all parties involved. An empty hollow tube is an empty hollow tube. Repeat after me, an empty hollow tube is an empty hollow tube.
And blame the hunters while you're at it, eh?
Just an empty tube.
Note that this was found just a few miles north of Randolf Air force Base.
The media sees us as children.
If I find something like that, I’m keeping it!
This is how stupid the media and some people are, calling unarmed ordnance dangerous. That is like saying an M1 tank without an engine can run over you by itself.
Just remember on the empty hollow tube thing...
According to BATFE, a 1/4 inch hole is a machine gun.
Mike
Yep surplus store inert....
Yep surplus store inert....
unless you are a trained EOD you are DUMB to pick up military ordinance that is half buried in the ground.
“This is how stupid the media and some people are, calling unarmed ordnance dangerous. “
Finding a device which by design normally carries explosives half buried in the ground is not comparable to an M1A1 tank without an engine.
Unexploded ordinance is extremely hazardous especially stuff thats been laying around for a few years.
if its half buried in the dirt you cannot be sure it is just an empty tube.
Which you don’t know until you’ve dug it out of the ground.
I see some Darwin award candidates here.
Anybody can tell an empty tube is an empty tube.
If I saw an open double barrel shotgun lying on the ground with 2 empty breaches, I wouldn’t panic either, for the same reason.
In the picture the launcher is held side-on. But the first thing you do is look in either end, before picking it up, and then your brain says, “Empty. No rocket. Just an inert fiberglass tube.”
Well...never mind.
“Anybody can tell an empty tube is an empty tube.”
Not if its buried. But again, if you so choose to pick up items that could blow up then go right ahead. Just dont do it with others around.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.