Exactly. U-238 isn’t really the problem the media is trying to make it out as. Now if they had stolen some plutonium, or gotten into some nuclear waste with some long half-life gamma emitters, then all this hoopla would be justified.
If one handles it for a while one can get thyroid cancer latter. I know from personal experience having played with uranium ore as a child, and got thyroid cancer at age 45 as a result.